Work, Time and Stress: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Stress & overwork in both education and professional life in
the Victorian era and the 'dynamic' nature of disability and the
impact of the stresses of modern life has. Professor Sally
Shuttleworth (Faculty of English Language and Literature) will look
at discussions of stress and overwork in both education and
professional life in the Victorian era, based on her research.
Although we are clearly living in a radically altered world, there
are nonetheless startling similarities in the ways the problems of
overwork have been framed and debated, then and now. Dr Marie
Tidball (Faculty of Law, Centre for Criminology and TORCH Knowledge
Exchange Fellow) will talk about the 'dynamic' nature of disability
and the impact that stresses of modern life have on its
trajectories, employment and what people sometimes refer to as
'disability time'. That is, the changed experience of time due to
pain, anxiety and stress caused by an impairment or the impact an
impairment has on the length of time it takes to do 'activities of
daily living' which in turn affects the availability of time as a
resource which has value, such as getting dressed takes longer for
prosthetic limb wearer, the increased extent of email, and related
issues for people's energy levels and productivity. This has an
interesting impact on the number of hours disabled people may have
available or may be able to work and thus a factor affecting the
disability pay gap.