Ouch. For more information, or to sign up go to http://www.gohomeontimeday.org.au/"The average full-time worker is doing six hours of unpaid overtime each week worth an estimated $9471 a year..."
A new survey from Human Resources vendor NorthgateArinso claims that Australians are actually getting better at saying "no" to work. According to the survey results;
- Fewer workers make work-related calls from home this year (24%) than last year (36%)
- Fewer workers check emails at home this year (38%) versus last year (46%)
- Fewer workers feel that work is intruding on their personal life this year (39%) versus last (52%)
- Fewer companies are providing employees with laptops this year 24% versus last (35%)
I'm quite surprised by these results, except for the last figure because more organisations are encouraging staff to use their own laptops for work. NorthgateArinso's ANZ managing director David Page thinks the shift could partly be to cultural change within organisations, as they realise that "online fatigue" can actually make workers less productive rather than more. This might be the case with some enlightened bosses, but I expect they're in a minority.
via smh.com.au
The writers over at IT Pro at SMH have delivered another article to help us all manage our email inbox. They offer tips to effectively manage the stream of communication, many of which will be familiar to you (such as switching off auto alerts). Its worth a read to see if there are any new tips you can take on board.
What I like about this article is the advocacy for alternative tools for communication such as instant messaging and cloud based document storage. Here are some highlights to entice you to the story.
An overflowing inbox is the enemy of productivity, according to experts.
University of Queensland strategic communications lecturer Sean Ritnel said companies around the world were tackling inbox management, completely eliminating internal emails and using micro-blogging, scheduling and instant messaging platforms instead.
...“Email is used because it's convenient and everyone's got it, so it's the lowest common denominator, but there's so many more tools that are more appropriate for each given task."...
Atos chief executive Thierry Breton announced he was setting a goal of no internal emails, forcing the company's 74,000 employees to communicate with each other via instant messaging and a Facebook-style interface.
“I think the burden is on organisations to provide more centralised data searching for all those documents that we need to read - that shouldn't be sent via email, but should be stored in a cloud - and that can be accessed anywhere in the world so it's easily accessible,” Dr Ritnel said.
via smh.com.au
Workers who find themselves answering work emails on their smartphones after the end of their shifts in Brazil can now qualify for overtime under a new law. The new legislation was approved by President Dilma Rousseff last month. It says company emails to workers are equivalent to orders given directly to the employee.
via smh.com.au
While some may not think twice about answering that phone call or email, others see it as an intrusion on their life and an erosion of their pay. Is work creeping into our own lives too much? Full article with readers' comments over at SMH: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/email-after-hours-its-overtime-by-la...