How much should we work?

Working hours, holidays and working life: the participation challenge

Committee for Economic Development of AustraliaHilton Hotel, Adelaide3rd August 2010

AWALI 2010: A work-life perspective on employment participation and working time

Who did we talk to?We surveyed 2800 working Australians in March

2010Newspoll ran the surveyRandomised survey which is reasonably

representative

This year we focussed especially on: ◦ Working hours◦ Work hours preferences – who wants to work less or

more?◦ Uptake of paid holiday leave

How do we measure work-life outcomes?How often does work interfere:

◦ with activities outside work?◦ with enough time with family or friends?◦ with community connections

How frequently do we feel rushed and press for time?

How satisfied are we with our work-life balance?

Four years of AWALI

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading (Lao Tzu)

Work negatively impacts on personal, family and community life for the majority of workers◦ For ¼ of workers this is often or ‘almost always’ the case

The same groups of workers continue to have the worse work-life outcomes

Women are still more at risk of work-life strains

Combining work & care continues to be challenging

Managers & professionals continue to have poor work-life outcomes

Those in service industries also have worse work-life outcomes

Time is of the essence ...

Little appetite for longer hours for mostAround half of all workers do not have a good

fit between actual & preferred hoursMany workers want to work less (by 4+ hours)

◦ 32% of women◦ 40% of men

Full-time 35-47 hours:◦ 46% of women & 34% of men

48+ hours◦ 72% of men & 77% of women

Who wants to work more (4+ hrs)?Men working part-time (46.4%)

◦ Prefer additional 6.8 hours, on average30.5 % of women working part-time agree

◦ Prefer average of 2.8 hours more

Casual workers◦ 50.3% of men◦ 40.6% of women

Generation gap? Teen workers: 18 – 19 yearsGen Y: 20 – 29 yearsGen X: 30 -44 yearsBaby Boomers: 45 – 64 yearsGrey workers – 65+

Ideal work week – 35 hours

Gen X: family + work

Holidays

Mothers particularly benefit from holidays

Why don’t people take holidays?

Holidays versus pay rise?

Leave work at home

What to do?

What to do? 1. More say over working flexibly2. Long work hours3. Reducing the burden on working women4. More support for working fathers5. More supportive workplace culture

practice, management and leadership6. Holidays matter: time, money, rest7. Future research….what works? Metrics?

Managers and leadersUnderstand and implement the lawChange workplace cultures and habits‘Walk the talk’Drive from top - with metrics, not policy

◦ KPIs for managers◦ Measure, reward, reflect, respond

Prevent long hoursSupport and educate supervisors,

managers, staff

AWALI tells us that better outcomes will flow from:Good supervisionSupportive workplace culturesAvoidance of long hoursProviding employee-centred flexibilityQuality jobs (control, security)Reasonable workloadsTaking leave

Still a BBQ stopper?

http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp