Herman

It was reported on Sky news here this morning that 47% of Australians work 8 hours or more of overtime unpaid, which opposes the stereotypical view of the laid back Australian lifestyle.
Certainly my experience here compared to the UK is that a hell of a lot more is expected of me and my fellow employees for a hell of a lot less. Likewise for my wife - we see less of each other in Sydney and are more tired when we do, than when we were in London.
Are we alone or do others have similar experiences in other parts of Australia?

Tatiana

I've seen a report some time ago that Australia is the second hard-working nation among developed countries after South Korea.

jery_wang

Where do you put Japan and Hong Kong?

Do you still remember the link/web page for this report?
I would like to see it too.

pommie bastard

Hard working not quite true , work longer hours yes , I do agree people seem to have less holidays and social time here.
Most employers do not pay overtime anymore and expect you to give up free time for no return .
Shift work here is on the whole worse than UK , night shift loading is only 17% and upto 12 hour shifts.
Work place agreements have weaken union power , so conditions are less attractive ,most have no choice but sign away all rights that unions have fought for in order to get a job.

jery_wang

I think I got the URL for this news:

http://abc.net.au/news/2002/09/item20020923062115_1.htm

Tatiana

it was on www.news.com.au about a month ago or so.

Robert Edwards

Be wary the report you are referring to is a Survey which does not give the
details of how many people were surveyed, ask a number of people if they
work too hard and you will probably find it is a relative thing, many will
answer "of course they do" but to confirm this as being the norm across the
board is not sound mathematics. It is the case that employers cannot demand
you work unpaid overtime.


"Herman" wrote in message
news:422573.1032748410@britishexpats-
.com...
    > It was reported on Sky news here this morning that 47% of Australians
    > work 8 hours or more of overtime unpaid, which opposes the stereotypical
    > view of the laid back Australian lifestyle.
    > Certainly my experience here compared to the UK is that a hell of a lot
    > more is expected of me and my fellow employees for a hell of a lot less.
    > Likewise for my wife - we see less of each other in Sydney and are more
    > tired when we do, than when we were in London.
    > Are we alone or do others have similar experiences in other parts of
    > Australia?
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Herman

I was actually asking a question about other people's experiences, not stating as a mathematical fact that 47% of workers do at least 8 hours of overtime unpaid.
I work in a large organisation, perhaps a sample size of 800 people, and at the risk of offending the standard deviations in your Gaussian curve, I observe lots of people working longer hours than I observed in the same firm in London.
I dispute the your statement that employers can not demand you work unpaid overtime - OK in a court of law maybe not, but by implication, innuendo, promotion reviews, peer pressure or other means they sure can. Perhaps you should tell my boss he's acting illegally when he, as he often does, asks me at 5.55pm to get something done by the morning because, yet again, we are 'under the hammer'!
People need to be aware that as Australia is a relatively small economy, with a lot of competitive pressure for goods, services and jobs, businesses have to go that extra mile to compete (which of course means pressure on employees). Thats my theory anyway.

Chris

"Herman" wrote in message
news:422573.1032748410@britishexpats-
.com...
    > It was reported on Sky news here this morning that 47% of Australians
    > work 8 hours or more of overtime unpaid, which opposes the stereotypical
    > view of the laid back Australian lifestyle.

Yep, I know a few people who put in 10 hour days... I actually heard that
Australians work some of the longest hours in the industrialised world
(don't quote me on that).

    > Certainly my experience here compared to the UK is that a hell of a lot
    > more is expected of me and my fellow employees for a hell of a lot less.
    > Likewise for my wife - we see less of each other in Sydney and are more
    > tired when we do, than when we were in London.
    > Are we alone or do others have similar experiences in other parts of
    > Australia?

Well I actually work on a flex-time system where I'm only expected to put in
around 38 odd hours a week. If I work longer hours, I work up to a free day
off ;-) Still, compared to the country I was working in previously (Japan),
Australia's far better off in terms of working hours.

Chris

    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Chris

"Tatiana" wrote in message
news:422584.1032749764@britishexpats-
.com...
    > I've seen a report some time ago that Australia is the second
    > hard-working nation among developed countries after South Korea.

I heard that too, but I'd really love to see what countries they included in
the study. The Japanese still work hard long hours and rarely take more
than half of their annual leave for holidays. The attitude is completely
different too... where a sick day is thought of as an accrued day off, and
over there, as a failure on the part of the employee.

Chris

    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Robert Edwards

I was referring to the news article posted by another user, NOT you

"Herman" wrote in message
news:422674.1032763356@britishexpats-
.com...
    > >
    > I was actually asking a question about other people's experiences, not
    > stating as a mathematical fact that 47% of workers do at least 8 hours
    > of overtime unpaid.

Helle Hansen

"Chris" wrote in message news:...

    > Yep, I know a few people who put in 10 hour days... I actually heard that
    > Australians work some of the longest hours in the industrialised world
    > (don't quote me on that).
    > Well I actually work on a flex-time system where I'm only expected to put in
    > around 38 odd hours a week. If I work longer hours, I work up to a free day
    > off ;-) Still, compared to the country I was working in previously (Japan),
    > Australia's far better off in terms of working hours.
    > Chris
    >we live in Switzerland where the official work week is 42,5 hrs i.e.
8,5 hrs a day - officially. Quite a shock coming from Denmark where
it's 36. Where my husband works now, computers, people habitually stay
till 8-9 in the evening, my husband rarely leaves the office before
6.30 and usually clocks in around 7.30 in the morning. When he
recently told his colleagues he's piled up overtime the equivalent of
one week's work they all just looked at him and laughed as they had
tons more. Here overtime can usually be taken as days off, but if it
becomes too much you're lucky to get some paid out and the rest is
just lost. So at least as far as official working time is concerned
Australia's a lot better than here.

jery_wang

7:30 am to 9:00 pm minus one hour lunch time = 12.5 hours

So, you work 12.5 x 5 = 62.5 hours/week.

So you work (62.5 - 36) / 36 = 73% more!!

I think IT has become ridiculous, work longer hour with the same wage, or should I say with lower wage now. Maybe being a cashier pays more.

Devlin

From muy experience of working in a Bank in Australia and a bank in the UK here is a comparison.

Australia:

Standard Hours expected: 40/week
Usual hours workd: 45-50/week
Overtime paid: No
Time off in Lieu: Yes - 1 hr for every 3 worked overtime
Sick Leave: 8 days/year although my boss thought anyone taking sick leave and wasn't in hospital was a slacker
Anuual Leave: 20 days

UK:
Standard Hours expected: 35/week
Usual Hours worked: about 40/week
Overtime paid: Yes, normal hourly rate
Time off in Lieu: Yes, 1hr for each 1hr of overtime
Sick Leave: Unlimited only need a doc cert for 5 days or more in a row
Annual Leave: 25 days, plus get Xmas eve off on top of that and other public holidays

This is my experience and I will make no generalisations from this as different companies in both countries are different.

mashiraz

Is this experience valid for all fields of work or mainly IT.
I'm not IT and a reason for going to Australia is to have a better work/home life balance. Will I get it in a 'normal' large australian company in an office environment?


Mash....