Anyone who knows me knows I’m
a passionate advocate for work-life balance. In fact some might say I’m
tiresome about it. Well, my defence is that it is really something I believe in
because I am concerned about the effect of imbalance on people’s psychology,
general health and appreciation of the gift that life is, not to mention how
fleeting our time on Earth is.
Yesterday was Go Home On Time Day and I guess it says
something that we have to even think about having such a day. In fact, shame on
all of us.
Australians continue to work large amounts of unpaid overtime and these
‘donated’ hours added up to 58.8 million hours, which based on the average
income adds up to almost $110 billion. If these hours were paid and allocated
to Australians looking for work the unemployment rate could be zero.
In 2010 Australians were on average working 2.5 hours more a week than they
would have liked. Only one-in-five workers reported they were working the hours
they would like to. Unsurprisingly, the desire for fewer hours was stronger
amongst people working long hours, whereas part-time workers indicated they
would like to work more hours.
The general desire for more work by some and less work by others highlights
the need to balance the distribution of work hours across the labor force. Of
course this means that women are often the ones who feel stress because they
‘have’ to get home to care for their kids, to avoid high after school care fees
etc and men feel stress because they assume the ‘worker’ role and are more
inclined to stay at work longer. This is a concern for continuing gender
stereotyping as well as being at home with the family becomes an ok choice
rather than a responsibility. How did we get to the point where our children
became second in importance to our employer? Is that the sign of an evolved
species? Seriously?
There is some research to suggest that working as little as two hours extra
a week can be indicators for obesity, hypertension and heart disease as well as
the obvious anxiety disorders and stress related illnesses such as depression.
And of course just the fact of sitting in a chair for long periods has obvious
ill effects, muscular skeletally at least.
The other concern is that it doesn’t take long for something such as
‘donated’ working hours becomes part of the culture of the workforce and indeed
companies. ‘Working back’ quickly goes from a request or ‘chipping in’ to an
expectation. Feelings of guilt start if you leave while the rest of your
colleagues are working on (no matter you might have completed your day’s work
or have great time management skills). It can be difficult for general staff
but also hard for managers who don’t want to be ‘seen’ to be leaving on time
while the worker bees are slaving away. Mind you hopefully it means they are
fulfilling one of their key roles as a manager, being a role model.
Almost as a consequence of the above it has become ‘normal’ to check our
work emails at home or almost addictively peeking at our work material on our
phones or tablets on the train home or while eating dinner. I live by the maxim
that when I walk out the door my work day is finished and doesn’t start again
until I walk in the door the next day. My time is my time not my employer’s,
why does this seem ‘odd’ or outrageous to even say that?
Let’s face it few of us work for a charity, so to be brutal why do we
‘donate’ hours to quite wealthy corporations? If we want to be so altruistic
how about working those five or ten hours at an organization that could
actually use us? Australians work three times more hours of unpaid overtime
than they volunteer to community organisations. If we are doing long hours
which could be done by two people within contracted hours then damn it employ
another person and do something positive for the economy and the community.
Sometimes I think we have a need to be martyrs and I ponder on what generates
that in 2014.
Research also shows us that the more hours one works, especially if we
don’t want to be doing it, the less productive we are, our instincts diminish
proportionately and our critical thinking is affected. The key is to use the
extra hours for tidying up, completing tasks, reading rather than reviewing,
starting a new project or anything forensic.
We often blame the lack of time, indeed it’s almost a mantra these days
that ‘I never have enough time to fit it all in’. I frankly and loudly scoff at
this notion. It is a simple, scientific fact that you have as much time as
there is time, no more no less. We have the same 24 hours we always had. What
happens is we choose to cram more into those hours. Look time is in our
control, it does not control us. Grab that control back and decide ‘I can only
do what I can do and let the cards fall where they may’. Again if it means
asking for help or more staff then take some responsibility for your own
well-being and ask for it. If you aren’t listened to then why would you work
for/with someone like that?
Finally, life is a precious gift and given to we lucky few. It is also very
fleeting and tragically for many even more fleeting. MH17 have a few
hundred people on it who have taught us that tomorrow is not a guarantee for
anyone; so do we really want to spend precious hours of life working extra and
unpaid hours? What lunacy is that? ‘If I put in the hard yards today it will
all pay off in the years to come. The family will thank me when I have a better
job and a bit of money in the bank’…such arrogance. Why wouldn’t you want to be
grabbing every minute you can to experience life, look at the world around us,
cherish, hold, listen to, talk to, love our children, family and friends?
So there it is.
In the end it’s all up to you to decide on the life you believe you ought to be living, the life you ‘deserve’. No one else writes our ‘rule book’, no one is ‘helpless’ and I hope no one gives up their work life balance willingly or unthinkingly.
Take care of yourselves and each other
“If you slave away every day
at a job you hate and come home drained and frustrated, what is that teaching
your kids?”
― Alexander Kjerulf, Happy Hour is 9 to 5
