walaj

From various opinions I have seen over the months on this board, it would be the British. However an Australian going to Britain says that Australians work harder
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...337025732.html

Are we just biased, or could it be that thoses people that make the effort to move are those likely to work hard?

btw some interesting comments on the link for 'Your say' - nice to see the Australian perception of emmigrating, with many comments sounding strangely familiar from people intending to move to Australia

S Oldfield

I do have to say the Brits.

I do howeve feel that we put too much focus on material things in Brit.

Fuzzyness

when you say work harder do you mean putting in longer hours. does the uk have the longest average working week out of the whole of europe at soemthign like 45 hours.

is this not also a thread for aussies to bash the british and vis versa?

bondipom

You get slackers and hard workers in both. I have temped in a lot of places in the UK and Oz and found all the Office characters in both countries.

cherry6

I think the British work harder in the sense that they take their work more seriously, to the extent of being more stressed than their aussie counterparts. Reasons for this being pressure to succeed, and money. The Aussies work hard but also enjoy their 'play' time, and are able to work in extreme heat conditions. So both work hard, but in different ways.

walaj

This thread is not intended to be used to 'bash' anyone. Working harder does not necessarily is a good thing

It is more on the culture of the workforce generally. Most of us work/have worked in the UK, and will/have continued to do so in Australia. As it takes up a large proportion of peoples lives the question has relevance without being a cat fight.

There always seem to be the figures that the UK work the longest (or one of the longest) hours in Europe & is cited as a reason to move to Oz. However some people posts here say that hours in Australia are no shorter.

Unless you can point me to some survey, I will have to rely on individuals here of what their opinions/experiences are to build a picture. (Of course in any country there are people that work better. longer, harder etc than others, some companies that it is ok to clock off at 5pm, others that expect you stay til 10pm to met a deadline)

Muzzman

Who cares?

Muzzman

65 million

In my opinion I woud say you can split this two ways:

1. Who works harder - the UK.
2. Who works longer - unquestionably the aussies.

Looking forward to the land of long hours and low pay.:scared:

Goodpubmisser

I am a Professional Engineer (that means I have a degree + many years experience).

I left England when I was 25 but I did not have to work the long hours that I do in Australia. I find Australian management to be little better than shit and I have to work longer hours to cover for their incompetance.

There are several reports around that says Australians are now beaten only by the Americans (USA) for the length of work hours.

In Britain you now get 30 days paid holiday a year. That compares with Australia's 20 days. You get more sick leave in Britain.

The standard of living could be far better in Britain if the government would stop wasting money. Britain plays the role of a World Power when it is in fact only a medium sized European Country. So a lot of money is spent on nuclear arms, aircraft carriers etc. Britain should just leave it to the Yanks to fight the wars.

There are some countries in Europe that have a far higher standard of living than Britain or Australia . For example Sweden, Norway, Switzerland. The difference is that they manage their money better.

Australia used to be an easier country to live and work, not any more. If anything it is becoming harder. The standard of living here is going down, whereas it is going up in Britain (well the SE of England anyway).

Goodpubmisser

Uhm - I think that you might be a bit out of touch here. No offence intended.

Badge

One of the most humane, charismatic and astute middle managers I ever worked under was an Aussie. This was in a massive politically intense, 'scary' clearing bank in Central Europe, one of the biggest in the country, and he went out of his way to add on a 'bit extra' to your pay rise, his exact words were 'I gave your pay rise request to HR, and bunged on a bit more'; he got you to write your own reference, asked you out of the office to buy you coffee every so often to ask how things were going, sent policy and team management updates via humorous emails - he was the first to make the team happy - he backed you to the hilt against team managers, defended and protected you against senior management, we looked forward to seeing him every day as he was always smiling - the ladies loved him!!

I'd also like to add that he wasn't a battling baffoon, he was well respected in the company and had a lot of weight.

I personally have not seen the longer hours thing, but I can well imagine it exists.

Badge

Badge

I was never allowed to work the longer hours I wanted to work when I was in Sydney..

BM

jandjuk

badger's example I think sums up some of the differences in work culture. and based on unscientific personal experiences and chats with friends.... it seems as if the workplace in the UK is much more heirarchal - the boss is most definitely the boss - whereas in Oz/NZ (generally) teamwork & initiative are more valued. 'Playing by the rules' is an important aspect of British culture, and this transcends into the workplace.

It perhaps it would be fair to say that the workplaces downunder tend to be more jovial atmospheres....

That's just a generalisation - of course there are exceptions to every rule and a lot depends on personal style.

Other people have commented that they are expected to work longer hours in Oz/NZ and to produce more given less resources. So in that respect (because of less money/tighter margins) people downunder I think are expected to produce more for less - which is why it often can appear if people are cutting corners or paying less attention to detail than people do in the UK.


also I think there is a much stronger emphasis on the client/customer downunder - much more influenced by the american/asian style of customer service. so you have to 'butt kiss' clients more and spend more time answering their every whim. less of a captive market - so people have to work harder to keep them happy.

Badge

Good points, but there will be companies everywhere where bosses are bosses - more rigidity - in the public sector maybe?

My Yankee company was organised extremely flatly. They were very proud of this fact, in fact.

badge

jandjuk

yes, agreed. very hard to draw comparisons as very few of us have worked in enough different places in different parts of the world to see if there are any solid patterns. it's all just a few odd personal experiences and hearsay....