Window of opportunity for work-life balance closing

It’s no secret that most Australians want balance between work and life. But who achieves it? Very few, according to Iain Campbell, senior research fellow at Melbourne’s RMIT.

“Work-life balance is not just to do with discontent or subjective feelings, it’s the expression of structural problems,” he says.

“People are trying to find ways of participating in paid work compatible with the human needs for personal development, family responsibility and a social life.

“The old way of participating in work has broken down slowly over the past 20 years, but what we are increasingly aware of is that the new ways of participating in work are totally inadequate. We’ve got to find those ways of participating in paid work which will suit the needs of the modern workforce.”

Campbell says expectations around paid work are now much more complicated. For example, students now combine work with study and there is an expectation for people to engage in lifelong learning to build employability.

Both men and women move into and out of the workforce at different points of their lives, adding to the challenge of achieving a work-life balance.

“The inadequacy of the new model is more and more apparent,’’ Campbell says.

“We’ve got the development of this exaggerated male breadwinner model that’s now imposed on both men and women -they’re expected to work 50 hours a week at the disposal of the employer, for a high salary.”

And it isn’t any better for low-skilled workers, he says.

“They often don’t have enough hours, don’t have any control over their working schedule and are on call if they are casual workers.”

According to a survey by the University of Sydney, Australia at Work, more than 20 per cent of Australians work 50 or more hours a week.

Full-time employees work an average of 44 hours a week, and 29 per cent want to reduce those hours. Of those surveyed, 54 per cent agreed with the statement, “more is expected of me for the same amount of pay”.

Many companies have introduced flexible work arrangements, enabling them to attract and retain talented candidates seeking a work-life balance. But is that about to change with the economic downturn?

Bernard Salt, author, KPMG partner and adviser to corporate Australia on consumer, cultural and demographic trends, believes it is.

“A significant slow-down in the economy will put everyone in survival mode, and the first thing to be dumped in that situation is the ideal of work-life balance.

Bad habits will creep in -working on weekends, working late at night, not taking holidays, not speaking up if you are unwell at the office. The stress associated with working hard and under pressure will diminish the quality of life.”

Salt says there has been a lot of thought and lip-service paid to work-life balance. But whether people achieve it or not is another issue, because there has been no lessening in demand for people to deliver outcomes.

And while there has been a greater push towards part-time work, job sharing and working from home, which could be interpreted as work-life balance, he says it could be equally argued that what they’ve actually done is simply freed work from the office cage.

Says Salt, “now it’s roaming in every part of their lives with technology and so forth-some people call that work-life balance, some people say you’re working 24/7 ... you never switch off’”.

According to Salt, there was a work-life balance window between 2002 and 2007. “In that period of prosperity work was plentiful, employers were fawning after half-decent employees. You could pretty well name your terms, business was easy to win, everything was on the up and there were social movements like sea change and tree change which really put the proposition out there that there really is another lifestyle.”

Salt says in a falling market people will have to work longer and harder, and won’t be predisposed to go surfing in between working on their laptop or Blackberry.

“If you are concerned about your job you’ll be in the office making sure you have corridor conversations and networking.”

Campbell says employers will be less likely to provide flexible workplaces due to the downturn, but adds he doesn’t think they have been providing much flexibility anyway.

“If they have. It’s just for a favoured minority with skills that are in very short supply. It’s possible we will get an economic downturn and still have skills in short supply, so you might not see all that much difference from the employers,” he says.

Campbell believes change will come from the people and through regulation, and cites maternity leave.

“Improvements have been made. The EOWA 2008 annual report shows an increase in organisations providing 12 weeks maternity leave, from 27 per cent two years ago to 40 per cent in 2008.”

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