August 08, 2006 05:37pm
Article from: AAP
WORKING four to six hours a day is the key to happiness, according to a new report.
In the quest for money and status, Australians are among the hardest workers in the world. But Sydney University academic Dr Caroline West says while work delivers self-esteem, income and social ties, more than four to six hours a day will bring anxiety, exhaustion and a poor quality of life.
"We've structured our lives so the majority of our waking life is devoted to work, which might bring us more money but doesn't make us more fulfilled," Dr West said.
"So long as there's a trend to work these really long hours you'll continue to see the plateauing and decline of people's wellbeing."
Dr West said almost a third of Australian full-time workers worked more than 48 hours a week and 30 per cent worked 50 hours or more.
After analysing a range of studies over the past few years, Dr West, who has published her findings in the Australian Law Reform Commission Journal, says the idea of a six-hour day is not a fantasy.
"I don't see any reason why it can't realistically happen," she said.
"It's going to require a lot of structural reform, but I think the time is ripe for addressing it as an issue."
She said the concept of the four- to six-hour working day – originally flagged by economist John Maynard Keynes in the early 1900s – would even help productivity.
But with competitiveness and the quest to "outdo one another" ingrained in society, most people weren't convinced that working less would make them happier, she said.
Dr West's research shows most people would rather work longer hours and have more money than have extra leisure and family time.
She said people who don't have money and who don't value work as their number one priority often risked being ostracised, or dubbed as lazy.
"It's difficult to be someone who places priority on leisure if you're surrounded by people who just care about money, or care about it more than other things," Dr West said.
For now, only a select privileged group with alternatives such as job sharing arrangements could afford the shorter hours, she said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20060290-1702,00.html
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