Worried employees working longer hours
Job insecurity is driving workers in Australia to clock up extra hours to stay employed according to new research.
A survey of 436 people by recruitment firm Robert Walters found 53 per cent of those polled in Australia were coming in earlier and working back later than they were before the economic downturn.
Of those who said they were now working more hours 40 per cent claimed to be putting in an extra eight to ten hours per week.
The global study included results from 18 countries and found Australian employees were putting in an average amount of overtime compared to worldwide results.
Australian workers are better off than US workers, with 69 per cent of those surveyed in the United States working overtime thanks to the recession.
Workers in France and Switzerland were less affected by the downturn, with more than 65 per cent of each workforce claiming to work the same hours as usual, the survey shows.
James Nicholson, managing director of Robert Walters Australia, says some of the respondents were working longer hours because they had taken on the workloads of former co-workers who had left through redundancies or resignations from roles they were not replaced.
“Many people feel that by putting in more hours, they will be less likely to lose their jobs should further cost cutting prove necessary,” says Mr Nicholson.
For workers, the long term impact of too much overtime could lead to stress, illness or relationship breakdowns.
“It most definitely can have a negative effect, especially because the last six-12 months people haven’t really been in the mindset to enjoy their work,” says Mr Nicholson. “It has every possibility to lead to stress and other health factors.”
Overworked staff also a poses a risk for employers in that a workplace full of unhappy staff could be bad for business, warns Mr Nicholson.
“Employers do need to be a bit cautious to the fact that during a downturn the way they manage that process could come back to them later on.”
In related news an OECD survey out today says Australia will fare better than the rest of the world: 57m unemployed around the world by 2010.
