Balancing Life and Work

Balancing Life and Work

How does non-standard and unpaid work affect Australians?

“The arrangements by which people work impact on the wellbeing of individuals and society. Aspects of employment such as remuneration, conditions and tenure of employment, and the amount of opportunity or risk associated with their work can affect a worker’s sense of economic security and overall wellbeing.”
Australian Social Trends, 2005, A.B.S

This paper examines how the shift between standard and non-standard types of work, including unpaid work, has affected the Australian worker. The model of fragmentation (Watson et al) is used to look at these phenomena. Are these new trends in work actually contributing to fragmentation?
The industrial Revolution gave birth to a variety of changes during the 20th century, all of which transformed the nature of work. The experiences of working life for Australians have undergone significant change over the past century. The evolution of work is continuing as it addresses changes in the organisation of work. Watson et al “Fragmented Futures” addresses the social inequalities of work and the workers efforts to improve their life and livelihoods. This has caused major transformations in the organisation of work as the structure of the labour force is changed to fit the context of political and technological change.
For many years the concept of work has been taken from the model of Fordism, which was the main model of standardised employment. Fordism was synonymous with fulltime work. “Fragmented Futures” uses the model of the “Harvester Man” (Watson et al chapter 2) in association with the model of the fulltime worker. Since the seventy’s there has been   vast changes in the way we work moving from the ‘Harvester Man’ the model of fulltime employment, being dominant to more non-standard forms of employment like part-time, casual and contract based employment. Non-standard forms of work are steadily increasing their share of what... [continues]

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