*The value of the unpaid overtime worked in Australia is over $70 billion a year*

Ah, those poor, downtrodden workers. I read that statistic somewhere else and
had a bit of a chuckle.

Did the author deduct the amount of time wasted by employees,
fooling around on Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the internet,
whilst at work?

Lets be honest here. Of the 7.5 hours per day that many spend
at their desks, how many hours are they really being productive?

The biggest time waster that I can see, is people travelling to
and from work. On average I gather its around 230 hours a year.
Find a job close to home, or work from home, bingo, all that time
saved.

<< Go Home on Time Day also provides an opportunity for workers to discuss their working hours with their managers in a positive and non-threatening way. >>

Interesting point Josh. Yes it does provide an opportunity, but unfortunately for a lot of us, talking to our managers / supervisors / bosses about things like this is not easy. The risk of it ending badly, with us just being smartly put back into our boxes, the boss becoming a bit annoyed about being asked for shorter or more flexible hours or whatever, and damaged relations resulting, is very real.

By crikey, I know all about this, with my totally reasonable and proper attempts over the last few years to strive for a better work/life balance and be a better contributor to my institute. I've incurred some badly damaged relationships.

What has made it really hard for me is that we are encouraged in our code of conduct to do this, but we have senior managers who just don’t seem to even know that the code of conduct exists!

I wonder how many people have experienced this sort of thing or can see the dangers in pushing, even really gently, for a more desirable arrangement in their working lives, and choose to just remain quiet and cop the stress or long hours or other negative aspects of their jobs, rather than risk making things worse by trying to make them better?

I agree Yabby, but we do often hear articles about how much facebook, having a smoke, going to the toilet is 'costin' us' in productivity.

It's a stalemate. The work culture demands that you be there well after quittin' time, so one may as well take the piss during the day.

It's a bit sad. I for one could fulfil my responsibilities in about 3 days a week if I wanted to, but that would just mean that my employer would pile on all sorts of unnecessary tasks or just retrench me for the time I am not working like a dog.

Work waxes and wanes throughout the year, but I must be at work for 'appearances' 830-530 (And if one leaves before 6, they have a bad attitude). The kind of adult relationship where a boss trusts an employee to just get the job done and work whatever hours necessary throughout the year just doesn't exist. So why should a worker work flat chat when they have everything under control? Anyway you just cant work flat chat all year round while still putting in extra free hours for the peak loads.

Imagine turning up to an interview and asking if it is acceptable to leave on time most days. The message the employer would read from that is that you're not willing to go the extra mile to impress him, or worse you're a 'work-to-rule' type who is, shock horror, out the door as soon as it's quittin' time.

All this is the reason the NBN is a waste of money if people think it's to enable workers to telecommute. We could all be doing it now, but the bosses of the world are terrified they won't be able to regulate your toilet brakes and make you ALT-TAB when they walk past.

<< The biggest time waster that I can see, is people travelling to and from work. >>

Yes Yabby. Boy, I really regret moving to the rural residential edge of town with respect to the daily trip to work.

I used to easily be able to cycle to work. Now I’ve got to drive … and I’ve got to avoid the bloomin morning and evening peak hour clog!!

It’s nice to be on acreage, but yes it has come at a cost. I wish to goodness I could work at home some of the time, or work a four day week, which I have proposed.

No reason at all why I couldn’t work a 9.5 hour day and therefore do my weekly hours in four days. But my proposal was just knocked on the head, straight-up, for no good reason at all by my Director, despite his boss the Director General encouraging us to explore this sort of thing!!

Hmm, I rather split here on this article. I like the less work angle but I loath the anti-growth aspect. By growth I mean maximising one's opportunities at work and earn what bonuses or capital that may come.

Personally, part time is the way to go. I work .8 for an NGO and I still have time to run my little business. I tend to look at the supply side of work with older people not being able to downgrade to part time, or people over 50 not being able to find a job but there's no shortage of workplaces out there which are like psychic prisons.

I laugh when people say that workers are as productive at 5.00 pm as they are at 10.00 am. Not if you're over 40. Most productive work (office) is done before 2.00 pm.

A good article on an important subject.

My most productive time is 4pm-8pm. Cant do any work before mid-day.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11277#190016

Yep, Yabby.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11277#190021

Ludwig, also correct, but was it this way between 1945 & 1972?

i think not, like Ian Leavers from the QLD Police Union, you are finding out that the Red/green/getup/labour/socialist Alliance as an employer is, "Worse than Work Choices".

In the bad old days, if a man worked more than 40 hours a week to provide for his family, he did not have to cook dinner, or do half the "House Work" before being able to spend "Quality Time" with his wife &/or children. Did he?

Another "Time Competitor" is the "Idiot Box".

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11277#190022

Howler, another interesting factoid for you. Since Radical, Extreme, Loony, Left, Lesbian, Fe"Man"Nazism entered the workforce, we now have, 7 times the number of "Dangerous, Evil, Workplace Psychopaths" terrorising the workforce & driving down productivity.

How will we ever compete, in any "Economic Activity" against a Totalitarian, Communist Regime which can repress & WORK its population into obedience, to just about, everything?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11277#190025

Ludwig again, a couple more "REFORMS", or "Weasel Words" for Communist Agenda for you to consider.

1, moving senior & even middle management bureaucrooks off "Award Wages & Salaries" onto "Contracts" with pay & conditions commensurate with the Private Sector.

2, Given that everything the "Loyal Workers" of the Red/green/getup/labour/socialist Alliance do in Politics, Bureaucrookracy, Academia, Journalism, is a "White Ant, Deliberate, Premeditated, Industrial Sabotage, Plan for Failure", in order to bankrupt our entire nation & usher in a UN/IMF/World Bank, NWO, International Socialist Nirvana, all "Public Servants" & especially the Spingandists have to be available, for "Damage Control" 24/7, 365.

'How will we ever compete, in any "Economic Activity" against a Totalitarian, Communist Regime which can repress & WORK its population into obedience, to just about, everything?'

We're miles away and we have all the resources. Why do you want to compete with totalitarian communist regimes?

I think you have too strong a parent. Find your inner child. It's the most disarming feature of all left wing zealots.

Well I just found this top little headline amusing:

*If you're still at work, it's after 5:00 pm and you are reading this - Go Home*

What was the author thinking? It hardly makes sense to complain
about overtime worked, yet he's appealing to those fooling around
on OLO at work.

Houllie, fair enough, you expect to get paid for non
productive hours. At least you are honest about it. You want
the money.

When I had my last business and quite a few staff, we simply
hung a book on the wall. As long as the work was done, I really
didn't care when they arrived or left. They'd write down their
hours and got paid by the hour. Most were extremely honest
about hours worked, but I'd say in a large organisation that
might not work too well. People seem to have less scruples in
ripping off large companies or the Govt.

Yabby,

'Houllie, fair enough, you expect to get paid for non
productive hours. At least you are honest about it. You want
the money.'

I think it's fair enough when I am expected to work overtime for no pay when necessary. If the hours are 9-5, and everyone works until 7, why not just make that the hours, and one can decide whether the hourly rate 9-7 is attractive enough to work there? If you want your workers to work overtime for no pay, you cant exactly have a whinge when they email their friends in work time.

I'd love to work for you if that's the way you do things. Interestingly, when I am a contractor, I take more time off 'sick' than when I'm getting paid for sickies working for a salary. Work choices needs to go even further and flexibility needs to be made available to the workforce as well as the employers.

*Work choices needs to go even further and flexibility needs to be made available to the workforce as well as the employers.*

I fully agree with you on that one, Houllie. I'm kind of semi
retired now, the only work I do is things I am passionate about
and interested in. No more employing lots of staff. But I still
have old staff telling me that working here was the best job they
ever had.

The thing is, there are lots of innovative ways to make things
better for both employers and employees and if its a win-win for
both, why not do it? Happy staff are more productive, money
is not the only thing that drives people.

There are some slack workers out there, but there are also some
shocking managers with no people skills.

It is interesting to compare the Australia Institute’s survey data with the periodic data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics asking broadly similar questions. According to the ABS, in 2007:

When taking into consideration the impact that either more or fewer hours of work would have on their pay:
• 65% of employed people were satisfied with the number of hours that they were already working,
• 21% preferred to work fewer hours than they currently worked
• 14% preferred longer hours than they currently work

http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/1A653F883363040DCA2575C8001ECB4E/$File/63610_apr%20to%20jul%202007%20(re-issue).pdf

In short, the ABS data show much higher levels of satisfaction with current working hours, and a more even balance between those who want more hours and those who want fewer hours.

There may be explanations for this discrepancy – the ABS data are older, the questions may have been phrased differently – but I don’t think these would account for such a big difference.

Personally, I tend to believe the ABS on this subject. They have a bigger sample, hoards of professional statisticians and no ideological axe to grind. At the very least, the discrepancy in the data suggest we should be cautious in reading too much into these survey results.

Not sure if everyone is aware but a large number of companies actively prevent people from accessing social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter from the company server (threats to network security etc). If these sites take up valuable work time then in that same line of thought, what do we do with the smoker/non-smoker dilemma?

Also, if people waste time by commuting to and from work then following the argument above most people should move to the CBD areas of our capital cities (good luck with rents) or we should demand all corporate offices be brought to the suburbs.

As most people stay quiet, management does not consider the issue of long hours important. If more and more people spoke up then management would be force to deal with the issue. Daunting, but if you are not happy, probably a good time to start looking for a new job.

But, the one thing I have to wholeheartedly agree with is the concept of "flexibility" - we should all be paid for the end-result of our work and not for the outdated concept of "hours worked". Sadly for this to happen it would require a tremendous shift in the way that managers/society/government think. Depending on the industry, telecommuting etc. are great options that really should have taken off already.

Overtime for the sake of overtime is definitely wrong. The Japanese term "karoshi" pretty much says what happens to you: death from overwork.

http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/

Flexible work hours can be OK if you have nothing to do with customers, but it doesn't work too well if you do.

I ran a fleet of large tourist day trip boats up north. Our boats were built by a large engineering works in Cairns.

They were good people to do business with, & very helpful with the problems which arose in new boats. That is until they got a contract to build Navy patrol boats.

A large increase in the work force was required, & many of the new staff brought union problems from the south with them. After many strikes they were forced to run a 9 day fortnight. This was a catastrophe from our point of view.

One 320 passenger boat had steering problems. It often wouldn't. With good skippers we managed to run around the Whitsundays, & the reef using engine controls to steer the thing.

The steering had electric, electronic, hydraulic, & mechanical components, so required a few experts to try to fault find. With our suppliers working their 9 day fortnight they became a 6 days a fortnight service outfit, as they could only muster all the experts on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

Sending trouble shooters for only a couple of parts of the system proved utterly useless. The problem always appeared to belong to one who wasn't there.

We finally spent 2 days going right through the thing ourselves, with our limited expertise. We did not find the problem either, but everything worked after that. Nothing like the blind leading themselves.

Oh, our supplier, after finishing the government contract, cancelled the 9 day fortnight, & the other "special" conditions. After a 3 month strike they had their good employees, & their business back.

The great elephant in hte corner is 'Who is doing all these extra hours?'

Who does the vast bulk of paid and unpaid overtime? Wat group of people suffer from a lack of work-life balance? Migrants? Aboriginies? Casuals?

No. It's men. Australia's largest minority group are the poor suckers who put in the extra hours.

Yabby why do you persist in this blanket perception of 'the workers' as all lazy layabouts. It just isn't true - maybe you have been on the farm too long and need to get out more. :)

Fact is more and more people are working longer hours (men and women), I see it around me both in the private and public sector and the impact on family life is evident.

ok, we have the go home on time day.
how about a always work at work day?
or a go home when no work day?

some people seem to think you can have it one way, but there is always two storys to the argument, or even more.

*Yabby why do you persist in this blanket perception of 'the workers' as all lazy layabouts.*

Pelican, you are creating your own strawman argument here, for
I have never claimed that they all are. What I have claimed is
that people commonly act out of self interest and will become
fat and lazy, without competition.

Now take a system like the public service. Some may join with
great enthusiasm and vigour and even ideals. But eventually
they get dragged down by the majority, who don't think that
way. How many rock the boat and point out to all the waste?

I once read a study about the Swedish public service. They
are some of the laziest around. Now Swedes are generally not
lazy by nature, but the system as its implemented is that everyone
does just enough to keep their jobs. Apathy and feathering
nests takes over, the taxpayer just pays.

This was the very reason why even the Swedes started privatising
some things and creating competition in others.

*Fact is more and more people are working longer hours (men and women),*

Well yes, they have borrowed to buy the world's biggest houses,
borrowed to the limit and now have to work to pay for it all.
Our economy is also slowly becoming more competitive, as it
deregulates from the bad old days of high tariff walls etc.

Some of the hardest workers and most innovative people are in fact
WA farmers. Why? They have to survive in a global economy, they
export most of what they produce. Not me personally lol, for the
bit that I do is purely for passion and fun, its a hobby. But
comparing those farmers with the rest of you, frankly you don't
come off looking too good.