Work

Can you hear a faint sort of teeth-grindy sound? No it’s not the rats in the roof gnawing the wires again, it’s just those thousands of lady drivers with the windows down as they motor past the bottle shop.

Even just four days into Febfast, the annual excruciating month of alcohol abstinence, the novelty will have well and truly worn off and we’re already down to the bare bones of resentment and “I know it’s for charity and all but what the feck was I thinking”.

All around Australia there are mild-mannered ladies cursing the leap year, too, as were it not for that stupid spare day, there would only be 24 grogless ones left. For many of us talented drinkers, when it comes to one’s consumption of alcohol there is the comfort of denial and “look over there, is that a rare orange-bellied parrot? (Yes waiter top me up)” for 11 months of the year, and then there is the long, hard look in the mirror that is horrendous February.

Continue reading "Working women need to escape the grog bog" »

Who wants to work for Ken Grenda? Us. (Shhh, don’t tell Penbo.)

The Victorian businessman recently sold off the transit operations arm of his family-owned business Grenda Corporation, and his employees were the winners. Most got around $8500, while a few lucky ones scored as much as $30,000.

Now that’s what we call great boss material. Sadly, that sort of thing doesn’t happen to most of us. But there are things bosses can do to make life better both for employees and the company bottom line. After all, a happy employee is a productive employee. Bosses of Australia, are you reading this?

Continue reading "Seven simple things good bosses should do" »

Let’s add some truth to the debate on the Fair Work Act: Here are the facts on labour market productivity, lost time from industrial disputes, real wage growth and profits from Australian corporations.

This year will be a big year for the Government and for Australia. One of our challenges will be the review of our Fair Work Act. This will be an examination of whether the Act is operating as intended and whether the legislation could be improved in order to achieve its objective. 

The Opposition will no doubt be using this opportunity to soften the ground for a return to WorkChoices. The Liberal backbench are falling over each other to force Tony Abbott to move closer to the policy of the Howard government. The sensible question that people should be asking in this debate is – what makes an effective modern workplace relations system?

Continue reading "Just the facts on Labor’s workplace reforms" »

Big organisations are giving causal Friday the boot. Or should that be the zipper?

Turns out sitting around feeling relaxed and comfortable in our second best pair of jeans has done nothing for the bottom line. It’s making us sloppy, unproductive and unfit for promotion.

Makes sense though. Since ancient times humans have had to dress up to get what they want. The grander your outfit, the more feathers in your hat or the more jewels in your crown – the more powerful and important you were considered to be. There was a reason Cleopatra had all those rings of gold around her neck, and it wasn’t for comfort.

Continue reading "If you want a promotion don’t dress like a hobo" »

Christmas is long gone, New Year is a distant memory, the tennis is on TV and the summer break that saves the sanity of so many Australians is almost over. As usual in the lead up to Australia Day it’s time debate the health of the nation: where we stand internationally, and the slippery issue of our national identity.

I don’t think there are many countries that spend so much time trying to define exactly what they stand for.

While navel-gazing isn’t always healthy, one of the reasons for this debate is that we do not feel that our national identity is fixed, or tied to events of the past, but something that is always changing and improving.

Continue reading "Multiculturalism. It’s as Aussie as a lamb roast" »

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas yesterday, whatever you ended up doing. I spent the day, as I do every year, with my large family, which seems to grow every year.

Like many Australians, I’m looking forward to spending the next few weeks, relaxing, doing some reading, hanging out at the beach, catching up with family and friends – and doing a few chores around the house that I’ve been putting off for far too long.

But, of course, many others worked yesterday, and will be working during the summer break. When I was a nurse, I often worked on public holidays, including Christmas, which gave me a real appreciation of the penalty rates unions have won as compensation for those rostered on at those times.

Continue reading "And the Scroogie goes to…" »

Just when we thought that politics had started its summer holidays, and the “big questions” were put aside for a while, the Remuneration Tribunal released its report on Commonwealth parliamentary salaries and entitlements. The public reaction was immediate, and in the overwhelming majority, intensely negative.

The cause of the anger was the proposal to lift the basic salary of a member of parliament from $141,000 to $185,000 per year. The Tribunal provided its justification: the need to “remunerate them sufficiently so as to attract and retain men and women of appropriate capacity”. No argument about the aim. We would all like our representatives to have the “appropriate capacity” to serve us.

Currently many people who would be good parliamentarians could not tolerate the party apprenticeship demanded to win pre-selection, especially for a safe seat. In the Labor party, the gene pool of “capacity” seems increasingly restricted to those showing dedicated service to the party, a union and/or faction, and often service as a ministerial minder.

Continue reading "A well deserved payrise for these upstanding citizens" »

Over the next few months, countless Australians will be forced to listen to their friends and co-workers ponder holiday destinations.

Many factors will be considered during this process - from the number of recognisable landmarks that can be used to create obnoxious Facebook profile pictures, to whether the guy will believe them when they say the scooter was already dented when they got it.

Chief among these considerations, however, will be whether or not their chosen destination will be overrun with other human beings, who intend to use the same chunk of land for similar recreational purposes. It is this exact concern that drives so many over-confident Australians, particularly Queenslanders, to embark on ill-fated outback adventures every holiday season.

Continue reading "Go on a holiday to the middle of nowhere and you’ll DIE" »

Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services.

Bill Moss was one of the highest paid business executives in Australian corporate history when he worked for Macquarie Bank, prior to his retirement in 2007 on health grounds.

As head of the bank’s real estate and banking division, Moss built - literally from scratch - an international real estate and funds management business that spanned five continents, created thousands of jobs and made billions for the bank’s investors, shareholders and, through tax payments, federal Treasury coffers.

So really, all Australians are pretty fortunate that the slowly degenerative physical disability with which this razor-sharp businessman was born - a form of muscular dystrophy known as FSHD - happened not to become overly evident (to others at least) until Moss was in his early 40s and had already established his credentials.

Continue reading "The heroic banker crusading to employ the disabled" »

Today is national Go Home On Time Day.

In a classic Looney Tunes cartoon of the 1950s, Ralph E. Wolf and Sam Sheepdog would clock on at the same time every day at the sheep meadow. When their shift ended, Ralph would stop trying to abduct Sam’s precious sheep and they would both clock off again. Their work done for the day, Ralph and Sam would exchange pleasant chit chat and trot home.

If this kind of thing seems quaint today, perhaps it is because the boundaries between work and life are increasingly blurred. Many of us don’t only do our jobs, we are our jobs – regardless of what time it is or where we happen to be.

Continue reading "Go home. Get outa here. Spend some family time" »

Well, I suppose you all want to hear about my week off.

While that enormous pile of paperwork and the steady stream of emails filling your inbox tell me you don’t have time for that, your eyes - which are slowly glazing over - tell me otherwise.

So, random colleague I smiled at last Tuesday, allow me to brighten your day with my mediocre tales of special fishing spots, scorching heat, scooter-related near-death experiences and bronzed backpackers.

Continue reading "I know you didn’t ask, but my holiday was SUPER GREAT!" »

Until the dramatic events of Friday night, the Baiada Poultry dispute in suburban Melbourne had not had the publicity of Qantas. That’s a shame because the gutsy fight by low-paid Baiada workers is just as important in the fight for fair treatment at work.

Media coverage has focused on the clashes between police and workers, but has ignored the basic issues at stake. A couple of hundred low-paid workers have been forced to take legal industrial action because their employer has refused to bargain with them.

They are taking collective action in an attempt to stop the spread of insecure work – and ensure that Baiada workers on low wages have some certainty around their jobs and basic rights to sick leave and holiday pay.

Continue reading "Baiada is playing chicken with livelihoods and lives" »

One hundred and fifty social and community services (SACS) workers yelled and cheered. Some seemed close to tears as they sat in an auditorium at Technology Park in the Sydney suburb of Redfern last Thursday morning.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard was standing before them to announce that the federal government would support pay increases demanded in the ASU’s Pay Up campaign.

The emotion of the crowd was not surprising. They have been waiting for this result for a very long time. They have campaigned hard, and with the knowledge that the case will benefit not just them but their families and the communities they work for.

Continue reading "Win for community workers is a win for communities" »

First Alan, congratulations on your pay rise, and congratulations on Qantas’ profit in the last financial year. But sadly, I can’t congratulate you on your decision to take your bat and ball, and your aeroplanes, and go home.

Let me make this clear, you had a lot of options to resolve this dispute, but you picked the nuclear option, the one that caused the most disruption to passengers and the tourism industry.

On Saturday you chose to become the CEO that stops the nation, grounding Qantas’ fleet and stranding thousands of people from outback doctors, foreign leaders, and Spring Carnival punters.

Continue reading "If a union did this, all hell would break loose" »

Hear us. Trust us. Reward us.

That’s the simple plea from white collar Australia in response to a simple question: How would you get your workplace working better?

Over at news.com.au we’ve been running what we somewhat exuberantly called the New Work Project survey. In the few weeks it’s been running, we’ve received 25,000 submissions from all corners of the country and in all walks of life.

Continue reading "Festival of Obvious Ideas #5: Be nice to your workers" »

Your workplace, circa 2000. Employee: “I’ve got an idea for an entertainment device that can hold an entire music collection. It is beautifully designed, fits in your shirt pocket and can retail for under $500. What do you think?”

Chief: “We appreciate your input Steve, but it doesn’t quite synergise with our six-month strategic outcomes moving forward”. What would have happened if, ten years ago, someone came up with the idea for the iPod in your workplace?

Would it have got up? Would it even have got past the initial pitch? And if it did get considered for development, would the original, brilliantly simple concept have ended up as the final product, or would something like this have happened …

Continue reading "There’s a fine line between genius and prickdom" »

This is an interesting yarn. If you could take a bit of time off each week but get paid a little less, would you do it?

News.com.au’s New Work Project found that’s what about half of those that answered its survey would do. Would you?

And hey, it’s Monday. What else is on your mind? What does the rest of the week look like? 

I once worked at a start up in a building with only a thin metal divider between my desk and the in-house café, which offered free drinks and a pool table.

My co workers came from a mix of work cultures – corporate suit and tie types, web developers in tee shirts and the first wave of smart, funky Gen Ys. It was fun … most of the time.

I tell the absolute truth when I say shoes were optional and head phones unheard of. A mixture of music blared from open plan desks. I was in one meeting where we had to shout to make ourselves heard over Lenny Kravitz. Did I mention it was the 90s?

Continue reading "Crimes against sanity: What are your pet work peeves?" »

ACTU President Ged Kearney announced at the National Press Club the results of a poll of union members grandiosely labelled “The Census”. And she also talked about it yesterday on The Punch. But far from being an impartial look at the Australian workplace, the ACTU’s census is nothing but a narrow poll of self-selected participants.

The headlines shouted “Australian workers productive but stressed”. The findings to emerge from The Census included that respondents were working longer, finding it difficult to get by on their income, delaying dental treatment and were contacted about work outside of work hours. An overwhelming majority supported unions campaigning for better pay and conditions of workers.

The Census survey methodology is instructive.

Continue reading "Australians are working less and earning more" »

Shove your shoulder pads and pipe down about the equal pay debate.

This week’s annual Equal Pay Day completely overlooked the fact that it’s flexibility that woman want. And we’d prefer not to beg for it, thank you very much.

Yes, women still earn approximately 17.5 per cent less than male counterparts in full-time work. Actually, it’s been that way for about 25 years.

Continue reading "Screw equal pay; what do women really want?" »

It’s just as well Margaret Olley didn’t work for BHP Billiton.

Apart from the fact that her artistic skills wouldn’t have been much use in the whole global mining caper, there’s the small – and extremely messy – matter of her work station. 

Since Olley’s death late last month, much has been made of the cluttered and chaotic Sydney terrace in which she lived and painted.

Continue reading "The messy side of artistic genius" »

Hit movie Horrible Bosses has gotten people talking about bosses, and about work culture in general. Here at Punch central, we thought we’d take things a step further and devote the bulk of our site today to the subject.

The Punch is an unusual workplace, in that the boss performs many of the same duties as the junior team members, and vice versa. At various times during the day, the boss will moderate comments, while all staff members lend their news judgement to the story mix.

In this respect, we do not have the typical vertical boss/employee power dynamic. Do you? We’d love to hear your thoughts about what makes a good boss, a bad boss, and whether you’ve ever seriously thought about killing your boss, as in the movie. Hey, even here at The Punch there are days when we’ve thought about it…

Being the boss is no picnic. People come to you with problems, complaints, conflicts and issues – constantly. And then you still have the rest of your job to do as well as a manager of your own to deal with.

I get it, but your compensation is a higher salary (sometimes a lot higher), status, perks and greater control over your work day so suck it up. If you are not up for the job, don’t take it on. And if you are getting overwhelmed, get help.

Australian companies are well-known for selecting managers on their technical ability rather than their people management skills.

Continue reading "Welcome to the big chair. Now prove you deserve it" »

About seven years ago I came into the office on a Thursday to discover that I was the boss.  My appointment would be announced the next day, and I would start on the Monday.

I would be heading an organisation which had 245 staff. Many of them were among my best friends. A couple of them I didn’t much care for. Some of them I had never met.

I’m writing this today because my Punch colleagues have designated this Friday as Boss Day, and they wanted a piece about what it’s actually like to be the head honcho. And anyway, someone has to stick up for the bastards.

Continue reading "Oops, I’m the boss" »

By now you may be aware of the offensively Draconian nanny state mandate handed down this week to the fine employees of BHP Billiton.

The memo entitled, Mine Kampf: BHP’s Office Environment Standard And Glorious Five Year Plan, outlines a thousand and one workplace bugbears that the BHP politburo have declared no longer negotiable, punishable presumably, by pain of performance review.

It’s a grossly heavy-handed document, undermining the worth of the employees who deserve respect not only for making BHP the success story it is, but also just for being humble and honourable members of the human race. And it would be an indefensibly deplorable document of foolscap fascism, if it were not for one tiny problem: as a rule, you people are f#$king disgusting.

Continue reading "A dangerously unhinged lesson in office etiquette" »

Great bosses send you emails full of praise. Smile when they see you. Give you feedback on everything and take you out to lunch.  A bad boss tries to own your thoughts.

Two different men, in two very different jobs, over the past two weeks were fired for posting stuff on their individual social media accounts that their employers found inappropriate.

Continue reading "Your boss does not own your thoughts" »

I kissed my boss yesterday. It felt weird. I regretted it immediately. But I’d already clicked “Send”.

There was no way back. At least it was only one kiss. I’ve received work emails from people of all ages, gender, and sexual persuasion with up to three kisses. Not to mention one xoxoxo.

At first I thought it was confined to women under the age of 25 working in public relations. Then I realised it was seeping into all workplace correspondence.

Continue reading "My confession: I kissed the boss! ;-) xoxoxo" »

You can list things that “satisfy” on one hand. Snickers bars, finishing a crossword, running a half-marathon after months of training. Your first drink on a Friday afternoon, weekends…

But no matter who you are, and what you earn, “salary” will never fall into this category. Money in the hand, is by definition, money to burn; and for this reason, you can never earn enough.

Strange then, that researchers at the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Association think it’s perfectly reasonable to have come up with a figure that suggests otherwise.

Continue reading "We’re never happy, no matter how much we earn" »

The case of magistrate Jennifer Betts, who explained to the NSW Parliament Wednesday how a mental illness was central to the behaviour that has put her job on the line, is a cautionary tale for workplaces everywhere.

Mental health issues are as prevalent in the workplace as their complexities are poorly understood by senior management.

Ms Betts, 55, has asked MPs not to discriminate against her because of a depressive illness. Only parliament can dismiss an appointed magistrate.

Continue reading "Magistrate’s mental health issue a cautionary tale" »

Babies have a nasty habit of getting in the way of your career. Just ask Shelley Craft.

The host of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show admitted in a weekend newspaper interview that she went back to work just two weeks after giving birth.

“There was no maternity leave,” she told the Sunday Telegraph. “Either I came back to work or someone else filled in for me.”

Continue reading "Modern mums are racing back to work too soon" »

Our politicians need our help. They’re overworked.

According to news.com.au, Federal politicians “who ride in taxpayer-financed cars to board taxpayer-financed flights to get to work, say a tight schedule and winter fog is forcing them to leave their families early and forgo functions in electorates to fly to Canberra on Sunday evenings”.

They also suffer in their jocks with dismal pay, appalling superannuation, and disgusting Parliamentary offices. And their bosses are nitpicking bastards.

Continue reading "Tiny violins are playing for our politicians" »

Feel like your life lacks dignity, meaning and social inclusion?

The solution is easy. Simply take one full-time job and do it. All your problems – especially those stubborn, low self-esteem issues – will be solved in one fell swoop.

This is the rhetoric accompanying new, “tough love” Budget measures aimed at shifting single mothers and disability pensioners off welfare and into work.

Continue reading "Employment may not work for everyone" »

As the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day approaches, we can and should celebrate a century of achievements for women, both small and gigantic.

But no-one could say gender equality is ‘done and dusted’. As we celebrate, we should pause to acknowledge the areas in which there has been insufficient progress, including in our working lives.

Our workplaces are still fraught with gender pay inequity, an underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, unequal treatment of men and women with caring responsibilities and the omnipresent scourge of sexual harassment.

Continue reading "When domestic violence comes to work" »

Is there one clear possible area of policy reform that would provide a good basis for making society more civil? A core issue that affects a range of social well being indicators and our life choices? Could too much to do and longer working hours be at the heart of the discontents and social inadequacies of contemporary life?

Reducing standard working hours would challenge some basic political and social assumptions such as the ways our time is allocated between paid work and the rest of our lives. In most developed nations, we have moved in the opposite direction, from long-term commitments to reduce standard working hours (48 hours to 35) in the last century to implicit support for ever longer working hours. 

I remember debates in the 60s and 70s about how we might use the increased leisure that we expected to come from technological change and automation. 

Continue reading "Hands up who wants a 30-hour working week" »

Anonymous says:

“I changed jobs a few months ago, and at my leaving drinks a colleague told me about a senior manager who was basically stealing from the company. He had a lot of evidence, but made me promise not to tell anyone about it. They both still work there. This is a large global company who has axed a heap of people over recent years due to budget cuts. Should I report his actions to the CEO? Or should I just stay out of it since I no longer work there?”

At a California university right now, you’ll find find one poor soul standing at a kitchen bench, peeling a ton of onions.

Well it may not be onions; it could just as easily be root vegetables, a cheap cut of meat and probably a whole lot of curry paste.

But whatever it is, it must be enough to feed 400 hungry mouths as part of a new university co-op- initiative that gets students cooking, cleaning and generally sharing the load, in exchange for cheaper weekly rent. 

And the whole idea fills me with dread. 

Continue reading "Absent forks and other office kitchen nightmares" »

I’m writing this with voice recognition software. If that sounds scintillating and newfangled, you’ve obviously never used what should more accurately be described as voice mutilating software.

I’ll go into more detail in a minute, but, in the meantime, here are just three of the versions of the first sentence of this column offered by my voice murdering software:

1. To running splits recognition software. 

2. But wearing this voice which uses raft snares. 

3. List softly, Felicity, poignantly stealthily and a half.

Continue reading "Meet my voice mutilating software" »

Are you on annual leave right now? If so, you’re already doing better than one third of Australians who toil on through the entire year without taking a breath.

And there’s a very good chance you’re ruining your break entirely.  Be honest – have you checked your Blackberry or your iPhone or your remote email account?

Did you take a call that related to work? Did you get online to check something work-related? Then you’re not really on leave.

Continue reading "If you’re reading this you’re not on holiday" »

Such are the lows that society has now sunk to that within the Santa Claus persona, you have an example of almost every type of political incorrectness possible.

He embodies everything that is wrong with the world and he must be stopped no matter the cost! 

I give you Exhibit A: his leather belt and boots with white fur trim.

Continue reading "Santa Claus is completely out of touch" »

It’s hard to believe that another year is over and tonight thoughts of Santa Clause’s arrival into homes across Australia will have many a young mind too excited to sleep.  It’s a fabulous time of year for sure and as things wind down towards Saturday, the festive spirit is rapidly starting to sink it. 

Around this time of year I always find myself reminiscing back to when I was a child and it always gets me thinking, is Christmas still the same? Overlooking the obvious differences of my AGE and the fact that I now spend my Christmas in a hot climate away from the snowed over landscapes of Europe – do I still celebrate Christmas like I used to?

Not getting into any of the religious aspects of Christmas, for me the spirit has always been that something in the air, that thing that can’t really be described but which I know exists. A festive feeling, a general vibe! For some reason though, I’m not feeling it yet this year and I’m wondering why?

Continue reading "Struggling to get hold of the Christmas spirit" »

When Christmas Day becomes just another work day, you would have to say that the free market has finally spun out of control.

While it’s no surprise that big business tries to squeeze every last cent out of workers, we hope for something a little bit better from government. That’s why its so shocking that in some states, this Christmas won’t be a public holiday.

Since time immemorial civilisations have centred around core beliefs and values that shape their society.  They tell us who we are and what we want to be. To celebrate and share these values, every culture has developed its own calendar of special and holy days.

Continue reading "Governments stealing Christmas from workers" »

It costs nearly $1 million dollars more to be born a woman in this country. While the average 25 year old male will earn $2.4 million over the next 40 years, the average 25 year old woman will earn only $1.5 million.

Of course there are a number of reasons for this gender pay gap. Women are more likely to work part time, take more time out of the workforce to undertake unpaid caring responsibilities and continue to bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility for unpaid household work.

Traditionally feminised jobs in the caring and community sectors have been historically undervalued and consequently, underpaid.

Continue reading "Claims we’ve gone soft on equal pay are rubbish" »

A woman does not have to be a man to succeed in business. And it only appears to be a hell of a lot easier if you are. You can’t argue with the statistics.

Women are poorly represented in positions of power.

But conceding the premise that the number of women in executive positions is dismal does not logically lead to the conclusion that you have to be a man to do well.

Continue reading "Big business is still giving men a leg up" »

Increasing working hours are responsible for a significant drop in the health of Australian workers and no-one is feeling it worse than the white collar worker, an Australia Institute Study has revealed today.

But while the Public Health Association is pleading with Aussie workers to slow down and asking employers to be more accommodating when staff are sick, it’s time the rest of us took some personal responsibility for our own wellbeing.

Continue reading "Work doesn’t make us sick, ignoring our health does" »

In another study from the University of Obvious Research Findings, research out today finds people are increasingly working away from the office.

And it’s perhaps it’s even more predictable given that the survey was commissioned by Telstra. Surprise! Telecommunications technology is all the rage says a study - from a telecommunications technology company.

Although once you get past saying “well, duh” and grab your pinch of salt, some details in the findings might just twitch your eyebrow. It says a quarter of Australian workers are spending five hours working outside of the workplace each week, and 15 per cent are doing it 10 hours a week. These are pretty significant numbers and signal a real shift in the nature of Australian work. The question is whether a society of always-on workers is a Good Thing.

Continue reading "Is it time to put the brakes on remote working?" »

What’s it really take to make the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women? All work and no play? Tonnes of money to pay for a nanny if you dare to want a hugely successful career and children?

The Forbes list of powerful women has been running for six years but it has a long way to go before it serves as inspiration for young women looking to go to the very top and have a life – especially one that includes having children.

Yes, Gail Kelly - Westpac CEO and mother of four – is ranked at number eight but scroll down the full “top 25” list and you’ll find that more than half of the power women are over 40 years of age and childless. Oprah is there ranked number three, German Chancellor Angela Merkel too ranked at number four, Ellen DeGeneres is number ten, US Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor is number 19 and the list goes on.

Continue reading "To get on the Forbes power list, skip kids or marry rich" »

This is a post about finding someone in your life who is critical of you.

I’m part of the over-esteem generation. Our grandparents were more likely to be cold, distant and reluctant to praise or coddle.

When our parents raised us, they over-compensated for their lack of praise by building us up with doting affection and constant positive reinforcement.

Continue reading "What you need is to be told you suck" »

When did Australia get so ageist about oldies?

The Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination Elizabeth Broderick thinks it’s a good question and says the answer is something the nation should grapple with together. 

Today Broderick launches a new report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Age discrimination – exposing the hidden barrier for mature age workers. Compiled from a range of research, academic papers and government studies, the report paints a picture of exclusion, ill informed assumptions and even humiliation for older people in Australia.

Continue reading "Ageist Australia reviles instead of reveres its elders" »

Excuse me for a moment while I prepare for my mid-life crisis - apparently it’s due sooner than I thought.

No more waiting for mid-to-late-40s, the new done thing is to freak out when you’re 35. According to a new study (British, but also cited by an expert as relevant here), those aged 35 to 44 are the lonliest, most miserable bunch of all the age groups.

We’re (actually, they’re, I’m still a few months off the magical age of misery yet) lacking in our relationships, insecure about our jobs, wish we had more time with our families and think we spend too many hours at work. Are all these people waiting for someone to come along and fix everything for them?

Continue reading "Why is everyone so bloody miserable?" »

Workers should never feel bad about taking a sickie if genuinely sick. Your first priority is you, your wellbeing and quality of life.

Unfortunately Australians are notorious for taking ‘sickie’for all the wrong reasons. If they are stuck down with flu they often choose to come to work so that they can preserve their sick leave for some non illness related purpose. This leads to increased “real” sick days by other employees whom they infect.

There are the self-proclaimed martyrs who say they never have a sick day even when they are sick. These same people often get angry at those who do genuinely take a day off.

Continue reading "Nine sickies a year? Just one is too many" »

Here’s a turn up for the books; it appears that modern, educated women are far more interested in staying at home with their children than climbing the corporate ladder.

A 20 year study by Melbourne University has revealed that only 1 in 3 tertiary educated Generation X women are in full time employment compared to 90% of their male counterparts. Predictably this information has been seized upon by feminists as proof that Australian workplaces are a hotbed of misogynistic inequality.

Even the study’s author, Professor Johanna Wyn concluded that the research showed that employers were not supportive of working mums, “Our young women are encouraged to excel academically but when it’s time to start a family there is very little support from employers,” she said.

Continue reading "Modern mums really just want to stay at home" »

If you are reading this then my job is half done; you’ve started reading this article.

Maybe the headline piqued your interest; perhaps the accompanying image caught your eye; or maybe you are just procrastinating at work. Either way, it’s an honour and a privilege to have your attention for this fleeting moment.

You see, your attention is becoming an increasingly valuable thing. At any moment of the day there are a multitude of entities vying for your interest; some will be trying to sell you a product or service, others will be trying to educate or inform you and some provide little more than a distraction.

Continue reading "May I have your attention please!" »

I make no apology for being lazy. If there’s a corner, I’ll cut it. If there’s a fast way, I’ll find it. If there is a reason not to do something, I’ll find it, use it and then flog it until it’s a mere paste.

I don’t reinvent wheels. I don’t like to do something twice. Tautology is not my thing, except when I’m trying to make a point.  So I don’t understand workaholics. I don’t get how someone can get up at 6am, dress, eat and go to work for 14 hours, not break for lunch or a walk around the block, go home, defrost something and sit down at the dining table to start working again, only getting up to put on Lateline.

That is not a balanced life.

Continue reading "Workaholics always end up losing in the end" »

Most people in this country spend around 35 hours plus, (give or take sick days, annual leave, religious holidays, extended lunch breaks, taking a nap in the archive room etc), per week at work.

Given that this represents such a high percentage of our lives, it makes sense, to some degree, that we be as comfortable as possible in these environments, maybe even do little things here and there that make the workplace more homely. The key phrases here however, are “to some degree” and “do little things”.

Continue reading "Do’s and don’ts for surviving the workplace" »

On Tuesday this week, 25,000 Australians delivered a clear message straight to the people who represent them in the nation’s Parliament.

Signing a national petition, nurses, teachers, hospitality and construction workers, uni students, school kids, their mums and dads, their grandparents demanded that their elected representatives stand up and vote for the Rudd Government’s national paid parental leave scheme.

After waiting decades, working families are set to be the big winners when the Government delivers Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme and Australia finally catches up with the rest of the developed world on this vital reform.

Continue reading "Australia catches up to the world on paid parental leave" »

Tony and Kevin are still fighting about it. John was never really interested in it. Paul only ever flirted with the idea. As for Bob, Malcolm, Gough, and all those who went before them, the concept never crossed their minds.

It is almost 110 years since Australia became a Federation, and in that time our failure to introduce paid maternity leave can best be explained by recalling the first names of those who have run the nation.

Australia had no founding mothers, only founding fathers. There was no Henrietta Parkes in 1901 and since then there has been no Paula Keating. Despite the growing representation of women in politics over the past 20 years, the combative character of our political system often owes more to the 19th century than the 21st.

Continue reading "Just end the blokey brawling over maternity leave" »

Where are the women warriors on Paid Maternity Leave? The most extensive, economically significant policy proposal to support working women in decades is put forward by a major political party… so where are the feminists and women’s groups?

Why is there such a conspicuous silence from those who “whooped” and figuratively threw streamers when the Rudd Government finally announced its Paid Parental Leave plan (which turned out to be little more than a re-badging of the baby bonus with an administrative nightmare for small business thrown in)?

Where are Eva Cox and Sharan Burrows? 

Continue reading "I am woman, no comment." »

When Tony Abbott announced his paid parental leave policy on Monday, I – like many of those at the International Women’s Day celebration hosted by Manly Council – was taken by surprise. For the 15 minutes before he took my place on the podium, I had been speaking about the challenges Australia faces in creating a society that better values children, and in particular the need to better support the critical dual contribution of mothers in exercising their skills within the workplace and nurturing the next generation of Australians at home. 

Much has been written this week around the pros and cons of Tony’s policy, most of it scathing and very little of it constructive. What impressed me were his opening remarks that seem to have been lost amid the frenzied discussion his announcement generated in the media.

Having been associated with the infamous statement back in 2002 that compulsory paid maternity leave would be introduced ‘over this government’s dead body’, I was heartened to hear Tony’s admission that he had since learnt, from research and a variety of sources close to him, the critical importance of the early years and the attachment of mother and baby in laying the foundations for the social and economic future of the nation.

Continue reading "Maternity leave: why progress depends on values" »

Where the heart dares to tread, politicians’ chequebooks follow in an election year. Tony Abbot embraced his (sort of) inner feminist on Monday announcing his proposed maternity leave plan that would see women paid up to $150,000 for six months’ at home after their baby is born.

This, on the heels of Kevin Rudd’s maternity leave proposal that offers women the minimum wage of $544 for 18 weeks, due for delivery in January in 2011, is surely good news for women and men keen to do their bit of our nation’s population growth.

But in this mad scramble to win the hearts and minds and bank accounts of “working families” have Rudd and Abbot paused to consider whether maternity leave is necessarily a positive thing for women?

Continue reading "Could women actually be the losers from maternity leave" »

When I read Jamie Briggs’ most recent contribution to The Punch on industrial relations I wasn’t in the least bit surprised.

It was a predictable salvo in the hundred year war on industrial relations in this country. This war is the battle line between the two major political parties, driving the partisanship and iron discipline of our respective parties.

Labor has always believed that a fair go should apply, that workers need protection and that everybody deserves dignity at work. This belief is not driven by theories or politics but by more practical issues – of making sure a worker can live off their wages, that they have job security if they do a good job and that there’s an umpire to ensure fairness.

Continue reading "Workchoices architect needs some real life experience" »

Oh the things we do for money.

Sometimes in life we have to compromise. It’s all well and good to have lofty ideals but occasionally there comes a time when the need to feast on something other than a cheese toastie overrides intellectual snobbery.

Students believe in all kinds of things they’ll eventually throw away. So, I thought, why not start throwing early? After all, how many grungy radicals do you know who, on leaving uni, ditched Trotsky for Swarovski?

Continue reading "True confessions: My time with Young Liberals" »

Some time in 2003, John Howard bowed to the bleeding obvious when he formally declared the Work/Family issue to be a barbecue stopper. In the end, though, Mr Howard chose to do nothing to help Australian barbecues run more smoothly.

Indeed, his WorkChoices adventure dramatically reduced the capacity of Australians to balance their lives with the demands of paid work. Leave entitlements were jeopardised, the power of employers to impose particular rostering arrangements was enhanced, and job security plummeted.

At about the same time, Tony Abbott showed similar disdain for working families when he promised that a paid maternity leave scheme would happen over their Government’s “dead body”.

Continue reading "A real agenda for work and family" »

Picture yourself in this situation. You’re a young female business graduate striding up to the board room for an interview with Westpac. You see a picture of CEO Gail Kelly and you think “I can do that.” Think again sister.

If the latest statistics predict your path, there’s a strong possibility that in 15 years time you’ll be stuck in middle management or if you’re returning back part time from baby, you’ll be sentenced to “special projects.”

The statistics are bleak. Look at these statistics from the EOWA:

Continue reading "Step up or be stepped over: women’s career mistakes" »

The story of the ‘great Australian sickie’ made it around the world this week, spreading the fallacy that half a million Aussies faked sore throats and tummy bugs to get a long weekend.

Direct Health Solutions – apparently a ‘leader in Positive Absence Management and Corporate Wellness Solutions’ (what the?) – was given a massive free kick with their Australia Day absenteeism ‘estimate’.

Then the Retailers Associations’ Scott Driscoll really got the headlines pumping, labelling the sickie-takers ‘unAustralian bums’.

Continue reading "In defence of sickies" »

[Editors’ note: This is in response to an article published in The Punch on Monday about 10-hour, four-day working weeks. Michael Honey’s business does just that.]

The indignities of modern working life are many, and one of the most onerous is the grind of the five-day working week. Two days of play after five days’ work is inadequate to renew our enthusiasm for life:  we barely recover from the quintuple routine of waking to the alarm, commuting to work and back (to say nothing of what transpires in between), dining with our weary family and crashing to uneasy sleep; than we have to confront the thought, on a Sunday afternoon, that it all will begin again. A five-day work week leaves insufficient room for us to develop our sensitive natures: it makes us dull and cranky.

We run a small design studio with four fulltime staff. When we started up the place, one of my aims, as a refugee from the advertising agencies where I built my career, was to build a kinder, gentler, more humane organisation.

Continue reading "The good and bad of working four-day weeks all year" »

Tomorrow might be the official national holiday but today will be a mass celebration of a great Australian institution as hundreds of thousands of workers call in sick.

Up to half a million workers are expected to chuck a sickie, voting themselves an extra day off. Even if you’re the conscientious type and decide to rock up to work today, it’s only a four-day week. Wouldn’t it be great if every week was like that?

Well for many workers it could be, with no loss of productivity plus the benefits of reduced energy consumption, lower carbon emissions, less congestion on the roads and more time for family and leisure. The key is extending the four working days to 10 hours, so all the work still gets done. And one US state has proved it can work.

Continue reading "Enjoy a sickie? There could be four-day weeks for life" »

Spam. When not moonlighting as a revolting pork-based processed meat encased in a can, it is by definition unsolicited, electronic junk mail.

Or in layman’s terms on an average day at work just a real pain in the backside. Usually containing an unlikely combination of Russian mail order brides, destitute African students or a muddled-up jumble of pornographic type meshed with random rhetorical questions and bad spelling.  All irrevocably destined for the Outlook trashcan.

Except of course when it’s really funny, like this one sent to The Punch this morning:

Continue reading "How stupid do spammers think people are?" »

A friend remarked this morning that being told you can’t use Internet Explorer, as governments around the world are advising, is like being ordered to get to work without using roads.

This would be inconvenient but sufferable as we could all probably do with a good walk. But tortuously, in this situation even starting such a walk involves making a phone call to your IT helpdesk.

With respect to my IT administrator friends I’ll bet many people would rather take their chances with the criminals.

Continue reading "Hello IT helpdesk? I have a problem called the internet" »

THE German or Japanese languages may have one, but there is no word in English which accurately conveys the crushing, overwhelming sense of misery felt at the end of a good holiday.

It doesn’t seem to matter if you’ve had one week off or four, whether you love or hate your job. The first day back at work always feels like a special kind of hell when you wistfully recall where you were and what you were doing a week or so prior.

Talking to a mate yesterday, who like me was on his first day back after a three-week break, it struck us how so much of this dislike of modern work doesn’t stem from some irrational hatred of having a job. Instead, it’s to do with a justifiable sense of frustration at the way we are often compelled to do our jobs.

Continue reading "Too busy holding meetings to do any actual work" »

Did you realise today is National Leave Work on Time Day?

Well it is.  So what that means that if you’re not already in the habit of watching the clock as the last hour of work passes you by and then jumping out of your desk as soon as it chimes then today you have full permission to do so.

Continue reading "Do you work too hard?" »

Since recently becoming a mother, I seem to have developed an obsession with cake. And it has nothing to do with knowing I should really shun chocolate éclairs if I’m going to fit into a pre-baby size 10 again.

No, what I’ve been grappling with is my determination to have it all when it comes to balancing family and work. The desire to return to my stressful, you’d-have-to-be-mad-to-work-here job without relinquishing the joys and challenges of my newfound role as a parent.

So there it is in all its unfashionable, unrealistic glory: the desire to want the proverbial cake and eat it too.

Continue reading "Sniping at working mothers is no solution at all" »

Imagine someone asked you to write a book on “the rules” in your office.

How many things would make your list of do’s and don’ts and would the appearance of your colleagues make the cut?

Laurence Caracalla is a former Paris press officer and a stickler for “appropriate behaviour at work”.

Continue reading "French office etiquette rule #133: be boring as hell" »

What the hell was that? As a parent with a child in school for the first time I have just withstood a round of what I suspect will become the regular school holiday juggle.

After taking one week’s leave the battle-plans were laid out: a day with said child in the office, play dates lined up, grandparents locked in – and then she gets sick meaning the fragile house of cards came tumbling down.

It’s a simple rule of math really, schoolkids have around 12 weeks of holidays each year while their parents average four - that’s a lot of time when households are juggling care.

Continue reading "Juggling family life - how leave doesn’t add up" »

First, I’d like to know how much taxpayers’ money was spent on a research report that concludes many Australian workers enjoy a drink with their colleagues and occasionally push the boat out too far.

But the report, commissioned by the federal Department of Health and Ageing, also suggests bosses could start pushing Australians to cut back on their drinking. Let’s translate one of the key parts:

“Workplace interventions (bosses, workmates or HR pulling up staff on drinking habits) are likely to be cost effective (cheap) and efficacious (fancy word for effective). Occupational health and safety and industrial relations frameworks exist (there are existing laws and regulations) that can incorporate alcohol-related issues (under which you could just slip in a new anti-booze regime).”

Continue reading "Revealed: Going for a beer after work is bad for everyone" »

Over the last couple of weeks the Deputy Prime Minister has been plugging two developing holes in a massive dam wall.

The first has been caused by the waste and mismanagement associated with the Julia Gillard memorial halls debacle. A programme wasting so much money that a school in Sydney is going to refuse free money.

The second hole in the dam wall is growing quickly and relates to her changes to the industrial award system and her promise that neither workers nor small business would be worse off with her changes to the industrial award system.  A promise she knew couldn’t be kept.

Continue reading "Julia: full-time worker or part time spinner?" »

BUY MILK flashes the outlook calendar as I robotically press snooze.

‘Buy milk’ it urges again five seconds later.

Outlook calendar reminders have become daily practice for me.

I’m also in the habit of snoozing ad nauesaum until I’m moved to post the same reminder (not always milk, can also be ring mum, do laundry) on my phone.

You know, for later – when I have some time to ‘get around to it’. 
Facilitated by an arsenal of ‘time-saving’ devices including scrawled post it notes, an addiction to Google calendar and a filofax, I call it having efficiency in being inefficient.

Continue reading "Time poor or just plain hopeless?" »

One positive feature of the dying days of the Howard Government was the cross party work among female MPs.

Sisters were doing it for ourselves - uniting on issues ranging from stem cell research to the removal of the restrictions on RU486; from changing the foreign aid funding criteria to seeking to ensure transparent advertising of pregnancy counselling.

We co-sponsored bills and held meetings, did the numbers and organised media.It was a rare but enjoyable and mostly successful example of networking among women of different parties, all driven by a commitment to issues affecting women. However, we were unable to attract overt cross-party support on the issue of Paid Maternity Leave (PML).

Continue reading "A belated, qualified victory for working mothers" »