(ain’t no way to make a living)
Would you sacrifice half your pay so you could have your life back? Gordana Rodden finds a group of Kiwis who decided to throw in their 40-hour work week for a better lifestyle.
It has been just over a year since Anna RawhitiConnell pulled the plug on full-time employment. She’s never felt better. After 20 years in marketing and advertising, the ladder up had lost its appeal. Being told where to be Monday to Friday felt restrictive and was stopping her from doing things that felt satisfying.
‘‘I thought I was going to climb to the top and be the boss, but... I just felt exhausted thinking about it.’’
A Statistics New Zealand study this year found workers who were unhappy with their jobs had similar wellbeing outcomes as the unemployed. They experienced less life satisfaction and had poorer health than those who were in jobs they liked.
Senior lecturer of occupational therapy at Otago Polytechnic, Narinder Verma, says our lifestyles often consist of juggling multiple roles and demands. The goal should be to balance the four pillars of life – work, play, rest and sleep.
‘‘An imbalance of any of these domains can result in a negative impact on our health… Not having time to destress, relax or unwind can cause our health to deteriorate.’’
Stress can manifest in a number of symptoms and have a range of effects on our wellbeing. Finding personal ways to manage a busy life is important.
For Rawhiti-Connell that meant reducing her hours and going part-time – something she reckons has cost her $70k in just over a year.
‘‘I just knew I didn’t want to be tied to a desk anymore. I had this unconscious feeling of wanting to get off the treadmill.’’
She now works 25 hours a week in what she calls a ‘‘portfolio career’’ which includes writing columns and some digital marketing and communications gigs. She is studying a postgraduate diploma in psychology, dictates her own schedule and often writes late into the night if her brain is running with an idea. And she is happier for it.
‘‘I walk the dog when I want to walk the dog. I used to rush into a shop and get what I wanted and get out. I didn’t want to talk to anyone and now I can actually stop and have a conversation with people.’’
She participates more with her community too. She sits on the boards of both the Auckland Writers Festival and Waikato Rugby Union, volunteers for youth justice movement Just Speak and bakes for people in need with Good Bitches Baking.
Statistically speaking that’s not surprising. A British study supported by Volunteering New Zealand found ‘‘regular volunteering significantly increases well-being’’. Statistics NZ also says parttime workers, particularly women and people aged 65 and over were most likely to do volunteer work.
Rawhiti-Connell acknowledges her part-time work and new lifestyle is a privilege afforded by a skillset that suits remote work and her husband’s stable income. And although she took a big pay cut, she had a six figure salary to begin with. Not everyone has that luxury:she wishes they did.
The change hasn’t come without compromise, though. Less income has resulted in some alterations to the couple’s lifestyle, but they haven’t struggled. They eat out less and cook more but Rawhiti-Connell says they eat healthier because she now has the time to plan ahead, shop mindfully and cook different meals.
‘‘We are often being asked to do all of these things that are good for us but at the same time are being asked to keep up this incredible pace of work.’’
Rushing to work to sit at a desk for nine hours, only to come home and eat something out of the fridge and fall asleep on the couch by 9pm was ‘‘not living life’’. Expectations of maintaining happiness and wellbeing never felt realistic; there were never enough hours in the day.
This is how she has found herself in support of the ‘‘de-growth’’ movement, which aims to maximise happiness and well-being through nonconsumptive means. By re-focusing her priorities, she created the time for fulfillment. Her increased involvement in the community has made her ambitions less self-centred. Now she sees part-time work as the ‘‘way forward’’.
‘‘Look at all the environmental issues. Convenience exists for a reason. But you can’t expect people to drop all of that convenience if you’re asked to work all those hours.’’
Warwick and Sarah Armstrong moved to New Zealand from the United Kingdom 20 years ago and feel Kiwis are more accepting of career choices that don’t fit the accepted mould.
In England Warwick worked 35 hours a week with flexible work days and more holidays than the four weeks offered here. He found the change a shock.
Unhappy in his IT role, in New Zealand he decided to take a six-month sabbatical which turned into four years. He started a handyman business, painting and decorating people’s homes. His mum back home questioned his decision to jack in ‘‘such a good job’’ while friends in New Zealand were more understanding of his choice of a slower pace of life.
Eventually he stopped the maintenance work as he found himself feeling lonely. He was working on ‘‘beautiful’’ lifestyle properties but no-one was ever home.
‘‘You end up buying a nice property and then you’re not even there to enjoy it. It was one of those ‘a-ha’ type moments.’’
The couple are now subdividing their Pukekohe property, a job that will cost about $200k, but lets them dictate their hours. Sarah project manages while Warwick does most of the labour-intensive work. ‘‘It definitely has impacted us positively.’’
Waning motivation signalled the need for a change for marketing contractor Lisa Jansen. Her full-time role as the head of marketing at a software firm had become a repetitive cycle that left no time for the activities she enjoyed, let alone life-admin and the various side-hustles she was working on in the evenings.
It was mid-2017 when she scaled back her hours and she now earns on average half of what she used to make. What was initially intended as a temporary adjustment led her to realise she valued time and freedom over the lifestyle that was tied up in her good wage.
Everyone around Jansen was spending their money on houses, flash cars and starting families, but she didn’t feel the allure. She purchased a campervan and now travels the country, dedicates significant time to surfing and kitesurfing, and house-sits to reduce the cost of rent. With the extra time she has started a blog and is about to publish a book, One Size Does Not Fit All. Working 15-20 hours a week covers her expenses and most months she manages to save a little too.
‘‘I think more and more people are starting to figure out that materialistic possessions and wealth are not all that it’s cracked up to be.’’
None of these things would have happened if she had been working 40 hours a week, she says. There just wouldn’t have been the brain capacity to make it work.
‘‘People are more aware now of how much they sacrifice when they spend so much time working – not just in terms of the actual time but also in terms of energy, inspiration and mind-set.’’
It was distance from the rat-race that The Good Registry co-founder Christine Langdon needed to find inspiration to create a job where she is now working ‘‘100 percent from [the] heart’’.
Langdon has quit full-time work twice. In both cases she thought she was in the ‘‘perfect job’’, but was conscious of wanting more in life than nineto-five work was offering.
Quitting work without a plan might seem reckless to some but Langdon was sure she
‘‘More and more people are starting to figure out that materialistic possessions and wealth are not all that it’s cracked up to be.’’ Lisa Jansen