Work to Live

I was perusing my favourite web sites (as per normal) when I discovered that www.brainbox.com.au started talking about work and the fact that Australians are working harder than ever. This is always a topic that gets emotions going. We all seem to believe we are working too hard. So I was curious, is this just in I.T, or is it across the board?

So I went to the site with all the answers, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (www.abs.gov.au). I found this statistical report on Hours worked between the years of 1985 and 2005. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/0f152d0eab2c88bdca2571b000153da2!OpenDocument
It actually raises some interesting points. In the 20 years between 1985 and 2005, the average hours worked by all workers (Full time and Part Time) has actually dropped from 35.8 to 34.7 a week. This can be explained by the rise of Part Time work in certain industries. So for some of us, working hours have decreased over the last 20 years, especially if we are working part time.

Things become clearer when we explore the stats for full time workers. In the 20 years the statistics measure, average weekly hours worked for full time employees increased from 40.2 hours to 41.9 hours. When you compare this with the fact that standard award hours are 37.5 a week, it appears most of us are working at least an extra 4.4 hours a week for no pay. As it is an average figure, there must be a few people working far in excess of this. In fact the stats suggest that 30% of full time workers are working in excess of 50 hours a week. (That’s an extra 12.5 hours a week than standard) Another 2-3 hours a day!

The report has some flaws. It doesn’t say whether this potential overtime is paid or unpaid. It doesn’t measure whether the work is being done at home or at the office. But still, if 1 in 3 or so workers are at the office for 10 hours a day, or doing a few hours of the weekend every week, that’s a lot of people spending time working when they could be spending time with their family or friends.

So why do we do it? I can only speculate. The death of the lunch hour could be one reason. Look around the time of 12:30 PM in my work place, and you will see the vast majority of people still at their workstations, fork in hand, eyes fixed on their screens. Only a few people in my immediate team actually leave the office for lunch. This means that they could be perusing files, reading material while ploughing into their leftover spaghetti from last nights dinner. Twenty years ago, lunch was a big thing, now it’s a waste of time.

It could also be competition. According to the stats, the vast majority of people working in excess of 50 hours are managers of owners of businesses. I can understand the owners of business working longer hours; after all building your business is a powerful motivator. The manager’s however are a different story. These are guys who have a lot of autonomy to set their own hours, yet they are putting in more than anyone else is. Could it be the oversight requirements? Or is it just a race between managers to position themselves for the next step up the corporate ladder? If you work hard, set the example, upper management will notice me?

Speaking for myself, I can understand the idea of working hard to prove yourself. I was once a work-aholic (runs in the family), though my brush with illness has destroyed that feeling. Now I’m all about working my 37.5 hours and no more. And my managers don’t complain. It probably has hurt my chances of promotion, but for me, I don’t want to go back to the days of living to work. That way madness lies.