Latest news with #worklife
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
A three-day working week or higher pay: what a more productive economy could buy Australians
Australians would have a three-day working week if we had collectively decided in 1980 to spend all the productivity gains of the following decades on leisure time instead of buying more stuff, according to the Productivity Commission. Jim Chalmers has kickstarted a national conversation about reforming the economy to make Australia more productive to underpin the next generation of prosperity. There are plenty of disagreements about how this can be done, but there is general consensus that we should try. But another question has been left unasked: if we are successful in lifting productivity, what should we do with the dividends of our success? Or more simply: do we want to work less and spend the same, or do we want to work more and spend more? Looking at history, the answer has been a combination of the two, according to Rusha Das, a research economist at the Productivity Commission. In a new paper, Das calculated that Australians used only 23% of the productivity 'dividend' from the past 40-plus years to work less, while we banked the remaining 77% as higher income. 'Rather than spending our productivity dividend on more spare time, we have largely traded it for higher incomes, and more and better stuff,' Das said. This choice of how to spend the fruits of higher productivity is rarely presented to us in such simple terms. A typical employer doesn't ask if their staff want to work 5% less or have a 5% pay rise, for example. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'Instead, the effects of productivity gains are more subtly embedded in our lives, granting us more agency over how we live and work,' Das said. 'It may be taking a half-day each fortnight, investing time in professional development rather than taking on additional clients, or deciding to expand the number of cattle on a dairy farm. 'All these are choices that reflect the underlying freedom that productivity growth makes possible.' The economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930 famously predicted that technological advances meant his grandchildren would be working just 15 hours a week without being any worse off materially. Das said that prediction was not necessarily wrong, it's just that we have made different choices. 'With the growth in labour productivity Australia has enjoyed since 1980, Australians could have reduced their average hours worked by 15 hours per week without lowering consumption levels,' she said. Or we could have used all of the productivity dividend on working more and spending more – in which case GDP per capita would be 11% higher now than in 1980. Das said the choice between leisure and consumption can be influenced by a number of factors. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion If we feel like the changes that are making us more productive are short term, then we'll work more to take advantage of it while we can, and vice versa. Government policy plays a part – whether it's higher tax rates that disincentivise working that extra hour, or workplace rules that allow people more flexibility. Cultural values also have a hand, Das said. In France there is a strong tendency to choose more leisure time, while in the US it is the opposite, her research showed. 'For example, there is a saying that in the UK the last one to leave the office is seen as the hardest working, whereas in Germany the last one to leave is seen as the least efficient.' And these values change through time. Next year will mark a century of working five days a week, after carmaker Henry Ford reduced it to five days from six. As we approach this milestone, more companies are implementing or trialling four-day working weeks, while the Greens before the May election launched a four-day work week policy. Das said keeping up our high levels of work 'could be a good thing if it reflects greater voluntary participation in the workforce': workers choosing to improve their living standards, or it's the result of removing historical barriers that have held some segments of society back. 'But it is concerning if Australians have been working more out of sheer necessity, sacrificing study, rest or time with loved ones just to maintain their standard of living. 'For example, people may need to work more just to keep up with rising house prices, which has outpaced wage growth over a long period of time.'
Fast Company
3 days ago
- General
- Fast Company
How to add more fun to your workday (while still getting work done)
How often do you leave work thinking, 'Wow, that was fun!' Once a week? Once a month? Never? If you aren't having fun—real fun—it may be time to rethink your work life, says Bree Groff, author of Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously). The idea that work needed to be fun didn't hit home for Groff until her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2022. She took a leave of absence from her job at a New York-based transformation consulting firm to care for her and her father, who had Alzheimer's disease. After her mother passed away, she went back to work part time with a new perspective. 'One of the things that became obvious while taking care of my parents is that at some point, we'll run out of Mondays,' she says. 'They aren't a renewable resource. So, what are we doing to our lives when we're wishing away five out of seven days of every week?' A common attitude is that work is called work for a reason; it's something to get through to get a paycheck. The flip side is: 'Love what you do, and you'll never work a day in your life.' This phrase suggests that the solution to work being drudgery is that it should be your passion and your identity. That notion also didn't sit right with Groff. Many of the leaders she'd worked with were pouring themselves into their work, but they were also sacrificing their health, sleep, and relationships, hoping for a reward that would come someday in the future.
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
More of Us Are Putting in Extra Hours After the Workday
If it feels like there aren't enough hours to get everything done during the workday, you're part of a growing club: More of us are working a second shift in the evening. Workers slid into the habit of working at all hours during the pandemic, when many worked from home and could more freely change up their regular 9-to-5 schedules. Though fewer people are fully remote now, many are still toiling into the night—and say an expanding load of meetings, emails and actual work are a big reason.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Meetings After 8 p.m. Are On the Rise
If it feels like the workday is never-ending, it's not just you. Meetings starting after 8 p.m. are up 16% compared to a year ago, and at 10 p.m. almost a third of active workers are still monitoring their inboxes, according to research from Microsoft Corp. The company's annual work trends study, which is based on aggregated and anonymized data from Microsoft 365 users and a global survey of 31,000 desk workers, also found that almost 20% of employees actively working weekends are checking email before noon on Saturdays and Sundays, while over 5% are active on email again on Sunday evenings, gearing up for the start of the work week.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Catherine Tyldesley confesses she can go 'two or three days' without speaking to her children when she is away filming
Catherine Tyldesley has confessed that she can go 'two or three days' without speaking to her children when she is away filming. The 15 Days actress, 41, who shares her son Alfie, 10 and daughter Iris, three, with her husband Tom Pitfield, has explained on Behind The Brood podcast that the reason is because her career can be very fast paced. Catherine, who found fame on Coronation Street. and Tom explained that it is typical when her career takes her abroad for long periods - such as The Good Ship Murder. The drama was filmed on board a luxury cruise ship in Malta and during this period Tom was home with the children. Catherine explained that she when she is in work she feels like she is 'somebody else' and is not her self. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The actress said: 'When I'm on set, being in Malta as much as I have been, a year-and-a-half in total if you join it all up; I'm OK, because it's very fast paced. 'A little bit like it was on Corrie; my head is firmly in work mode. I'm somebody else, I'm not me. 'But it's when I get back to that hotel in the evening and it's silent.. The bedtime routine, bath time, not being able sit on the bed and read Iris a book or chat to Alfie about how his day was. 'I know there's Zoom, which is wonderful, but it's not the same.' Tom said to his wife: 'Some days we'll go two or three days without Zooming and that might seem mental to some people. 'The reality is, you'll sometimes want to ring Iris and she's too busy playing with her dollies.' Catherine added: 'We feel like we know when the time is right and I'm often on a different time zone to you. 'When I'm filming on the cruise ship, that's a nightmare because the WiFi is all over the place and we skip from tome zone, to time zone. 'It is difficult and I always say to the other actors on set.. they're like, 'You alright, Cath? Are you missing your kids?' And I'm like, 'I just want to sniff them'. 'I just have this... you know when your arms go a bit funny because you just want to squeeze them and sniff their sweaty little heads.' Tom joked: 'It's funny, as I just want to launch them out of the window some days!' Catherine played Eva Price in Coronation Street from 2011 to 2018 and the star gave birth to Alfie in 2015, she and Tom married in 2016 and they welcomed Iris in April 2022.
