Workers willing to trade pay for time

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TOO many Australians are over-worked and feel rushed "often oralmost all the time", a new study funded by three state governmentsreveals.
Based on interviews with 2831 working men and women, it showspeople on average want to work 35 hours a week - almost four hoursless than the norm.
Men would prefer to work 38 hours but almost one in three works 48hours or more. Three-quarters would be happy to take a pay cut towork fewer hours. Most women want to work 30 hours. Many employeescomplained of work overload - and 54 per cent agreed they "oftenhad too much work for one person to manage". And over a third ofemployees said supervisors expected them to put work ahead ofpersonal life.
The study, to be released on Tuesday, was funded by the AustralianResearch Council and the South Australian, West Australian andVictorian governments.
Despite the common experience of feeling rushed, 68 per cent ofworkers were happy with their work-life balance. However, the onein three who were not were more likely to be mothers,professionals, managers and people who worked in informationtechnology, the media and mining.
Those in higher-income households - above $90,000 - and those inlow-income households, including sole parents, - below $30,000 -had poorer work-life interactions.
"There is a widespread mismatch between the hours that Australianworkers have to work and those they want to work," the report says.
Completed in March and April, it found that over half of workersdid not have a good fit between their actual and preferred workhours, with a mismatch of at least half a day. About 80 per cent ofthe men and 70 per cent of the women wanted to work less. Thehigh-wire act of life in the suburbs Danielle Griffin is asefficient at home as she is at work, where she is in charge of 47people. Awake at 6.30, she knows she must leave work at 10 to fiveto retrieve her son from child care.
It explodes the myth that most people working long hours have suchinteresting jobs they cannot bear to leave the office.Three-quarters of those working 48 hour-plus weeks would preferdifferent hours, almost all of them fewer, even if it meant lessmoney.
"There's a sense abroad that work is taking more energy and moretime from households and individuals than ever," said BarbaraPocock, director of the Centre for Work and Life, at the Universityof South Australia.
She is co-author, with Natalie Skinner, of the study, Work, Lifeand Workplace Culture , which provides a barometer of how wellAustralia is faring in settling the work-life balance conundrum.
The study found 55 per cent of employees "often or almost always"felt rushed or pressed for time, with seven out of 10 mothers inthat category.
"Those in unsupportive cultures have more work-life conflict," saidDr Pocock.
The study finds that almost a third of full-time working women andeven more full-time working mothers want to cut their hours.
"Such a high level of unmet demand for part-time work …suggests that the Australian labour market is inflexible inresponding to employee preferences," the report said.
People who regularly worked at night, or a combination of weekendsand nights, fared poorly. Living in the country or beingself-employed or a casual worker did not protect against beingcaught in a crushing time-bind.
Dr Pocock said Australia needed policies that reduced work hoursand gave workers rights to refuse unreasonable hours, and torequest changes in working hours.
Anna McPhee, the director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in theWorkplace agency, said men and women were becoming more"family-centric".
Women in particular were looking for a flexible employer.