Work-Life Balance Embraced by More Aussie Workers

The nation who achieved the world’s first sustained 8-hour workday is finally following its own concept: new research shows that fewer Australian workers are keeping up with work-related emails and phone calls after leaving the office at 5 p.m.

After the GFC, 83 per cent of Australians were hoping to improve their work-life balance in 2011, a global survey commissioned last year by specialist recruitment and HR services company Randstad Workmonitor found.

Technology has become the main culprit when it comes to blurring the lines between work time and home time by keeping us connected at all times, but a work-life balance study conducted by HR company NorthgateArinso found that only 38 per cent of Aussies now check their work email outside the office and 24 per cent initiating work-related phone calls – both significantly lower figures than last year’s study results revealed.

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More bosses are beginning to recognise the health risks of having employees always on the clock and are exercising policies now to keep these at bay. Blackberry, for example, has implemented a “turn-off” policy that switches off employees’ email accounts after hours.

“Steps like this underline to employees that the business takes this 24 / 7 demand on their attention seriously,” managing director of NorthgateArinso, David Page, told News.com.au.

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