Work and life (Page 12)

I went for a bike ride on the weekend – across the Sydney Harbour bridge. The harbour bridge bike lane is the only way for a bicycle to cross Sydney Harbour Bridge without dismounting or cycling in 80 km/hr traffic until you get as far west as Concord Road    (20 kmContinue Reading

I came across this story from Savannah – an accounting firm who has decided it makes business sense to shorten the working week. And they are a firm who serves clients! Said the managing director: “We have always said that our people are our most valuable asset. We believe thatContinue Reading

I’m a big fan of the AFR‘s workspace. Every Tuesday, it’s two pages of writing about the culture of the workspace, which always includes an article called “Corporate Woman”, but often has another piece about work-life balance and the implications for companies. Unfortunately it’s subscription only, so you’ll just haveContinue Reading

A while ago, I posted about how I hated it when people started meetings or emails with the words “Jennifer and Gentlemen” because it was effectively singling me out as someone different. Well today at work I had a novel experience – I had an email entitled “Ladies and Kevin”.Continue Reading

I didn’t really notice this in all the excitement over the work choices legislation, but this case, from 2003 found that it was discriminatory to require a female employee to return to full time work after maternity leave. The case was (among other things) about a woman who wanted toContinue Reading

There’s a thoughtful article in the NY Times (via Playground Revolution) about Wall Street investment banks and how they are starting to take seriously the issue of work-life balance as a way of retaining women. Having come from professional services firms, it feels about five years out of date, butContinue Reading

There was a really interesting article in the AFR today about working hours. Quoting extensively from Mark Wooden (who among other things, is in charge of the Hilda Survey) it suggests that Australians don’t actually work the longest hours in the world (as is so often quoted because of an OECDContinue Reading

I’ve been pondering, after my last post, just how feasible it is to have a workplace with different attitudes to working hours. It’s a horrible time of year right now, which exaggerates the problem, but I’m working in a workplace which has (at one extreme) someone who sent me emailsContinue Reading

The ABS released a study (as part of their annual social trends review) of fathers and how much they are working these days. In previous posts, I’ve trawled through various ABS products to find out how many stay-at-home dads there are. This study answers the question – 3.4% of familiesContinue Reading