How much do you love your employer?
"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."
Phillip Lasker, "Australa World Leaders in Working Overtime", ABC Lateline Business.
"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."
The Australia Institute, Long time, no see: the impact of time poverty on Australian workers.
I know, I know - you'd all love to post comments on these matters but don't have the time. I understand.
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6 comments:
I am enjoying the practice of my current employer that any overtime worked becomes time in lieu and you can take days off with those saved up hours :)
(I'm not enjoying so much the newly acquired task of playing PA to a Professor who's mad in all the wrong ways!)
I love my employer ;-) - and he thinks time with family is important...
Sair - yes, that is a good practice and one that a number of good employers employ (and a few mad ones too I guess!). That said, I know of more than a few workplaces where that is the official policy, but everyone knows that you don't *actually* take days off in lieu because the work is way too important for that and you'd be letting the side down really and don't you care about how important this work is?
Anthony - Does your boss happen to read this blog? NB your Blogger profile still has you at Quakers Hill. And your current staff page doesn't actually mention your title.
I agree this is a huge issue, and reflects where people are at.
For the sake of balanced argument, what if you're trying to sell widgets to pay people's wages? Is it getting easier or harder?
Does globalisation mean that employees are now in competition with (or 'in commonality with') employees from countries that have never had a strong history of trade unions, and cultures with low value of individual human life?
For the sake of balanced argument, what if you're trying to sell widgets to pay people's wages? Is it getting easier or harder?
I'm not sure I follow your question. Are you asking from the perspective of an employer here? Can you say a little more of where you're coming from and why this represents a balancing of the post?
Does globalisation mean that employees are now in competition with (or 'in commonality with') employees from countries that have never had a strong history of trade unions, and cultures with low value of individual human life?
This would seem to be part of the destructiveness of the present system of globalisation, as it asks us to compare apples and oranges, or rather, encourages corporations to ignore any measure of social responsibility in the pursuit of profit (insofar as they can get away with it).
AlterNet: A history of the 40 hour week.
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