Treasurer Joe Hockey has said Generation X Australians should be prepared to work until the age of 70.
It'll be OK darling ... Shut down, mute or even destroy the smartphone that has taken over your life. Source: Supplied
Workers in France win right to 'unplug' after work. Fox News discuss this decision and will it work in other countries.
MY husband and I no longer sleep alone.
In recent years, we have invited two significant others to share our bedroom hours. Most nights, it is them, not each other, to whom we cast a final look. And most days, they are the first to greet us when we wake: our smartphones.
Of course, it'd never happen in France. The land of lovers created global headlines last week after employer groups and unions in the French technology sector signed a mutual agreement giving workers permission to ignore after-hours work phone calls and emails.
Bring it on, I say.
Four in bed is too much ... Most days my husband or my smartphone is the first to greet us. Picture: Thinkstock Source: ThinkStock
If the public outcry over moves to increase the age pension qualification age to 70 reveals anything, it's how overworked and stressful our working lives have become.
WORKING UNTIL 70: Treasurer Joe versus the Average Joe
EMPLOYEES: Either overworked or underemployed
Changing technology has radically reshaped the way we work — and not necessarily for the better. Emails and smart phones were supposed to set us free, liberating us to work flexibly outside of the office. Instead, they've trapped us in a never ending cycle of multi-tasking.
Work has bled into our private lives. The 9 til 5 is a relic of the past. When was the last time you truly switched off from work?
So if, as Treasurer Joe Hockey would have it, Australians to spend longer working than ever before, it's time we urgently re-examined the way work.
The average person can work longer ... Treasurer Joe Hockey's thought catches International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde unawares. Source: AFP
Australians workers work an average of 1728 hours a year — about 6 and a half hours a day — according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development which include part time workers.
The French, by contrast work an average of just 1479 hours a year, or just under 6 hours a day.
The French economy, of course is beset with double digit unemployment and sclerotic economic growth.
But are longer working hours any guarantee of economic success? Turns out no.
Of the 26 OECD countries, Mexicans put in the longest average working hours a year (2226 hours), followed by Greek workers (2034 hours). Poster boys and girls for economic success? I don't think so.
Indeed, workers in Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, work some of the shortest hours in the OECD — even less than the French — at 1397.
Clearly the secret to economic success is not working longer, but working smarter.
COMMENT BELOW: How many hours do you work? Are you contacted after-hours?
That is, after all, what productivity is all about. When economists talk about the need to boost productivity, they don't just mean producing more stuff.
They mean producing more stuff per hour. Simply increasing the amount of hours we spend working in a day doesn't make us more productive. Indeed, if workers lack the appropriate rest they need to think clearly, longer working hours can diminish productivity.
I suspect smartphones — by intruding into our personal lives — are doing just that.
What's the boss want at this hour ... Increasing the amount of time spent working does not improve productivity. Source: Supplied
If we are to avoid a national burnout, it's time Australians took a hard look at what balance we want to see between work and family life. It's time to bring back the 9 to 5 — or if the 9 to 5, then something that more closely resembles it.
What economists revere most in life is not money, but consumption — and being able to consume more requires both money and the time in which to spend your money as you choose.
We work to live, after all, not live to work.
Of course, there will always be jobs that require unsociable hours. Traditionally, workers have been compensated for this with higher penalty rates.
Managers too are paid higher wages to compensate them for longer working hours and added responsibility. Companies will always need the flexibility to employ staff to suit their businesses — early risers, late workers, shift workers and so forth.
But it shouldn't be the norm.
It's time we reintroduced a clearer demarcation between work and leisure. Doing so would enable us to be more productive in both our home and working lives.
Working from home may suit some workers, but there's no substitute for face to face contact when it comes to getting things done (and no, I don't mean more of those interminably long meetings which are a disease gripping the modern workplace).
At the end of each day, we should be ditching those smartphones. This will become increasingly important as more of us become employed in the services industries than in the past.
We'll need to draw better boundaries between work and home life if we are to survive. Not everyone needs to be on call 24/7.
Workers should also be encouraged to take more and longer career breaks. Women commonly take leave in their late twenties and thirties to raise children and men should be encouraged to do the same. A return to more structured hours would make matching work hours to childcare hours easier.
Despite our relaxed image, Australians are some of the hardest working in the world: it's time we rewarded ourselves not with another pay rise, but some time off.
Happier workers are, after all, more productive workers.
Something to think about ahead of the long weekend.
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