Opinion

Short-changed leisure

What would make you happier? More money? More work? Of course more time at work is not what you had in mind, but the fact is that a great many Australians are spending more time at work. Generally more money means more time at work, although more time at work might not mean more money!

There's another factor eating greedily into our non-working hours, and that's the time spent preparing for work, servicing the infrastructure that allows us to work and travelling to and from work. This is exacerbated when both parents work, as is more or less essential in these mortgaged days, because the homemaker did much of the work preparation and servicing of the infrastructure during her day.

In my column in The Herald today I explain what I think is the great con, the division of the working day into supposedly equal parts for work, leisure and sleep. The leisure part is savaged by work. I believe we should do the sums again, taking off the 24 hours the time we spend travelling to and from work, the time we spend preparing for work, the time we spend servicing the infrastructure that allows us to go to work, then taking off the eight hours' sleep before dividing the remainder between work and leisure. How does a 30-hour working week sound?

It is not work that makes us happy. It is leisure, the time we have to do what we want to do. Work is about doing what other people want us to do. And as we strive to meet other people's expectations of material success we have to devote more of our lives to doing what other people want us to do.

We need a re-evaluation. What is it that makes us happy? And what do you see as the value and purpose of work?

Posted By: Jeff Corbett on 7/08/2009 5:49:00 PM | Comments (20)

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Work to me is not "soul food", it's a means of achieving financial success. i measure financial success in terms of having enough money so that i don't have to worry about money. Next step is to have enough money so that i WON'T have to worry about money when i stop working. Working more to get more money now has no real value for me. You're quite right that leisure time (in fact time generally) is real currency for me now. That's what my focus needs to be now - How do i earn more leisure time and how do i spend it properly? It's more challenging than simply deciding to work less. Once you've built a career the expectations of the employer (or customers for those self-employed) have a real bearing on how much work you'll do. I guess that's the time we realise how valuable, or not, our work really is.

Posted by fista, 10/08/2009 10:16:35 AM, on The Herald

"find a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life" i was gym junky and volenteered to become a galley slave - the man was right except the food and conditions stink. Also no-one explained that one can also be "burnt-out" overworking doing work one loves. I think it was a good bit of early spin and pr devised to instill a good work ethic when the great wall of china was being built. Confucius did not disclose my commision for being employed by the emporer to increase productivity , abstenteeism and slackism. the word proved to be greater than the whip ! ( and his personal comfort and assets increased proportionaly.) actually he might apply to be a "shockjock" on the radio or a tabloid newspaper rabble rouser?

Posted by confucius, 10/08/2009 11:55:26 AM, on The Herald

Big, important questions, & rarely answered well. We spend weeks planning a holiday, but no time designing a life. My happiness is inversely related to my sense of being obliged to do things. I'm happiest doing what I have choosen, because I have a sense of deliberate purpose. For most, work is an unpleasant obligation; they exist with a general sense of unhappiness & dissatisfaction. If, at age 15, we were told "what 95% of people do is work for 40 or 50 years, never have much money, & then retire with not much money", we'd think they were mad. In itself, working for your whole adult life makes little sense in terms of spending our limited number of days on planet earth. If we got to budget our life in advance, how many days would you allocate to mowing the lawn, filling in tax returns, arguing with your spouse, sitting in traffic jams? Or to your current job? Or to laughing with your children, loving your spouse, creating & tending a garden, exploring the planet & seeing stuff? Or simply enjoying the thrill of 'being'? Most of us are sleeping drones. Should we first seek insight into the value & purpose of work, or of life? Life first, surely....work mightn't be in the plan!

Posted by Abundance, 10/08/2009 12:22:23 PM, on The Herald

we are forgetting that one must work for leisure to have a meaning and value. if we address the percieved inbalance between work and leisure we are in the realm of perceptions. African american slaves were actually diagnosed with an illness of perception (mental) if they refused to work and there was a medical text that had the necessary treatments to be prescribed identified . Now you malingering lot -get back to doing something that justifys your use of oxygen or get off my planet - i have money to make and you are stopping me with all this distraction about "not working" and that lazy pastime of "doing nothing". remember Essington (I am work ) Lewis - well he also burnt out running australia (for bhp) during WW2 - now there was a man that didnt waste time talking about leisure. malingerers -bah!

Posted by capitalist pig, 10/08/2009 12:59:20 PM, on The Herald

No matter what the job or career you are in, I bet you won't be saying on your death bed "i wished i worked more"!

Posted by Buell, 10/08/2009 1:02:08 PM, on The Herald

Jeff, I read your blog while at work for recreation. Is that a paradox?

Posted by Latina Fresh, 10/08/2009 2:05:06 PM, on The Herald

Must be a great job, Latina!

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 10/08/2009 2:15:04 PM

Buell, in a recent episode of The Simpsons, while Mr Burns was drowning in a fountain his last burbling words were: "I wish I had spent more time at the office."

Posted by Mr Smithers, 10/08/2009 2:08:16 PM, on The Herald

mr smithers you can have a five cents an hour raise but have to work another hour each day for free on the basis that it can add value to your miserable worthless life.. now back to work before i dock you another days pay. i read recently of a australian militia unit in the pacific in ww2 who refused to go back to the frontline after 3 weeks of continuous duty. They demanded rest and ummm recreation. (r&r) they were court martialed and sentenced 'refusing to obey a lawfull order" to 6 months duty without pay. someone was gratious and didnt call it "mutiny " a capital offence. I guess that meant no beer and smokes for 6 months or what was considered the fighting or working mans "recreational pursuits". we can be gratefull that these conditions dont exist too much anymore. But for the suffering they are very reall and pronounced i am sure.

Posted by capitalist pig, 10/08/2009 2:42:57 PM, on The Herald

A point well made Abundance, but i should add that i LOVE mowing the lawn. There is no more cathartic experience in my life. It's job where you get immediate job satisfaction too - the results are obvious and immediate. I love summer when i get to mow twice a week !!!

Posted by fista, 10/08/2009 4:25:44 PM, on The Herald

40 years ago, I tried to introduce a 10 hour, 4 day week. The Unions would not wear it. I had consensus on a roster with some employees having Friday off and some Monday off, allowing the business to still open 5 days. Yes! a three day weekend. A worker whether a bricklayer, seamstress, plumber etc. who phsycially work are able to work competently for 9 hours. After that, concentration begins to drop dramatically and 12 hour shifts should never have been allowd, particularly with OH & S. What's next?

Posted by janet, 10/08/2009 4:30:20 PM, on The Herald

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