The aim of the study is to investigate the cultural influence of professions on the working life. The great part of the previous researches in the context of professions concerns the requirements which relates to the work itself. My study intends to explore the effects of professional work in relation to the time experience of the workers. On the one hand, my thesis focuses at the development of different professions which results from the division of labour out of the historical time perspective. Therefore, the professions have been developed at a certain time which implies the particular characteristics of an era. On the other hand, the time conception of certain professions relates to the social subsystem in which they were colonized. As Robert Levine has shown with his geographical comparison of different world regions of the world at the end of the 20th Century, the standards of the time conception (clock-time) doesn’t have the same relevance everywhere on the world. It is dependent on the cultural context. My study shows that there are also some professional areas in which time doesn’t have the same meaning of relevance. So, profession can be understood as subculture of a society.

The first part study the different time conceptions: The aspect of the historical development of different time conception from Babylon to the presence, the sociological conceptions suggested by Elias, Luhmann, Adam and Nowotny and the philosophical conceptions from Aristoteles to Heidegger. The first part secludes with analyses of empirical studies to the time perception of different social groups in Germany. In the second part I have chosen some significant professions (midwives, artists, site supervisors and tram operators) and developed a standardized questionnaire. 4 persons per each profession were interviewed. The objects of the interview consisted of the biographical way of life, their carrier path to their profession as well as their way to spend their leisure time and finally the individual visions for their own future. For the analysis of the data I have used a combination of "Content analysis” (Mayring) and "Grounded theory" (Strauss).

The study shows that the time experiences of the working people are different depending on the profession. Thus, it is possible to develop a typology: Some professions are oriented to the present moment, others are synchronizes with clock time as it is structured by the stringent time schedule and working frame. From that point of view, it is important to develop the suitable competencies of the working people in order to manage the leisure time for an active self-integration to the social life. On the other hand, it can be shown that the profession has the influence on the people’s life in a “certain way of Being” (Heidegger). At least, the study shows the continuity of the social impact of the profession which has a big influence of the personal identity within and outside of the one’s working life.