Devlin

http://www.brainbox.com.au/brainbox/...E?opendocument

I was surprised to see that Australia has even surpassed America in terms of the average hours worked per annum according to the latest figures in the Economist.

bondipom

Not if you work for the government. It is a shocking eye opener into slacking.

jah4reds

As pretty much everyone in government has internet access, it's become 'cyber-slacking'.

AndyH

Devlin

Maybe it should read average hours "attending place of work" then...

Kiwipaul

Got to admit working (did I say working I mean being paid by the gov) for goverment dept is a joke her, more like being paid to spend 8 hours in office doing whatever you like. I've never worked for a gov before so this is a real eye opener.

If my job is typical of gov jobs I can see why taxes are so high as they employ 2-3 people to do the work of 1 person in private industry.

Carol in Oz

Friend of mine worked in gov job here in Sydney. All her work was finished by 11am each day. She was told to slow down because it made things look bad for everyone else there. She couldnt stand it and left.
Agree with Paul gov jobs here a joke. I think we must be one of the most over governed countries in the world!
Local council, State Gov. Federal Gov. Why do we need them all? Just a gravy train.

Carol

sashimi

Well, the government has to do something with all that money it fleeces off people

But totally agree with you , Oz sounds like a tremendously over governed country, to me often in the wrong places, and not nearly in the places where it would be needed. The awful government is one of the reasons why my husband has gone seriously off Oz and why we're now looking at NZ instead. Have other reasons for looking at NZ, but government is definitely one of them.

sashimi

MeganEkno

I believe that England is at the other end of the scale. I believe that their is a lack of governing when it comes to the issues that truly matter and perhaps it is under-governed.

I know, I know, this is not a forum for people's views on England but just thought I'd mention this.

davidw

thanks, interesting point - could you give some examples, its an intriguing thought.

Best wishes

David

Devlin

Have to agree with the over-governing in Australia. Most states and terrotories have the same amount of government as California, I don't think any of them have 22m people in them though!

Megalania

California, U. S. of A. ? The banckrupt American State? The State about to elect another ex-film star for Governor?

Florida_03

One of the interesting debates is the impact of undocumented immigrants on the finanicial resources of the Goverment.

As for ex-film stars, people have always elected influential and mostly rich candidates to positions of power, sometime the rich just took them. That has been true for thousands of years. Ex-film stars are probably as good at governing as the landed gentry.

DianeOZ

=============================

True! I'm not in the government sector, just a good old manufacturing company but the work I do in a week here is about what I used to do in a day in UK.

Not that I'm complaining or anything but it does take a bit of getting used to. I get stressed trying to look busy.

d

jah4reds

Typical gubberment workers day...

(1) Arrive 9.15 - complain about the slow trains/buses/lifts - put 9 o'clock on timesheet.
(2) Spend an hour talking to mates about last nights tele programs, latest footie scores, etc
(3) Sit down at empty desk - complain about the amount of work you've got do
(4) Get up again - realise you haven't made a cup of coffee yet (quietly realise haven't entered this week lotto yet either)
(5) Put wallet/purse in pocket - sneak out of office and walk to nearest newsagents - buy lotto tickets.
(6) Go back to office
(7) Go make coffee - time now 10.45
(8) Make a few personal phone calls - time now 11.00
(9) Realise now time for morning tea.
(10) Walk around a few other desks gathering friends for morning coffee
(11) Back downstairs for morning coffee at local coffee shop (10min coffee break lasts 30mins)
(12) Back to desk - turns on computer.
(13) Wait for computer to boot-up - time now 12.00
(14) Open up web-browser - go pay some bills online
(15) Oh no - someone comes over and asks a work-related question - tell them how busy you are and will get back to them as soon as possible (make sure you don't write it down so that you can forget this quickly).
(16) Time now 12.30 - time for lunch
(17) Wander around town for an hour - return to office and put down 1/2 hour for lunch time on timesheet.
(18) Still in lunch-mode, go to favourite forum
(19) Spend 1 1/2 hours on forum reading and posting a few messages - time now 2.30
(20) Feeling a little guilty now - realise you need one of your work mates to answer a work-related question
(21) Ask question - you will be told that they are too busy at the moment and will get back to you (you don't take offence as you did this earlier to someone else)
(22) Ask a social question about their partner, children, where they plan to go holiday, or just about anything else.
(23) Spend 1 hour talking everything from the weather, news, and politics to children's school fetes.
(24) Back to desk - open up web browser - check to see if anyone has answered any of your posts on the forum
(25) Spend 1/2 hour answering replies to your lunchtime posts - time now about 3.00
(26) Realise time for afternoon tea - go gather up the gang
(27) Back to coffee shop for 10 min coffee break (which lasts 1/2 hour)
(28) Back to desk - open email - see a few friends have sent some emails with jokes or funny attachments.
(29) Spend 15mins forwarding on posts to other friends
(30) Time for that all important daily visit to the 'little boy’s room' / 'little girls room' (take paper with you - you maybe sometime)
(31) Back to desk - feeling a bit tired now - it's already 4.00.
(32) Realised need to do some photocopy some pages from a book a friend lent you. Photocopier is on the other side of your floor.
(33) Wander towards photocopier - making sure you stop to chat to all your mates on the way there and back.
(34) Back to desk - time now 4.30
(35) Make a few personal phonecalls - answer one work related email (remember to say how snowed-under with work you are) - time now around 5.00
(36) Start to get yourself ready to go home - slowly pack bag - re-arrange papers on desk to make it look as if you have actually done something.
(37) Time now 5.10 - put down 5.30 on timesheet - and leave
(38) Stop off at pub for a quick drink
(39) Miss the train/bus - grumble to yourself about how work is always making yourself late going home
(40) Get home - tell the friends/relatives how flat-out and busy you are all day long.

AndyH.

Mandy Bale

my husband is an IT contractor and has had two different contracts working for two different government departments with two very different attitudes to work:

Department of Commerce in CBD:

leave home at 6am
come home at 10pm
stressing all the time about how much work there is to do in such little time, been given unrealistic time scales to do the project.
realising his daughter has suddenly got taller and has missed out on so much! realising that this is exactly what we were getting away from in the UK

Maquarie University, Ryde (current contract):

leave home 9am
get home 5.30pm
very laid back attitude
he was actually head hunted for this job and they haven't even got the project signed off yet so at the moment he is just bumming around waiting!

So here you can see that it all depends on what you are doing and in which department!

Mandy