Stage 1 Workplace Practices
1. An article called “10 Reasons You Should Stop Working Long Hours Today” written by David K. William, explains all the reasons as to why human beings should stop working long and dreaded hours. The first point he makes is that it reduces productivity. This means that if you consistently work long hours, your concentration and energy levels will go down. This will then lead to falling behind on work and tasks. The second point David makes is that working long hours also increases fatigue. After long working days, people will develop symptoms of fatigue such as sleepiness, weariness, poor concentration and irritability.
The traditional work week in Australia has changed dramatically since the 1960s. One of the main reasons it has changed is because of the amount of women in the workplace. In the 1960’s women were usually “stay at home mums” which fed the children and cleaned up the house. They did this whilst the husband went out and got the money.
2. On the program click view, we watched “The Road to Work’ which tort us how we need to balance between work and life. Work is an
…show more content…
Balance is important because you need time away from work to spend time with your family or do everyday activities. In return, this gives you amazing health benefits mentally and physically. During the video, they used the quote: ‘Work defines who we are and how others see us’. This means that what ever occupation someone has, that defines them about who they are. They also discussed job satisfaction which means being fully satisfied with your job. if you have a job that you love you will never work a single day in your life. Job satisfaction also builds great self esteem and characteristics. There are also different hours you can work for example, there is casual where there are no minimum hours you have to work a week whereas a part time worker, you have to work a minimum of ten hours a
Strachan, G., 2013. Still working for the man? Women's employment experiences in Australia since 1950. [Online]
During the World War II era, the outlook on the role of women in Australian society revolutionised. As a majority of men were at war, Australian women were encouraged to rise above and beyond their stereotypical ‘housewife’ status. They were required to take on the tasks that were once considered predominantly male roles, and also allowed the opportunity to join the armed services as well as enlist in the Women’s Land Army. Many women who doubted their abilities played their part by entering voluntary work. Women had the privilege of contributing in Australian society in many ways that they had never been able before. Thus, it is manifest that the role of women in Australian society had drastically changed.
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
The inability to achieve “work-life balance” has become a major focus for workplace equality activists. When this topic is brought about it is primarily used to describe how woman cannot have a work and home life but instead are forced to choose. Richard Dorment took on this point of interest from a different perspective in his article “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” published with esquire. Going against the normal trend he describes how women are not the only ones put into the same sacrificial situations, but instead that men and women alike struggle to balance work and home. Dorment opens up by saying “And the truth is as shocking as it is obvious: No one can have it all.” In doing so Richard Dorment throws out the notion that one
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
When the U.S. is compared to the conditions of other workers in other countries the numbers come as quite a shock. According to the magazine Psychology Today, “The United States—one of the richest countries in the world--ranks 28th among advanced nations in the category of work-life balance, 9th from the bottom” (Cummins 1). This stressful imbalance of home life with excessive work hours has left us in desperate need of more time and is becoming a strong identifier of American culture in the world. As Cummins explains, “We log long hours at work with the fear of losing our jobs through downsizing hanging over our heads. Then we fight rush hour traffic to get home in time to be super-parents, putting dinner on the table, helping our kids with their homework, and checking in with friends and family members we feel we have neglected because we are so overwhelmed” (Cummins 1). This well pa...
The term “work” is something that a person does in his or her life. They are processes that may or may not usually be counted as work. For example, we had to choose three types of work that our classmates wrote about in an essay. The three I chose were: 1) “Being a student at a university is not cheap and it is difficult to work full time as well as being a full time student.” This is a prime example of how an institution organizes or coordinates the way this person lives their life. In order for this person to pay the high cost of tuition they must work full time. But, it is hard for him/her to balance work and school work. Therefore, they need to pick one before their grades start to slip or they become stressed
Working in a fast-paced environment and being on their feet can really take a toll on a person. In addition they have to be prepared for anything to happen during their shift. A study of overworked and stressed nurses found that nurses are overworked suffered from physical sickness like type two diabetes (Stress and overworked 2006). For most nurses, their work week consists of more than sixty hours. Working that many hours can double their chances of sicknesses. When they compare the working week hours of nurses who worked the normal 21 to 40 hours with those that work more than 40 or 60 hours a week, they found that in comparison the ones who worked 40 hours or more a week increased the risk by almost 50 percent for type 2 diabetes (Stress and overwork 2006). If nurses were to work their normal work hours without mandatory overtime, then their health would improve.
As it has been mentioned, this schedule results in better work-life balance and allows nurses to engage in other social and economic activities (Stimpfel, Sloane, & Aiken, 2012). However, much care should be taken while implementing any schedule. Health care administrators should be cautious and be able to identify fatigue-related risks that result due to extended shifts. Fatigue may compromise the quality of care delivered to patients. The work hours should be limited to 12 as this encourages flexibility and effectiveness in the nurses performing their duties.
This results in women regularly working a “second-shift” - a term that Arlie Hochschild describes as, “the housework and childcare that every family must do to function properly” (Kimmel, 2011). Women are struggling to overcome this inequality as men are very adamant to considering change. Women have tried reasoning with spouses, but have been largely denied due to the traditional thinking of what the roles of men and women are. A common compromise to this issue is women working part-time jobs to ensure they are able to maintain housework and childcare without overexerting themselves. This is not ideal as it is still promoting the role of women being the primary caretakers and the obvious inequality women receive.
Maria Konnikova, the author of The Walking dead, said that _ ¨And the performance of someone who has been awake for twenty-four hours straight is similar to that of someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1 per cent. In other words, “normal” amounts of sleep deprivation have us acting like we’re drunk.¨ and Laura Barge states, “ Compared to months in which no extended-duration shifts were worked, during months in which between one and four extended-duration shifts and five or more extended-duration shifts were worked, the odds ratios of reporting at least one fatigue-related significant medical error were 3.5 (95% confidence interval” When you are tired, your brain is not thinking right. Being tired can not only endanger your health, but it can also endanger your ability to think straight and create wise, thoughtful, and smart decisions. If it gets to a point where you are too tired, you can even be thinking like a drunk person which makes it extremely dangerous for the patient under your care.
Research indicates that long working hours contribute largely to stress and stress related diseases. Currently, employees are being put on pressure by the organization in order to achieve the set goals. Nevertheless, the employees are willing to work for longer hours in order to earn more money to satisfy their increasing needs (Gullotta et al., 2003:23). On the other hand, the organizations have been compelling their subordinates to work for longer hours as a way of punishment or increasing the possibility of achieving the set goals within the stipulated time. This aspect has increased the number of depressed people in the population. With many people being unaware of how to deal with depression, they are turning to smoking. As a result, long working hours have been associated with smoking behaviors (Burke & Cooper 2008:46). The most affected people are the young people. This behavior has increased the number of people suffering from cancer and other respiratory related diseases in the world. In addition, it has increased the number of people suffering from heart and lung diseases.
What do people think about their life purpose? Most of us think about life that is studying hard in order to get a wonderful job, working hard, and getting married. They have dreamed of one day having an eternal vacation for themselves and not having to work anymore. The traditional people around the world consider that overworking is an essential condition for the early stage of their life. Especially in most of Asian countries, the average workweek is 48 hours. According to the fulltime employment, people work 35 to 40 hours per week to be defined as full-time. If more than that number, that should be considered overworking. Overworking is an important issue because that can lead to some serious consequences. Thus, we should consider work-life balance more seriously.