http://www.iran-daily.com/1383/2143/...nomy.htm#24144

Australians Work Longest Hours


SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 19-
New evidence showing Australians are working the longest hours in the developed world, AFP reported.
They are working so hard, in fact, that they risk making themselves sick, with higher than usual rates of stress, anxiety and depression, according to the research by the Australia Institute think-tank.
The analysis of countries including the United States, Japan, Germany and France showed Australians, even if they had used up their annual leave, could take the rest of this year off and still have worked the same average number of hours of other industrialized countries.
"Whilst Australians often think of themselves as living in the land of the long weekend, they are now working the longest hours in the developed world and in fact are at risk of working themselves sick," Institute director Clive Hamilton said.
He said Australian employees work an average of 1,855 hours a year compared with the developed country average of 1,643. Their Norwegian counterparts work just 1,376 hours a year on average, he added.
"Australians work harder than the super-efficient Germans, the Americans and even the Japanese who are known for the phenomenon of karoshi or 'death by overwork'," Hamilton said.
To bring their annual working hours down to the average, Australian employees would have to take their legislated four weeks' annual leave, then stop working from November 20 until December 31, he said.
While the number of public holidays enjoyed by Australian workers is on a par with the average of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the annual leave entitlement is below the European average of five weeks a year.
"Australians are paying the price for overwork," Hamilton said. "They are reporting higher degrees of stress and anxiety, and obesity, depression and heart disease are on the rise."
Shorter working hours in economically sound nations such as Switzerland, Germany and the Britain demonstrated that long working days were not necessary for economic strength, he added. "On the contrary, working to the point where our personal and community bonds are weakened is not only economically inefficient, it is socially irresponsible," Hamilton said.

Damn straight. Im usually at work from 8am in the morning till 6pm at night. I have to work that hard to keep efficency level up or risk the movment of our call center to cheaper places such as India and Malaysia.

My dad works from 7 or earlier in the morning to at least 6 pm on weekdays... and then often works at home at night...

Weekends he usually works less than that...but not much [img]tongue.gif[/img]

hmm, My dad works from about 8AM to 5PM
Same with my mum.

<span style="color: lightblue">My dad works from around 7:30 - 8AM until atleast 6PM, often later. And that's not counting the number of nights he stays up until all hours of the morning doing paperwork. He generally doesn't take much time off for lunch - maybe, 10 - 20 minutes. This is 5, sometimes 6 or 7, days per week. No holidays, except for a short break for Christmas/New Year.
Mum will often be up working at 4 AM, and work through till 5PM, with no more than about an hour and a half's lunch. This is usually 4 days a week, but it varies alot. Limited holidays.
So that's 10 hours and 12 hours a day, and around 60 and 48 hours a week... I don't envy them.

Well, give yourselves a pat on the back then, thats quite a thing to work that long and that hard. Most people I know don't bother with those hours simply because management consists mostly of people with their head up their arses. My uncle normally works 12 hour days, but then again, he only works for about three days a week too.

Again, good job.

Slacker! .... try 6-6 am or pm like me [img]tongue.gif[/img] (with an hours commute either side)


I dont think little Johnny Howard is going to reduce our working week any time soon though. :rolleyes:

8am in the morning till 6pm at night

Now there's one for the Department of Redundancy Department! :D

Yeah..so ? You want a medal or something ? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

There's a saying overhere: Work for a living, don't live for working.

The question is; have you Aussies gotten anything out by working that much?

[ 11-21-2004, 06:51 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]