Category: hours of work

Avoiding Burnout in the Corridors of Power

Last week, some of the Nine newspapers reported on a spate of departures (paywalled) from the Australian Prime Minister’s office. There is always a constant churn of political staffers, with regular movement between private enterprise and public service.

There are some sound economic reasons for leaving just after 12 months into a new government, and the departures are not indicative of a toxic workplace, but working hours in the Australian Parliamentary and political sector have been contentious recently. This latest newspaper article notes the role of working hours but, curiously, primarily in passing.

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Employer Responsibility in Workplace Safety is Being Overlooked

In the ongoing debates about workplace safety, a critical question is often left unasked: What are employers doing to ensure safe and healthy work environments, and why are their responsibilities so frequently underplayed in public discourse? Too often, when workplace safety issues arise, the conversation quickly shifts to affordability and government intervention.

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Burnout Lessons CEOs Still Haven’t Learned

Business newspapers and websites often report on executives revealing their own burnout and how they have changed their lives as a result. The changes they make indicate their decisions that led to their mental health crises and epiphanies. But executives lead by example, so how many of the employees are emulating the executives’ mistakes? Shouldn’t the executives redesign their companies’ systems of work to prevent anyone else from suffering from burnout?

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Endorsing Exploitation? The Legal and Moral Blindspot in the Long-Hours Hustle

Recently, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an extraordinary article that seems to endorse the exploitation of the mental health of workers. (Although the article is paywalled, it is getting a run in some local Australian newspapers) The article reports that companies like Shopify, Solace Health, and Rilla are bluntly marketing roles that involve extreme hours, a relentless pace, and minimal downtime.

One job post literally reads: “Please don’t join unless you’re eager to work 70 hours a week.”

If the job ads for these prominent North American companies were posted in Australia, the unsafe working conditions would likely be deemed illegal.

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Pyrrhic IR prosecution that ignores the OHS context

Recently, sentencing in a court case in Melbourne has generated much online chatter about excessive working hours and the exploitation of workers in a small law practice. One report of the $A50,000 fine against Erudite Legal says that the company:

“…forced a junior lawyer to work up to 24-hour days and watch an ice hockey movie at 1am so she could understand her boss’ philosophical position”.

Other media reports provide more details of the successful prosecution, but the occupational health and safety (OHS) context is mostly absent.

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What does the Labor Party landslide win mean for work health and safety?

This weekend, all the talk in Australia has been about the massive and unexpected electoral swing to the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the federal election. Most pundits were expecting a majority government, at least, but now the ALP has a substantial majority in the House of Representatives. Possible constraints from a new Senate have yet to be identified.

But this blog is about occupational health and safety (OHS), so why start with an election summary? Industrial relations and, therefore, OHS were almost entirely absent from the election campaigns.

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A library in just one Working From Home article

This newspaper article on the current status of Working from Home (paywalled) was satisfying on at least two levels: it was a sensible report on most of the benefits of this type of work arrangement and showed the limitations of newspaper publishing.

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