Newsletter No. 25
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2004
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Overwork, security and happiness in Australia Australians work, on average, more hours a year than workers in any other ‘advanced’ economy. In 2003 average annual work hours were 1,855 in Australia, compared with 1,835 hours in United States and 1,821 hours in Japan. Given that Australia has higher proportion of the workforce — 27 per cent — in part-time and casual work, than all but the Dutch, ‘some full-timers must indeed be working very long hours’ (‘We’re world champion workers’ Ross Gittins Sydney Morning Herald 1-2.5.04). Employees are gradually losing their annual leave entitlements and not using the entitlements they do have. Some companies merely pay out untaken leave. Even on holidays many workers remain ‘accessible’ by mobile phone, laptop and fax. They cannot leave work behind, but remain ‘on-call’ because of their job insecurity (‘Holidays slip off the agenda’ Australian Financial Review 16.1.04). Overwork contributes to more than four in five Australian house-holds no longer eating dinner together (‘Work blamed for death of family meal’ Sunday Telegraph 2.5.04). Nearly 90 per cent of respondents to a recent national survey believed couples are in trouble because they cannot find a balance between work and family life and 38 per cent felt a lack of time was harming their own relationship. Twenty-four percent of full-timers say they would like to change their work patterns, but 40 per cent of parents feel they have no real choices, as they try to balance all the competing demands. ‘Workplaces are becoming less parent friendly. There is a growing expectation you are available 24 hours a day and can move around the country’ notes one researcher (‘Too much work for kids’ Sun Herald 22.2.04). Micro-management, or over-supervision of workers in unstimulating jobs, increasingly stresses out workers, who are taking days off sick, with or without pay (‘Back off boss: you’re making me sick’ SMH 31.3.04). On the other hand the growth of casual, insecure jobs is itself ‘spawning a rise in mental health problems’, Australian National University research shows (‘A casual approach to jobs can hurt health’ SMH 6.11.03). It also undercuts productivity growth (‘High casual rates stifle productivity’ AFR 28.1.04). Just the same, it does not stop employers wanting to make it harder to take time off (‘Call for tougher work stress tests’ AFR 31.3.04). Despite Australia’s growing prosperity over the last decade, society has grown more unequal, with up to 3.5 million in poverty. ‘While our economic indicators have continued to reach upwards so has the level of inequality, poverty, homelessness and housing stress, long term unemployment, suicide and child abuse’ states a Senate committee report (‘Prosperity eludes 3.5m poor’ AFR 12.3.04). This poverty has, in turn, accelerated family break-down among the working poor and others on low income (‘How poverty pushes families into divorce’ SMH 25.3.04). The young ‘are naively optimistic about their future prospects and underestimate the dominant role work will play in their lives’. So says a recent survey on New South Wales school leavers, which finds they expect they will work ‘only’ 30-40 hours a week once they are in the workforce (‘Teens see a rosier future than reality’ SMH 25-26.10.03). Young workers, who often enter the workforce through casual, part-time ‘McJobs’ increasingly seek a balance between work and the rest of their life (‘Generation X “doesn’t want to work as hard”’ AFR 4.2.04). Of course, the hours the next generation works will depend on its ability to organise so that human needs, not corporate greed defines the purpose of the economy, and the culture of the workplace. Privatisation of services — such as housing, health, education and transport — has shifted society from a communitarian to an individualistic basis. Rather than the ‘market’ creating more efficiency, it has turned universally available public goods into ‘positional’ commodities whose purchase reveals our status. So, as the number of private schools grow, public schools are increasingly seen as ‘low’ status. ‘From the viewpoint of society it is a pointless wasteful exercise. Worse, it keeps escalating. We work harder and harder to get the money to keep up in a status race that never ends’ (‘The status race nobody wins’ Ross Gittins SMH 17.3.04) Work is vital to our happiness, as long as it is meaningful, secure and we have a degree of control over its pace and direction. People are much unhappier unemployed, than if they work for a reduced income (‘Happiness is a job you like’ SMH 10.3.04). Yet income has a lower limit, which is to work, yet to be in poverty or destitution: ‘research shows increases in salary do little to improve wellbeing over the long term, except if you’re moving from poverty to enough’ argues Tim Kasser (‘High Price of Materialism 2003, MIT Press). This is why we need a living wage for standard hours, and public provision of a range of amenities and services. This is the most cost effective and creative way society can guarantee its citizens both work and free time. |