chris955

Apparently Australians work longer hours than any other western nation and more often than not don't get paid for the extra hours. I've never understood how people then say they have more family time here, more hours in the day perhaps ?

renth

Love it!

chris and farideh

We don't have family time at all, I really think Australia is well suited for single people or people who have no children cause if you do say goodbye to all that.

DeadVim

I don't claim benefit you cheeky bugger

I have also just done the grocery shop at the Fresh Food People so lay off me I'm traumatised.

Bermudashorts

What about weekends?

moneypenny20

Did you stand outside looking psycho happy singing 'That's my Woolies'?

Kooky.

Is compensation the important thing, or would you rather earn less and work less?

My husband earns four times what I did for similar contracted hours. He probably did similar hours in the UK (as did I), but had a longer commute - often Yorkshire to his base in Surrey, and client sites could be anywhere - offset by no plane travel. In Singapore he worked in a similar way and was often out of the country. Here he flies but mostly domestic travel. (So sorry, chris955, in my experience it's no worse here than anywhere else )

He chose to go into an industry where this is the norm, and he stays because he enjoys what he does. We manage to have a good life too. What a mug he is

DeadVim

No, there was enough of that on the speakers

koalakim

Self-employed so always working! There is always something to do and very hard to switch off and just leave the computer.

In the UK I used to work long hours because our dept was very busy but I got hacked off with it when I never got recognised for staying later than the boss let alone a good pay rise! Then I had a virus and got one of those post virusy things so cut back on hours and never went back to the original hours. In the end the company ethics were just to stay late for the sake of it but no rewards so when we moved to Brighton with a 3 hour a day commute I cut back to 9-5, in fact half the time no one would even know if I was in, out, late or early as everyone used to work their own hours!

My friend here works silly long hours and it's just expected.

Anyway, I had better get back to the work otherwise I'll have to tell myself off!

KK

p.s. I think the Aussie long hours thing is in the last few years? When we came over years ago it was a lot more laid back unless that tended to be in the areas where there was surf!

Bermudashorts

It isn't without compensation. There is just no concept of fixed hours, I do whatever hours are required to complete tasks and am paid for delivery of those tasks, I don't know any other way. I regularly to 50-60 not 60-70, it is a bit more than I used to do in UK though.

Dorothy

But that's not Australia, that's just your circumstances. My husband works much shorter hours and we spend way more time together now than we did in Canada.

chris and farideh

Maybe your hubbie doesn't do the same job as my hubby, he worked over 60 hours back in UK & use to work in other countries for even longer hours than in UK.
I believed Australia was more laid back by all those good people who did all those expo's we wanted to spend more time together as in my 30's I only saw my hubbie at weekends as he use to work mon - Friday in other Europen countries.
I didn't realize he would work even longer, I envy people like yourself who have managed to get jobs that allows you to have more time together, it just never happened to me.

chris and farideh

Most weekend he is recharging for the week a head, I'm like single parent with a husband.

boots

60+ Hours a week with Overtime paid on standard wage rate-but expected to do Managerial Role.
The cleaners were on $200.00 a week more than me,if they did my hours they would be $1000.00 a week clear of my pitiful wage.
I did complain-but whats the use,so no notice-See you all later!!
Company was shocked,and now having trouble replacing me-even had the temerity to try and coax me back-with no better wages etc!!
So kiddies,lesson learnt,stay away from Logistics and 2 bob Transport Management,couldn't work out why all the so called Logistic/Transport Management were dropped on their heads when they were born.
Lowest paid proffesion attracts the best and brightest??
Stuck in a time warp,200+ employees ,I was the 2nd youngest at 44,majority 60+ and retirements every week,yet refuse to acknowledge there is a problem.
Spent $1,000.00's upgrading my skills and bettering myself only to be ridiculed when requesting promotion or remuneration reward.

Wendy

I start at 8:30 on the dot and finish at 4:30 on the dot. Except for Friday, I might stay til 4:45 as they bring out the wine