Work, life and workplace flexibility

The Australian Work and Life Index 2009

Committee for Economic Development of AustraliaHyatt Hotel, Adelaide30th July 2009

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AWALI 2009: How work fits with rest of life in an economic downturn

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Who did we ask?

We surveyed 2700 working Australians in March/April (1435 in 2007, 2800 in 2007)Newspoll ran the surveyRandomised survey which is pretty representativeThis year we focussed especially on

workplace flexibilityinternational comparisonseducation and training

What did we find?

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How do we measure work-life outcomes?

How often does work interfere:

with activities outside work?with enough time with family or friends?With community connections

How frequently do we feel rushed and press for time?

How satisfied are we with our work-life balance?

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Downturn, what downturn?

Hours downBut not work-life pressures

Overall two-thirds broadly satisfied with work-life balanceBut more are unsatisfied than in earlier yearsAnd some more unsatisfied

Men have worse outcomes than womenBut when doing the same hours, women are worse

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Work-life interference?

Many people are affected by work • A quarter feel work often or almost always interferes with enough time

with family or friends (43% never/rarely)• Just under a quarter feel that work often or almost always interferes with

activities outside work (43% never/rarely)• 17% say work interferes often or almost always with community

connections (60% never rarely)• Over half often or almost always feel rushed and pressed for time• But most – 68% - are reasonably satisfied with their work-life balance

Not a ‘work and family’ issue

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A gendered story

Women are reporting work-life interference that is closer to men’s• Their work life satisfaction now on a par with men’s

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Not quite the equality we were aiming for

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But not equal in time pressure

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Full-time women going backwards…

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Part-time work not a lot better… for women

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Hours critical

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Rich and poor do worse

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Rural and regional mothers

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Flexibility

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International comparison: how well does work fit with family and social commitments (well, very well)

57.963.4

67.070.673.073.173.773.874.274.975.475.876.076.878.379.279.479.580.680.982.483.183.483.984.684.885.586.087.887.888.088.1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

GreeceTurkeyLatvia

PolandItaly

HungaryBulgaria

RomaniaSlovenia

CroatiaSpain

EstoniaLithuania

CyprusSlovakia

MaltaSweden

Czech RepublicIrelandFrance

PortugalBelgium

LuxembourgAustralia

NetherlandsUnited Kingdom

GermanyFinland

DenmarkSwitzerland

AustriaNorway

%

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How will we come out of recession?

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Implications for policy?

Long hours and overload• Health costs?

Organisation and management of work • Job design, overload• Flexibility

‘Right to request’• Right people are getting it first• Plenty of scope to increase

Country women and mothers• Need to know more

Domestic work• Reallocation: in our dreams?

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Back to Jack Welch

“There is no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences. ..You’ll be passed over if you are not in the clutch.”