W ORK -L IFE ISSUES IN A USTRALIA : W HAT DO WE KNOW ? Natalie Skinner Barbara Pocock Philippa Williams Centre for Work + Life, Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies University of South Australia 22 nd AIRAANZ Conference, 6 – 8 Feb 2008, Melbourne

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP ) UniSA partnership with the Western Australian State Health Advisory Committee on Work Life Balance and SafeWork SA, Government of South Australia. 2

O VERVIEW Why are work-life issues important? Overview of AWALI Research questions: Does self-employment reduce work-life conflict? Who is most at risk of w-l conflict? Who wants to downshift their work hours? Implications Future plans 3

W HY ARE WORK - LIFE ISSUES IMPORTANT ? Health economics (Higgins et al 2004) 2001, Canada, health costs High work-family spillover: C$2.8 billion Mental and physical health impairments (for self & family functioning) Organisational costs T urnover intention, performance effectiveness Reduced marital and life satisfaction (Kossek & Ozeki 1999; Allen et al. 2000) 4

AWALI Australian Work and Life Index National survey of work–life outcomes Repeated annually from March 2007 CATI interviews conducted by Newspoll 1435 randomly selected working Australians 29 Qs + 10 demographic Qs (Newspoll) 5

E XISTING DATA SOURCES Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (HILDA), Melbourne University ‘Growing up in Australia’ Longitudinal Study of Australia Children (LSAC), Australian Institute of Family Studies Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA), ANU 6

7 Overview of AWALI 2007 sample characteristics (%) MenWomenAllABS labour force survey 1 All (male) Type of employment Employee Self-employed Work status Full-time (35+ hours per week) Part-time (< 35 hours per week) Trade union membership Note. Data weighted by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on age, highest level of schooling completed, sex and area. 1 ABS Cat. No November 2006 and Cat. No May ABS data for states includes 2.2% from the Northern Territory, and includes 15–24 year olds in first age group.

R ESEARCH QUESTIONS What makes a difference to work-life interaction? Selection of AWALI findings: Does self-employment reduce work-life conflict? Who is most at risk of conflict? Who wants to downshift their work hours? 8

M EASURES 9 1.Work interferes with responsibilities or activities outside of work 2.Work restricts time with family or friends 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = almost always 3.How many hours per week do you usually spend in paid work, including any paid or unpaid overtime? 4.If you could choose the number of hours you work each week, and taking into account how it would affect your income, how many hours would you choose to work? o 1 hour or more difference = poor fit

S ELF EMPLOYMENT 10 Work often / almost always interferes with activities outside work EmployeesSelf-employed All Have children No children Men Women * Work often / almost always interferes with enough time with family or friends EmployeesSelf-employed All Have children No children Men Women *

11 Prefer fewer work hours EmployeesSelf-employed All Have children No children Men Women *

W HICH OCCUPATIONS ARE AT RISK OF W - L CONFLICT ? Occupation: Work often/almost always restrict personal/family time 33.3% managers 23.5% professionals 27.1% technical & trades workers 32.6% community & personal service workers Prefer fewer hours 59.2% managers 50.0% professionals 41.5% technical & trades workers 34.1% community & personal service workers 12

L IFE CYCLE STAGE & GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION 25 – 54 years: highest risk Especially parents 1/5 th to ¼ report frequent (often/almost always) conflict Geographic location: city vs rural/regional 23.1% city workers report frequent time restrictions; 26.7% rural/regional workers 45.8% city workers prefer fewer hours; 38.6% rural/regional workers 13

W HO WANTS TO DOWNSHIFT TO PART - TIME ? Full-time women (32.5%), very few men (13.5%) Very little difference based on parenthood 13.7% full-time parents (women 16.3%; men 12%) 15.0% full-time workers without children Occupation: 18.5 % professionals (women 22.4%; men 15.5%) 11.4 % all other occupations (women 14.7%; men 8.7%). Work-life conflict Workers dissatisfied with WLB : 21.1% desire downshift (women 26.6%; men 18.9%) Workers satisfied with WLB: 12.1% desire downshift 14

S TUDY LIMITATIONS Small sample sizes some groups: Self-employed women Men working part-time Absence of questions on unsocial working times Reliance on short & single-item measures CATI costs 15

P OLICY AND PRACTICE Self-employment is not the “silver bullet” of negative work-life spill-over Neither is part-time work Job quality: especially workload Life-cycle approach to policy and practices (cf WLH project) “One-size-fits-all” approach not appropriate Recognition of life stages & differing pressures/needs Work, Life & Health project Other occupations besides managers & professionals are at risk of work-life conflict Technical & trades; community & personal service workers Work schedules, shift work, hours, workloads (time pressure, client load)? 16

F UTURE PLANS Annual data collection Next 3 years funded through ARC Linkage Project ‘Work/Life Balance, Well-Being and Health: Theory, Practice and Policy’ Modification to items Add item(s): eg unsociable work hours Survey of WA health workforce (ARC Linkage Project) 17

F URTHER INFORMATION Pocock B, Williams, P & Skinner N 2007, ‘The Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI): Concepts, Methodology & Rationale’, Centre for Work + Life Discussion Paper 1/07, May 2007.The Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI): Concepts, Methodology & Rationale Pocock B, Williams, P & Skinner N 2007, ‘Work Life and Time: The Australian Work and Life Index 2007’, Centre for Work + Life Discussion Paper 1/07, May 2007.Work Life and Time: The Australian Work and Life Index