Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 AUSTRALIANS are more concerned about achieving work/life balance and having an interesting job than climbing the corporate ladder, with the nation having some of the least aspirational workers in the world. Only eight per cent of Australians are strongly focused on promotion, according to a report from recruitment company Randstad, compared to 24 per cent of people in the US. Even our close neighbours are more interested in getting a better job, with 17 per cent of New Zealanders aspiring to move up in their companies. With unemployment hovering around 5.8 per cent, Randstad director Steve Shepherd said we are more concerned with keeping our jobs rather than taking the boss's office. "In Australia we see greater emphasis on things like work/life balance and having an interesting job. Australians see beyond the job and advancing their careers and are actually looking for more from their current job," he said. "Maybe Australians are more comfortable in having those other things than they are about having to climb the corporate ladder all the time." And in a sign of the times, digital skills and working with data are seen to be more important than social skills by employees. Of the 6100 Australian workers surveyed, 66 per cent said their bosses consider social skills more important than they were five years ago. For digital skills, that number is 87 per cent. Mr Shepherd said the figure was surprising but indicative of the greater importance numbers and data is playing in the workplace. "But that doesn't mean we can all be geeks sitting at the computer analysing data all day," Mr Shepherd says. "You still need to be able to have the social skills to translate that data and bring it into the wider business." Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/aussies-ignoring-the-corporate-ladder-to-concentrate-on-worklife-balance/story-e6frfm9r-1226731130327#ixzz2gXE7wVw2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolvesaussie Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Seems right from my experience, I have no interest in climbing the pole, would not have stayed at a local government job for 10 years if I was... the most important time is at home with my girlfriend and my friends, I use my weeknights to have fun, not to recover from or do more work only to face it all again tomorrow. As long as I have enough money to do the things I enjoy I am happy, dont need a flash car or a big house. I have an interesting job I enjoy, thats enough for me.. Some of my UK friends, especially those in London were obsessed with Bonuses and promotions etc working all the hours under the sun for some accounting firm which will dispose of burn most of them out anyway . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bibbs Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Most people I know actually work for themselves (I recon almost 75%). How far can you get promoted when you are your own boss? A few guys have upped their rates, but are now doing less hours. So the income is the same, but more social time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 My work life balance is not bad. I have a 10 min commute and work 8.30-5 and never think about work while i'm out of the office. To be fair pretty much the same as UK but with shorter commute Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolac34 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I think my work/life balance is worse than it was in the UK, commute is about the same (30-60 minutes) but a longer day at work 8.30am-5.00pm and then another 30-60 minute commute home. Also only 20 days annual leave, that I need to accrue which is painful, compared to 25 days + I received in England. I'm probably slightly more career focused as well, been in the job 2 years now and I'm thinking towards the next step upwards - which in Perth is proving pretty tricky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolvesaussie Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 The holidays do suck, 20 days and having to earn them, made it hard for me to be home for the movecube to be delivered. The intersting thing I found out at lunchtime tho is if you are a workaholic here, you can work 3 years straight and then take 3 months off. Few people been off to Europe for 6 weeks since I started in June.. my old uk job you had to beg permission to carry forward 1 day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 The intersting thing I found out at lunchtime tho is if you are a workaholic here, you can work 3 years straight and then take 3 months off. Few people been off to Europe for 6 weeks since I started in June.. my old uk job you had to beg permission to carry forward 1 day Yes I realised this in the places I worked, staff would have built up 6 months holiday, personally I like my holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Bet they didn't sample Canberra! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Que Sera Sera Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 9-2, 3 days a week it's all about choice :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjg Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I do so much less red tape here in teaching that it has opened up many more hours to prepare my lessons properly. 20 min commute each way is the same as the uk, but I see the ocean on the way which is a great pick me up. 8:00 -3:30 4 days per week with meetings on one day to take me through till 5. I average an hour per night marking at home 4 nights a week. Adds up to about 43 or so hours. Uk teaching was on the sunny side of 50 every week with some weeks going more than 60. i don't want to work my up the ladder any further, I would have more hours, more stress and very little more pay. Why go there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I'm working long hours not to climb the ladder but to earn as much as I can to save and move out to Australia.:wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolac34 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 The holidays do suck, 20 days and having to earn them, made it hard for me to be home for the movecube to be delivered. The intersting thing I found out at lunchtime tho is if you are a workaholic here, you can work 3 years straight and then take 3 months off. Few people been off to Europe for 6 weeks since I started in June.. my old uk job you had to beg permission to carry forward 1 day Yes, true in my workplace too. Nobody ever takes any holiday days - I find it crazy. I had my last week off in June (where I used up all my accrued leave) and I'm climbing the walls now wanting another break. Have to hold out though so I can have two weeks off at Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Depending on how the question was worded, I would think most people are going to say a work / life balance is more important than climbing the corporate ladder. I see some contradictions in real life, yes I have met a lot of Australian's with no career aspirations but at same time I see so many that have not taken any of their miserly annual leave allowance for years, we have some people in my company with 80 or a 100 days accrued leave. Certainly it is not uncommon to have 50 or 60 days accrued leave, pretty amazing when the allowance is only 20. I have been in one company for over three years now and I think I am slightly negative at the moment (our company allows that). I think if Australian's were that bothered about their work life balance, some people pressure would have been exerted by now to increase the miserly allowances. As for me, I find my work life balance much the same here as there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Counting Stars Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I don't mind what it's like in Australia anything is better than the work work balance hubby and I have here at the moment lol xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Both me and the wife have knocked back promotion as we knew it would have meant longer hours, more responsibility and stress for not much more money. We like our time off here too much. On the holiday front we have feel we can put so much into the weekend and mostly guaranteed good weather that we don't hanker for a holiday away like we used to in the UK. Mostly because the weekend's weather was crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Depending on how the question was worded, I would think most people are going to say a work / life balance is more important than climbing the corporate ladder. I see some contradictions in real life, yes I have met a lot of Australian's with no career aspirations but at same time I see so many that have not taken any of their miserly annual leave allowance for years, we have some people in my company with 80 or a 100 days accrued leave. Certainly it is not uncommon to have 50 or 60 days accrued leave, pretty amazing when the allowance is only 20. I have been in one company for over three years now and I think I am slightly negative at the moment (our company allows that). I think if Australian's were that bothered about their work life balance, some people pressure would have been exerted by now to increase the miserly allowances. As for me, I find my work life balance much the same here as there. You're forgetting that you're accruing long service leave and that Australia (from memory) has more public holidays than the UK. Add that to the fact that accrued leave doesn't get reset each year, so that you can save it up for a long holiday and I'd say it is equally good to the UK holiday offering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 You're forgetting that you're accruing long service leave and that Australia (from memory) has more public holidays than the UK. Add that to the fact that accrued leave doesn't get reset each year, so that you can save it up for a long holiday and I'd say it is equally good to the UK holiday offering. How do you know what I am forgetting? I am not forgetting LSL, however as this is not available until ten years of service I am not all that excited about it. And as I said, been here for three years and the leave is that miserly that I don't have any to roll forward. But yes as someone else said you can not go on leave for three years and take a long holiday. Great, but not for me, I like to go away every year. Public holidays: well get the same at Christmas, New Year and Easter, then in UK I got two May bank holidays and one August bank holiday and here I get Australia Day, Anzac day, Queens birthday and the October holiday so that is one more public holiday day to compensate for 5 -8 days less in annual allowance on the whole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 How do you know what I am forgetting? Discounting then... And it doesn't have to be a year-to-year, so it only takes three months to accrue a week off.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortlepuss Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Most jobs don't have LSL do they? I know hubby (a teacher) gets it, but I haven't seen a whiff of it in private sector. I wonder if historically many more jobs used to have LSL which is why holiday allowance is so abysmal. Gave up 32 days + public holidays to get 20 days when I came to Oz. I would have thought that any company offering more than standard 20 would have their pick of candidates and often wonder why companies aren't more generous in order to attract staff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Discounting then... And it doesn't have to be a year-to-year, so it only takes three months to accrue a week off.. Sorry Peach, but I would appreciate if you can stop speaking to me like I got off the last banana boat. I am very well aware of what long service leave is, what annual leave is, how it is accrued, including how quickly (4 weeks a year, 1 week every three month - no flies on you) and how one might choose to use it. As I have stated in my last two posts, I choose to use my miserly leave allowance through the year, as evidenced by the fact that 3.5 years in my balance is slightly negative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Most jobs don't have LSL do they? I know hubby (a teacher) gets it, but I haven't seen a whiff of it in private sector. I wonder if historically many more jobs used to have LSL which is why holiday allowance is so abysmal. Gave up 32 days + public holidays to get 20 days when I came to Oz. I would have thought that any company offering more than standard 20 would have their pick of candidates and often wonder why companies aren't more generous in order to attract staff We are a ASX 20 company and have it, but you can't access it for ten years and it is quite unusual to stay with an employer that long (even if you want to!) so it is not really seen as much of a benefit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Sorry Peach, but I would appreciate if you can stop speaking to me like I got off the last banana boat. I am very well aware of what long service leave is, what annual leave is, how it is accrued, including how quickly (4 weeks a year, 1 week every three month - no flies on you) and how one might choose to use it. As I have stated in my last two posts, I choose to use my miserly leave allowance through the year, as evidenced by the fact that 3.5 years in my balance is slightly negative. Are you sat in the grumpy chair today? At this rate, I'll stop speaking to you: fullstop. I'm just offering you a different perspective that's all - cheer up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
movingbacktoaus Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 My annual leave at my last company in the UK was only a miserly 20 days. I worked 8.30am till 17.30pm plus at least an hour commute each way. Then there was the travel and overnight stays for work. So for me the work life balance in the UK was poor. I'd go to work before my son was awake and wasn't home until after he was asleep. Now I live 2km from work and work less hours with more flexibility. I don't have to travel and my employer is a lot more accommodating. I'm still only getting the 20 days annual leave but I can build up an extras day a month by working an extra 2 hours a week, which is still less hours than I worked in the UK. Most importantly I get more time with the family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Sorry Peach, but I would appreciate if you can stop speaking to me like I got off the last banana boat. I am very well aware of what long service leave is, what annual leave is, how it is accrued, including how quickly (4 weeks a year, 1 week every three month - no flies on you) and how one might choose to use it. As I have stated in my last two posts, I choose to use my miserly leave allowance through the year, as evidenced by the fact that 3.5 years in my balance is slightly negative. You didn't get off the last banana boat? How can that be when you ended up in the 'Banana republic' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 I worked 70 days straight here some years back. Companies paid me $$ in lieu of annual leave etc etc. Basically no real holiday for 20 years and yes I burnt out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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