Browsing by Subject "yhteensovittaminen"

Earlier research has found that management of everyday life includes confidence to cope with new everyday circumstances. This is important because daily life cannot be predicted and neither working life or work-life balance appears in a very positive light in the public debate. Especially restaurant trade students may be worried about work-life balance because work in the field is stressful and the working hours are irregular. However, studies suggest that young people do not learn all everyday skills at home as they once did. The aim of this study is to explore how restaurant trade students’ management of everyday life is connected to their expectations about work-life balance and working life. The data (N=101) were collected in spring 2020 by using an electronic questionnaire. The participants were final stages students on restaurant trade in Finnish vocational schools. The questionnaire contained both structured and open-ended questions that were analysed by using quantitative (cross-tabulation, Mann-Whitney U test) and qualitative (content analysis) methods. The participants experienced both their inner (life management) and external (coping everyday chores) dimension of management of everyday life comparatively good. About half of the participants evaluated work-life balance optimistically and the rest pessimistically. The expectations did not vary according to any of the measured background variables. Instead, most of the participants expected their future working life optimistically, although they were quite worried about many things involved in the working life. The expectations about working life were more pessimistic among those who estimated that their own study success was good or satisfactory than those who estimated that their own study success was excellent. Statistically significant connections were found between students’ management of everyday life and their expectations about work-life balance and working life, but only in the inner dimension of management of everyday life. The expectations were more optimistic among those whose management of everyday life was good than those whose management of everyday life was reasonable at the most. In the former case the transition from studentship to working life may feel easier, which can increase one’s satisfaction towards life. The research results can be utilized in developing education and workplace activities.