When it comes to working hours, New Zealand is among the least regulated countries in the OECD. Once, we had a 40 hour week, 8 hour day, but not these days. New Zealand workers work longer hours than any other country in the OECD, other than Japan. Bizarre as it sounds with our level of unemployment and under-employment, the only working hours regulation NZ has is in regard to meal and rest breaks, which is currently under attack from the NACts.
But working harder and more hours for less money during the recession is starting to take its toll. Job satisfaction is declining, with many workers — including top performers — saying it’s time to find a new job.
Of particular interest is the description of death by overwork in Japan – called “karoshi” and in China “guolaosi” which has become such an extreme problem that those countries have introduced legislation that allows surviving family members to sue companies involved.
In Japan, a typical karoshi victim is that of a businessman who dies at his desk after too many 80-hour workweeks. But several international studies (in Finland, Israel, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) have shown both men and women are at high risk for “overwork” consequences — heart disease, obesity, insomnia and persistent fatigue, but women are far more likely to suffer mental health consequences, especially when they do not take holidays.
A recent US survey found that 40% of professionals are thinking about quitting their jobs. They’re tired of not being promoted, bosses that don’t share company goals, being overworked and having bonuses slashed.
And surveys in NZ ths week show that NZ employers made who deep cuts into their skilled workforce during the recession are now regretting it, because finding replacement workers is much tougher than they thought.
NZ employers are getting to the point where they have maxed out workloads for existing staff, with rising work hours for those who still have jobs.
The result? Too much hard work – whether unpaid or paid overtime — really does hurt (and kill) people. Workers’ lives have gone from bad to better to bad all over again. So, is it time to to ensure (again) that we don’t have to feel guilty (or fearful about losing our jobs) for taking time off?
With the National Government intent on selling the fourth weeks leave of annual leave and weakening the regulations around meals and rest breaks, I suggest that we are heading backwards, and perhaps toward a NZ version of karoshi.
I wouldn’t be all that surprised if this starts happening especially with the workforce retiring.
Already in some organisations where older workers retire, there are no people qualified to take the reins of the position previously held by those people.
The result? A distribution of job duties amongst the remaining staff, increasing the workload – but not the pay. Starts affecting the mental health, worklife balance, and increases stress. On the other hand, we are a generally underperforming country so perhaps the increases in workload may contribute to office workers handling each piece of paper only once (and would mean that OIA requests would get done on time, not 6 months, and many different staff members)
It’s only a small scale problem now, but with only 1 worker for every 15 people due to retire in the next 10 – 20 years, where is our workforce going to come from? Overseas countries all have this same issue to solve, so we can rely on the old immigration chestnut.
Darien you are really scraping the barrel again. How about a touch of reality. Explains why you were kicked out in 2008. You still haven’t learned that hyperbole evokes mirth rather than support.
A couple of months ago someone I knew fainted from fatigue, they would sometimes work saturdays and they working till 10 around that time. Wasn’t a pleasant experience.
@Fisiani what touch of reality do you speak of, this sounds like basic common sense to me, I’ve seen people get pretty critical of Darien in other posts that you could say were more provocative than this but geez, a 40 hour working week to make sure we don’t stress ourselves too much isn’t exactly a radical notion
Do you think the other countries of the OECD who are currently outperforming us who have more regulated hours than we do are wrong? Do you think it’s alright for people to die from overworking themselves, what are you trying to say in saying that this post is unrealistic ‘scraping the barrel’ and is a hyperbole/exaggeration? Sometimes the things that Darien sais sound too blunt/obvious, but that’s the shocking thing, people aren’t taking obvious common sense into consideration these days and that’s why we need people like Darien to point them out. like how you need a reason to fire somebody or shouldn’t work until you die. stress damages the immune system you know.
On another wee irrelevant note that Darien and some other people might find interesting, there was a teachers union meeting yesterday in all public schools in the country, we all had a half day. I talked to some of my teachers over what it was about and they said one of the issues of discussion would be Anne Tolleys reforms. She said alot of teachers were ticked off over the paticular change the Nats are making of removing the cap of 26 students to a classroom to no limit. She said they would complain and if the government ignored it they would strike and that they wouldn’t let it happen ‘in a month of sundays’
Over the past year I’ve felt kind of helpless as National has done certain things myself and others disagree with, like we just have to sit there and watch and that the only weapon we have is vocal criticism with Labour at the head of it. But what my teachers said about their union really made me realise that unions are the last force the people have against their government during their terms of power. When National attacks the unions they are attacking our only capability to actually do something about our discontent with the government other than vocally criticise them.
Mark my words and I look foward to the day where the Government gives in to teachers demands over Anne Tolleys policies, I have faith in them.
What do you mean, workers are human beings not machines? But if one of your worker units breaks down, especially during their first 90 days in operation, can’t you just dump them and take on another worker unit?
Ah the NACTs are the ones scraping the bottom of the spin barrel as the reality is that NZ’ers are so lowly paid they have to work long hours just to survive.
And don’t forget what you call the long work hours “hyperbole” is day to day work life for hundreds of thousands of NZ’ers. Ironically this means that its your comments which are going to be seen as irrelevant and out of touch.
Isn’t it awful how reality has such a leftward lean?
It could definitely happen if China buys up the entire country
certainly in Japan they work hard – and on top of that is the commute -often 2 hours each way. That is where we have an advantage over many other countries (Japan excepted) in that outside Auckland and some in wellington – commute times are much less. In my own example I walk to work each day and it is a pleasant 15 minutes – meaning I have more time for work.
In respect of cashing up the anual leave (one week) I struggle to understand your opposition. Why do you hate workers having choice? About a year ago I was made redundant from a job i had for 7 years. I was paid out 7 weeks accumulated anual leave. With family committments i have averaged very comfortably three weeks annual leave for the past seven years. I was also very happy to have that 7 weeks payout.
Stop trying to dictate to people how they should run their lives. This is another example of a nanny state – and probably why Phil Goff was quite relaxed about National’s legislation (until the unions told him how to think).
I want a 10 hour day……….. but a 4 day work week…
@Monty: One that extra week is tradeable it is easy enough to create the conditions where it will inevitably be traded, whether the worker would prefer it that way or not, especially when unemployment is high and wages are low. People over the past 25 years have become accustomed to these “freedoms” that take the form of a rope gradually tightening around the neck.
@Fisiani Having seen my father collapse and hospitalised from sheer over-worked exhaustion, you can p*ss right off with your harden-up, she’ll be right kiwi attitude. It is a quite literally counter-productive mindset.
@Olwyn, I’m pretty sure both parties must agree for the swap to happen…
Monty, you’re lucky. I spend about 2 and a half to 3 hours a day commuting between my West Auckland home & my CBD job by public transport.
And yet at the same time we have MPs telling us how hard they work and they put in long hours at Parliament and the electorate. Shouldn’t you lead by example?
I spend about 2 and a half to 3 hours a day commuting… by public transport
Well, there’s your problem!
We work less than the OECD average. South Korea is outperforming us and they work the longest hours of any. Australia is outperforming us and they work longer hours than us. Greece has a 40 hour work week and works longer hours than us. So it’s not clear cut.
“And yet at the same time we have MPs telling us how hard they work and they put in long hours at Parliament and the electorate. Shouldn’t you lead by example?” – Their jobs obviously require that number of hours, unless you want to half their work and double the size of parliament.
Phil, commuting by car at peak time can only marginally cut down the commute time, to about 2- 2 and a half hours. Longer if I try to find a free car park and walk. But then the cost rises above the public transport cost.
Monty, you’re lucky. I spend about 2 and a half to 3 hours a day commuting between my West Auckland home & my CBD job because there isn’t enough public transport.
Darien, you say “With the National Government intent on selling the fourth weeks leave of annual leave …, I suggest that we are heading backwards…”.
I’m a working man Darien, and there are fellow employees here who have racked up a lot more than their 20 days paid leave a year.
Could you explain please why you oppose them being able/allowed to buy back that paid leave ? My wife is perplexed about this also. She would like to be able to do this and so release some needed money for a new fridge.
Too much affluenza.
Too many double income families.
Share the jobs around.
@richgraham you want to know what’s wrong with letting workers sell their 4th week of annual leave?
‘it’s the vibe your honour’
Damn nobody picked up on it… Anyway I was thinking that if you give an optional 4th week of annual leave to sell it would pretty much be done by everybody within a short amount of time because there aren’t alot of jobs out there so people will be competing for them and if you were a boss would you rather have a worker with 4 weeks or 3 weeks leave? It will be easy for a boss to say ‘I’ll only hire you if you sell your 4th week’. Maybe the only people who could keep the 4th week would be skilled people higher up in the buisness who don’t have alot of competition for their job. So maybe a wee gap between the rich of the poor in the form of extra time off could result too.
Try that again Quoth but this time select Total Employment. Do that and you’ll note that our average hours/worker only drop below the OECD average in the last 2 years in the dataset – ie, in the recession.
You first talked about workers who have accumulated an excessive amount of leave.
Does your wife fall into this category?
As I understand it you prefer a new fridge rather than quality time with the family, is that right?
As I understand it you prefer to; pay your bills/reduce your debt/save for a house, rather than quality time with the family, is that right?
*Fixed