Researching the work life seesaw
Politicians
keep telling us we have never had it so good, but the Australian Unity
Wellbeing Index (Deakin University) released in January this year could
indicate otherwise. What it found was that a home in a ritzy suburb, a
top job and the latest flash car are not necessarily a recipe for
happiness. It is not these things that make us “relaxed and
comfortable”. Michèle Nardelli reports.
We live in complicated times – a faster, more fractured society and one in which life, work and family can be an abrasive combination.
UniSA’s Professor Barbara Pocock believes happier, healthier and more sustainable communities will only develop if we understand the enormous cultural, sociological and economic shifts that have occurred in the past 30 years and set about making some important adjustments.
Director of the new Centre for Work and Life at UniSA’s Hawke Institute for Sustainable Societies, Prof Pocock said part of the rub is that while communities have changed enormously, institutional and cultural values have moved very little.
“You can see it in the simplest of examples and you can follow a chain of collision between work and life,” she said.
“If only 10 per cent of a school’s parents are working, support with sporting, coaching and classroom reading activities might be accommodated, but when the reality is that 60 per cent of all parents are working, it becomes really difficult to source that support consistently. That deficit has an impact on the quality of a school environment, the working patterns of teaching staff and implications for children’s learning and development.
“Household patterns in Australia have changed enormously too. A quarter are now single person households, a phenomenon that has increased steadily in the past 10 years, and while the majority of Australian households are families, more and more of them are households where couples work while they have dependants at home.”
Prof Pocock says women’s move into the paid workforce is one of the most significant changes in the labour force over the past 30 years. It has given women a great deal of economic power, but without changes in both the workplace and at home, for many it means a more intensive load and a big guilt burden.
“That key feminist goal – entry into public life through paid work – has been unravelled by the harsh realities of unchanging work practices, the undiminished burden of domestic work and a deficit in supports such as workplace flexibility and childcare,” she said.
“And it is not only women who face the ‘something’s got to give’ stresses of society today. We can see it everywhere – less time for family, longer working hours, less play time for children, erosion of a sense community and neighbourhood, increased levels of depression and mental illness, and increased marginalisation of the poor.”
As research Chair of the new Centre, Prof Pocock will lead important research into how these changes at work and at home fit or don’t fit together.
“We want to look at the points of abrasion or collision and inform policies and approaches that build a better fit for the individual and society,” she said.
Key issues on the agenda include an analysis of the effect of work on Australian women, men, children, households and communities, and the implications for social policy and theory. The Centre is also researching low paid service industry workers such as cleaners and child carers and the impact of work on their families and their communities. Another project is examining the impact of casualisation on young workers and their skills development, training and long-term employment. A key area for new research is an examination of childcare affordability, accessibility and quality and the impact on women and work, especially for low income earners.
“These are broad and complex issues but they go to the very heart of how
Australia will progress as a society. Many are international concerns,” Prof
Pocock said.
“We need to look at how we have changed, where the stress points are and
what is working well. We want to develop a buffer against the kinds of chain
reactions that cause widening inequality, social disadvantage and
unsustainable communities and work practices. Australia can do much better.”