ABCDiamond

Aussies now work the longest hours in the developed world – 212 hours, more than five weeks, above the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries' average.
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au...5E2765,00.html

Numbers of hours worked per year:
Australia = 1855 (147 hours more than the UK)
United States = 1835
Japan = 1821
New Zealand = 1817
Canada = 1767
Finland = 1730
UK = 1708
Ireland = 1690
Sweden = 1625
Italy = 1622

The report ended with: Australians had to stop confusing materialism with standard of living if they were to break out of the overwork trap That's something to keep in mind

bondipom

Cannot see Howard bringing in a working time directive. I've been putting in the time recently with a few 50 hour weeks.

ABCDiamond

So you are one of the 20% doing those 50 hour weeks and more


For comparison the report shows these %'s of employees doing 50 hour weeks or more.

Japan - 28.1%
NZ - 21.3%
Australia - 20%
US - 20%
Britain - 16%
Ireland - 6.5%
Greece - 6.5%
Spain - 6%
France - 6%
Portugal - 5.5%

The newspaper shows a photo of a man on the beach with his laptop computer, still working ? Still clocking up the hours ? I know I used to be guilty of that....

anya4oz

Wouldn't it be more useful if these reports measured work in terms of peoples' efficiency, deliverables, and profitability, instead of the hours people spend in the office or supposedly 'working'.

We all know that many of our colleagues who arrive in the office virtuously at 7am spend about about 50% of their day actually *not* working: chatting, coffee/loo/smoking breaks, staring into space, surfing the web, sending 'joke' emails, attending meetings that are a total waste of time etc.

The # of hours spent 'working' seems a meaningless and pointless figure.

Anya.

Gjn200

Pretty meaningless figures really, they dont say if that is with or without holidays. Mine would be ( and is about the same as most people I know in the UK ) are 2132 with and 1872 without.

JackTheLad

I'm pretty sure it doesn't include holidays.

Cheers,
JTL

Vegemite Kids

well said anya.

I have someone in my dept like that and although she seems to be very busy, always working overtime and always at meetings or being asked to help out on various projects TBH she's about as much use to me as a chocolate teaspoon cos she's very rarely working on the actual core deliverables of the dept

ABCDiamond

Surfing the web ??? surely not

scitta

To avail of the overtime pay, the guys at our HO in Japan put in 4/5 hours of extra work daily.

And as Anya said, the major part of their day is spent having meetings over endless cups of coffees and cigarettes.

Sarah

renth

Have you been stalking me?

You missed "spending 1 and a half hours at the gym at lunchtime"

bondipom

Too true there are many about who are like that. Someone I worked with recently got annoyed because he got no gratitiude when he was working 12 hour days. Again he was not working on the core deliverables and instead cherry picked jobs with managers to make himself appear good. He was sussed out and became very begrudging.

I am already reaping the fruit of my work with reduced turnarounds on laptops and reduced rebuilds on desktops. Others stats will improve because of the work but it gives good job satisfaction.

What we need here is productivity data, a notoriously difficult to measure stat both on the micro and macro level. I had a quick google but I am sure Quinkana will pop some figures into place.

renth

Bloody hell BP, "core deliverables" have you swallowed a management speak phasebook?

Are you taking a "holistic" approach at work? you know, "thinking outside the box" "concentrating on your 'core business'" using "synergies" to "leverage" stuff.

Pollyana

I have a manager who talks like that all the time.... drives me nuts, and I keep asking her to translate!! She is so bad that she holds meetings to "evaluate the strategic placing of meetings amongst the core office workflow..........."

kirsty&al

WHAT BOX???



I found this reply always unnerved managers/consultants whenever they used this expression.

Cheers
Alistair

stevereed

But surely this report is not covering profitability and benefits to the company. Working hours effect quality of life, stress levels etc. Appreciated, some jobs with short hours are more stressful than others, but long hours and in particular shift work is proven to have wide rangeing effects on physical and mental health, family life etc.

Staff are invariably made to feel that it is their 'duty' to work long hours, to be a 'team player', 'not to let the side down'. Financial incentives in low paid jobs encourage / force workers to go in on the weekend, work late at night.

Less time with family, kids. In the short term it's no problem for most. Many do it for a lifetime, and then wonder what life was all about.

Reducing working hours to acceptable levels, and providing a decent basic wage should be an imperative for all employers. Tired, stressed, demotivated staff do not produce the results!!