Shorter week working in NT

THE Northern Territory’s average work week has shrunk by more than an hour in the past decade, coinciding with a shift toward measuring employee output rather than time on the job.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal the Territory’s average fulltime worker spent 40.5 hours a week at work in the August 2016 quarter – 1.2 hours less than 10 years earlier.

Every state showed work weeks had shrunk but Queensland and South Australia tied for the largest decrease, each dropping two hours.

Tasmania had the smallest fulltime work week at 39.7 hours (down 1.2 hours on 10 years ago) and Western Australia had the largest at 41.1 hours (down 1.1 hours).

The national average was 40.6 hours.

But KPMG demographer Bernard Salt says the idea of hours has become less relevant.

“It’s good to be in the office but if you don’t get in until 9.30am it doesn’t matter because you are being measured on what you produce,” he said.

“If you’re checking your emails for three minutes on a Sunday, are you at work? That’s three minutes of your time the employer is getting that you are not charging them for. The petty observations of time just don’t really hold in the 21st century.”

One theory is that the increase in flexible work arrangements has encouraged people to work smarter rather than longer.

A report from recruitment firm Hays revealed 86 per cent of employees consider flexible working options an important or very important factor for their engagement and 71 per cent would go above and beyond for their employer if they were offered.

More than half of Australians would drop their salary by as much as 20 per cent to be able to work from home and a further one in five would take a 10 per cent hit.

An NBN report puts the number of Australians working from home, excluding farmers and bed and breakfast owners has reached 400,000 workers (4 per cent of the workforce).

Telstra general manager of diversity and inclusion Troy Roderick said workers in nonscheduled roles were assessed based on outcomes rather than the number of hours spent on a task but warned flexibility could encourage overworking.

Although workers report a certain number of work hours, they might be doing extra time that is not being counted.

“I love my work but I’ve got to watch the balance – just because I have the ability doesn’t mean I should be working all the time,” Mr Roderick said.

“If you’re checking your emails ... on a Sunday, are you at work?”