Go home!
Ever find yourself strapped to your desk well after the end of your official hours? Does it happen often? When people ask you how you are, how often does your reply contain some variation on the answer "busy"?
Then stop reading blogs you might like to think about participating in Go Home On Time Day on 24th November in order to raise awareness of workaholism and overwork.
"Each year, Australians work more than 2 billion hours of unpaid overtime, worth an equivalent $72 billion.
For full-time workers, the average daily amount of unpaid work is 70 minutes which equates to six-and-a-half standard working weeks. Put another way, this is the equivalent of ‘donating’ more than your annual leave entitlement back to your employer.
"A consequence of overtime is ‘time poverty’ or not having enough time to do all the things you need or want to do. This can have negative consequences for your physical and mental health, your relationships with loved ones and your sense of what is important in life.
"One in four Australians report needing to go to the doctor but being ‘too busy’, while one in two don’t spend as much time as they would like with their family because of work. Work also prevents us from getting enough exercise, eating healthy meals, and other things that contribute to our wellbeing."
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via email from The Australia Institute:
"It's now a decade after then Prime Minister, John Howard, declared work-life balance to be a barbeque-stopper and yet, overwork still presents a massive imposition on the personal and social wellbeing of many Australians. Indeed, the steady creep of work on to weekends is, no doubt, responsible for stopping an increasing number of actual barbeques in addition to the metaphorical one referred to by Howard.
"This is particularly pertinent as we head into the holiday season and contemplate time away from work. Did you know that in 2009 the majority of Australian employees did not take all their annual leave entitlements? Yet, only one in five of us are happy with the hours we work, with most of us expressing a desire to work less.
"This year's national Go Home On Time Day on November 24 is focusing on the notion of 'time poverty', something which what has been referred to as a 'modern malaise'.
"Our survey found that half of all Australians are suffering from time pressure, with overwork preventing us from keeping healthy and spending time with family. Half of all survey respondents wanted to work fewer hours than they had worked in the previous week. For those working overtime, four in five (81 per cent) wanted to work less.
"Of course on the other side of the story are those who are not happy with their hours because they are fewer than they would like to work. Sixty per cent of part-time workers wanted to work more hours.
"While the findings might seem intuitive, they do highlight the fact that there is a clear mismatch between the hours the labour market makes available and the hours that people want to work. They also point to the difficulty most workers face trying to start a conversation with their employer about their preferred working hours versus their actual hours.
"We hope that Go Home On Time Day is a way to start that conversation."
ABC: "A survey has found that Australians are working more unpaid overtime than almost any other country in the world. [...] according to the study, workers donate two billion hours of work worth $72 billion to employers each year. That's six per cent of GDP. "
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