So why aren\u2019t West Aussies feeling the workplace love? And can we do better?<\/p>\n
I spoke to the survey author Associate Professor Rebecca Cassells, from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre<\/a>, to find out.<\/p>\n When you think about what makes people happy with their job, you might think it\u2019s all about the money, money, money.<\/p>\n A lot of people\u2014myself included\u2014dream of earning a six-figure salary and making it rain every pay cheque.<\/p>\n But as Rebecca tells me, \u201cMoney doesn\u2019t make us happy, really.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cObviously we need it to a certain point, and it can make us really unhappy if we don\u2019t have enough to meet our basic living standards \u2026 but working really long hours and getting big pay packets isn\u2019t necessarily going to translate into satisfaction for your job.\u201d<\/p>\n The average pay of people who reported being very satisfied with their job overall was $1182 a week (roughly $57,000 per year). Interestingly, people who just reported being satisfied had a higher average wage of $1267 per week (roughly $60,000 per year).<\/p>\n Obviously, everyone wants to earn enough to pay their bills, with a little extra to squirrel away for bigger expenses. And it can be quite depressing<\/a> when you can\u2019t do that comfortably. People who reported being dissatisfied with their wage were earning an average of $877 per week, which was the lowest wage bracket in the survey.<\/p>\n But once you\u2019re earning enough to be secure, rejoice! Because taking on extra hours for the extra dough doesn\u2019t always pay off.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not just being hyperbolic (well, maybe a little). In Japan, so many people died from overworking that they actually made a word for it<\/a>.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not at that point in Australia yet, but long working hours are taking a toll. Rebecca\u2019s survey found that satisfaction levels drop significantly when people work over 38 hours a week.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a bit of a sweet spot I guess with the amount of hours you work, and if you go over those hours, you\u2019re more likely to be pretty dissatisfied with your job,\u201d says Rebecca.<\/p>\n Like pay, workers need a certain number of hours work each week to feel satisfied. Any less or too much more and you\u2019ll start to feel the workplace blues.<\/p>\n \u201cPart-time hours or low-ish type hours are going to be more satisfying than working anything beyond say 38 hours a week,\u201d says Rebecca.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s really important that we don\u2019t overwork ourselves, and we can have that work-life balance.\u201d<\/p>\n As the adage goes: work to live, not live to work. And work-life balance is a vital part of that.<\/p>\n Think about it. What makes you happier? Sitting at your desk for 12 hours a day? Or knocking off early to see family, go for a bike ride or take your dog for a walk?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a no-brainer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen other studies that show that working big hours of work each week actually compromises our health\u2014our physical health but also our mental health and wellbeing,\u201d says Rebecca.<\/p>\n \u201cBut also, these big hours mean that we are not able fit in other things that are probably really good for us\u2014like exercise but also connecting with family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Being able to work from home had survey participants reporting higher levels of satisfaction. But there are other ways to find that balance.<\/p>\n We could take a leaf out of Sweden\u2019s book<\/a> and try 6-hour working days. Or submit ourselves completely to the gig economy<\/a>\u2014though that may come with its own problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re able to actually sell your labour in a different way compared to what you were able to before,\u201d explains Rebecca, referring to Airbnb<\/a>, Uber and Airtasker<\/a> as examples.<\/p>\n \u201cThat can be a really good thing for lots of people in that they\u2019ve got more freedom and flexibility and more control over selling their skills. But at the same time, it sort of represents a problem when they may not have a job that\u2019s secure and that gives them a constant income stream.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo a few things for governments to think about in the future when it comes to the way in which our workers\u2019 lives are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n One thing I was dying to ask Rebecca was whether she\u2019d found evidence that a work spouse or bestie made a difference to job satisfaction\u2014mostly because my beloved work wife Kirsten hopped on a plane to London a few weeks ago, taking a piece of my heart with her. Afternoon tea breaks will never be the same without her.<\/p>\n While Rebecca didn\u2019t specifically look at work besties, she did find that the people you work with do make for a happier workplace as part of the overall job itself.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important part of making the job satisfying is actually the job itself\u2014so who you\u2019re working with and who you\u2019re working for and what you\u2019re actually doing each day,\u201d says Rebecca.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re working alongside people you respect, and they respect you \u2026 then that\u2019s going to let you walk away from the job every day feeling pretty good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that aspect of it encompasses having a buddy at work, but it probably also encompasses things like having a really good boss as well.\u201d<\/p>\n These words ring very true to my experience, where my work buddies and the office culture have made all the difference for me at many different jobs.<\/p>\n But in some workplaces, friendships are actively discouraged. In my last job, following a takeover of the business, a leaked email from our new owner dismissed our company\u2019s friendly culture as a \u201ccountry club<\/a>\u201d. They promised to rein us all in<\/a>, and in return, there were a lot of resignations.<\/p>\n What they didn\u2019t realise was that the culture was a large part of what motivated employees. Happy workers are productive workers. And Rebecca believes \u201cthere\u2019s a real business case\u201d for employers to foster happy work environments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that people that are more satisfied at work are more productive and they tend to turn up more often than not, so there\u2019s fewer sick days\/sick leave and there\u2019s less staff turnover,\u201d says Rebecca.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really a call to action for employers to make sure that job is as satisfying as it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Making a happy workplace is really quite simple in theory: reasonable working hours, flexibility and work-life balance and an enjoyable workplace environment where people get along.<\/p>\n In practice, it doesn\u2019t always work like that.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s worthwhile for employers to consider, especially if they want to keep their skilled staff. Hiring and training new employees can get costly, so if you want to keep yours around, you should try to keep them happy.<\/p>\n Your workplace is somewhere you spend a huge portion of your life. In some cases, you see your coworkers as much or more than your own family members.<\/p>\n So why not make this as enjoyable as it can be?<\/p>\n Because when you love what you do, you\u2019ll never work a day in your life.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on Particle<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You spend half your adult life at work, so shouldn\u2019t it be as enjoyable an experience as possible? New research has looked at what makes happy workers and how we can improve job satisfaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":6622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-innovation-and-law"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":{"title":"Cahli Samata","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/shutterstock_428237812-WP.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 23:40:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Does money buy happiness?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Working to death<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Graph](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/job-satisfaction-v-hours-worked-resized.jpg\")
Working to live<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Work wives the key to happiness?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The secret to happy workers<\/strong><\/h2>\n