Changing Times
Number 8 July 2003
Newsletter of the Work & Age Trust NZ
www.nework.co.nz
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Money isn't all that matters
Older workers want a life. And work is part of life. New Zealand researchers
Dr Judy McGregor and Lance Gray found that one third of the older workers they studied said money was only one of several factors in deciding when to retire. In fact, they said that if they won Lotto over the weekend, they would go still go to work on Monday.
The study involved questioning 100 workers in clothing manufacturing and in the meat industry. The workers answered questions about their attitudes and choices around retirement. Most people wanted some choice about when to retire. But when they wanted to retire varied from now to never.
The researchers stressed the need for employers and unions to consider varied ways of retaining older workers. Some possibilities are alternative working arrangements, flexibility in job functions and reduced hours.
See full report on www.eeotrust.org.nz
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Census review
Do you remember those questions in the census about work? If you are a Portfolio worker, you will probably have difficulty giving accurate answers within the confines of the questions. The ways in which we work are becoming increasing varied, and portfolio workers are out on the edge. Statistics New Zealand, in calling for submissions on content of the 2006 census, noted the growing diversity in work arrangements and the difficulty of asking useful questions in the census. In the document Preliminary views on content , they recommend that the work questions remain the same as they were in 2001 and suggest that other statistics surveys may be more appropriate for gaining an accurate picture of people s work patterns. We have made a submission.
What do you think? Email nework@xtra.co.nz with your views.
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Notices
Successful Research Fund applications to the Department of Labour s Future of Work Fund for 2002/03 were:
1. Business and Economic Research Ltd. - Employment Status Transition and Small business growth
The aim of BERL's research project is to better understand the breadth and significance of employment status transitions. BERL s report on their findings will be available on the Future of Work website by the end of June 2003.
2. Business New Zealand - Skill Development and Training Survey
Business New Zealand will conduct a survey of its members.
3. Infometrics - New Zealand's Labour Supply Function
This study aims to determine the relative factors that affect people's willingness to become involved in paid work in New Zealand. In particular, how the effect of variables such as wage rates, hours worked, overtime opportunities, vary over different segments of the labour force - particularly by ethnicity, sex, and age.
If you are involved in research into the future of work and have any comments on the programme contact the Future of Work team by email at info@dol.govt.nz - type the words "Future of Work" in the subject line.
Conference
Wellington 4-6 November 2003
The PSA conference this year focuses on the future of work.
For more details visit the PSA website www.psa.org.nz/futurework.asp
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And the practical for portfolio and home business people
Home-based business owners say:
- You now have flexible hours, but they can stretch to more than you or your family may want, especially in the first year or two. Give yourself some short- and long-term goals. Plan special activities for now and for once you're better established. Make time for your family and yourself.
- You now have a designated parking spot, if you can still afford to have a car.
- You spend less on eating out, an activity you loved. No more Big Macs!
- You now have the authority to make your own decisions you can decide when it is time to empty the rubbish, back up the hard drive, and do fitness exercises.
- You can maintain direct contact with vendors, clients, etc. You're still working on avoiding telemarketing people who make your life a nightmare. You're waiting for clients to call, not someone who says, "May I speak to the person who makes the purchasing decisions, please?"
- You can apply your creativity and talent to your business. Figure out a different voice mail recording for each day of the week. Fix your broken office chair. Dust the furniture.
- You pay your own
tax, sick leave, holiday leave and overheads.
- You make considerable capital outlay, including upgrades & repairs. One fried hard drive. Two telephone lines. Three file cabinets. Four reams of paper. And a partridge in a pear tree.
- You live with the reality of sporadic, unpredictable income. Things are slow. You panic. You start searching in the Help Wanted section for a job.
- You may experience personal satisfaction when things go well, but be prepared for the possibility of depression when things go wrong. Don't let it happen. Leave the office. Take a walk, smell the flowers, read a great book, watch a Disney movie, go for a run: do something to get your emotional balance back. When you're really feeling down, avoid over-the-counter medications that might bring on depression, alcohol, people who don't understand, and sweets. Pizza's okay. But get outdoors if you possibly can.
- Sometimes family members don't (or won't) understand your need for isolation, so you can focus and think without interruption.
- Family and friends think you have a part-time job (or no job at all), and call or drop in whenever they're bored. After all, this isn't a real job, right?
There are lots of ups and downs in having a home-based business, but if you have a passion for your business, help from friends who've been there and done that, and family support, you can succeed!!!
6 steps to good service
- Competence
- Knowledge
- Pride
- Appearance
- Courtesy
- Extra effort/ commitment
Watch your business grow by giving good service consistently.
Telephone techniques
It has often been said that the telephone is the front door to the business. For those who work outside an organisation, the professionalism of the sole worker is on display from the instant that the phone is picked up.
Since technique is common sense, many people mistakenly believe they have it. But it's amazing how few have mastered calling skills, even people who are quite successful in other respects! The problem is, lack of such skills can be particularly costly in the all-important area of customer service.
Almost as much business is lost from poor service as from selling a poor product. And it is the telephone that is almost always the vehicle used to dispense poor service. If you are the caller, here are a few principles ...
State who you are - Always start by fully identifying yourself and your company.
Say whether you're calling long distance or from a cellular phone. If you're cut off, people won't automatically think you've hung up. However, do keep in mind that it is better not to make an introductory call from a cell phone or from a speaker phone.
Project your personality - This is all the more important today when so many calls are answered electronically. The best way is to make your voice sound "warm" and caring, as though you are talking to a good friend.
Using an answerphone - Change your message often for variety and to keep it timely. And make sure you give callers enough information about when and where you can be reached. Practice your greeting out loud before recording it, so you'll sound conversational.
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Australian Report on the Future of Work
less money, longer hours and harder work
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) have released a report which shows that, after two decades of labour market reform, most Australians are working longer hours, don't get paid for their overtime, and suffer stress at work.
The report, entitled The Future of Work in Australia, shows that much of the Australian workforce is underemployed or has no job security. Nearly half of the workforce is in part-time or casual work, even though most of those in casual work have been doing the same job for over a year. The report predicts that by 2010, one in three workers will be employed on a casual basis.
Seven key trends that have emerged in the contemporary Australian workplace are:
low quality jobs. For all occupations other than managers and professionals, the jobs created in the 1990s consisted entirely of part-time or casual jobs. The proportion of people employed in skilled, middle-income occupations has fallen. The result has been a polarisation between professional jobs at the top end and part-time and casual jobs at the bottom.
casual employment. Since the early 1990s, employers have increasingly used casual labour, even though it might be for long-term work. While casual employment suits some people, 68% of casual workers say they would prefer a permanent job with more dependable hours. Casual workers have little job security, often miss out on training, and say they are less satisfied with their income and work.
work intensification. All occupations and industries report that workloads have increased and work has become more intense. The proportion of employees working 50 or more hours per weeks has risen to 21%. Half the people who work overtime don't get paid for it and about the same number wish they didn't have to do it. Understaffing and the resulting increase in workloads and responsibilities have become fixed features of the contemporary workplace.
work/life balance. The increased intensity of work and a lack of quality, secure part-time jobs has put added pressure on people trying to balance their work with their family life. The workforce is now characterised by two groups: a large number of people in high-skilled, stressful jobs who would like to work less hours and an even larger group of people who have the stress of supporting themselves and their families with jobs they can't rely on.
earnings and equity. The gap between high-income earners and those in middle-and low-incomes increased dramatically during the 1990s. This was driven by an explosion of earnings at the top end of the labour market (53% real income growth for those in the top decile) and no real income growth at all for the 60% of workers who are on middle- and low-incomes. The "working poor" are no longer confined to the young or to part-time workers: 70% of low-wage workers are of prime working age (25 - 54 years) and the majority of low-waged women work full-time.
unemployment and underemployment. The problems of long-term unemployment, underemployment, "job churning" and discouraged job seekers have all become more entrenched. Last year, the average beneficiary was on the unemployment benefit for 50 weeks, and for men 35 _ 54 years old it was 86 weeks. Almost every job started by a jobseeker was temporary. And 30% of unemployed men in their mid-50s have now given up looking for work altogether.
skills, education and training. Employers are now spending less on structured training and are allowing fewer hours per year for employee training. Just 13% of employers employ trainees or apprentices. The report warns that decreased work-based training not only limits employees' career development and but creates a foundation for future skills shortages.
The full report can be found at.. http://www.actu.asn.au/public/futurework/
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Research on Portfolio work
A study is underway in England on portfolio workers. Professor Stephen Wood (E-mail: S.J.Wood@Sheffield.ac.uk ) and Dr Peter Totterdell (E-mail: P.Totterdell@Sheffield.ac.uk ) describe their study:
Portfolio work refers to a way of working in which self-employed individuals work on a range of different projects for different organisations or clients. Portfolio work is becoming more salient in discussion and it is widely assumed to be on the increase It is assumed that many organisations feel less able to offer permanent employment contracts and also that some individuals may be actively choosing to work this way. This has led to the concept of a portfolio career in which individuals develop and maintain a package of paid and unpaid activities that draws on their range of skills. But so little is known about this form of work, we cannot even be sure that these assumptions are right. Our research explores the nature of this form of work and evaluate its positive and negative effects.
The research is being conducted within the ESRC Centre for Organisation and Innovation.
Aims
To understand the nature and
characteristics of portfolio work.
- To identify the positive and negative aspects of portfolio work.
- To examine the impact of changes in work demands, personal control, and social supports on the effectiveness and well-being of portfolio workers.
- To determine the situational factors and personal characteristics that influence the experience of portfolio work.
- To make some practical recommendations that will benefit portfolio workers and relevant support agencies.
Research Strategy
The first stage of the research involves interviewing a sample of portfolio workers. The interviews will be used to develop a grounded theory of the experience of portfolio work. This will also enable identification of the key variables. In the second stage, a larger sample of portfolio workers from a range of work areas will be asked to complete (a) two questionnaires, one at the beginning and one at the end, and (b) a weekly diary for 6 months containing a set of measures concerning their activities and experiences during each week.
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Reading & & .
Good Jobs, Bad Jobs,
Beyond Jobs
Sally Lerner, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1. Published in Futures, March 1994
No democratic society is sustainable that refuses to face and deal with the basic needs of its citizens. Rapid technological change and the globalization of economic activity are re-structuring the North American economy, and with it the nature and future of work in the United States and Canada. There is now a clear, though barely-articulated question as to whether secure, full-time, adequately-waged employment will be available to much of the North American workforce, at least over the next 30-60 years, or whether "jobless growth", under-employment and "contingent" employment will become the norm, as happened first in Britain and is increasingly the trend in other industrialized nations.
This article offers an overview and evaluation of various policy options for dealing with changing patterns of work in North America. It flags two fundamental societal tasks that urgently require redesign to address these changes: [1] the distribution of income, traditionally tied to work for wages with which to purchase goods and services, and [2] education, where objectives and methods have
been geared primarily to creating 'employees' of varying levels of ability.
The aim here is to further the search for democratic approaches to these new realities so that North America can maintain both socio-political and economic viability, and do so without sacrificing its environmental 'capital'.
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The role of flexible employment
for older workers
This is a report of research on those leaving permanent jobs to take up temporary, part-time or self-employment before retiring fully.
The full report, Employment transitions of older workers: The role of flexible employment in maintaining labour market participation and promoting job quality by Stephen Lissenburgh and Deborah Smeaton, is published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by The Policy Press as part of the Transitions after 50 series (ISBN 1 86134 475 9, price £13.95).
Read the article at http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/343.asp
Some of the increasing number of people leaving work before state pension age may benefit from more flexible jobs that bridge the gap between permanent full-time work and retirement. Stephen Lissenburgh and Deborah Smeaton of the Policy Studies Institute studied the role of such 'bridge jobs' in the lives of people leaving work between 50 and state retirement age. Using national survey data, the research examined the characteristics and experiences of those leaving permanent jobs, factors associated with moving to temporary, part-time or self-employment and the qualities of these alternative forms of work.
The research was based primarily upon analysis of the Labour Force Survey. This survey is a rich dataset using a nationally representative sample of approximately 60,000 households (150,000 individuals) with a response rate of 80-85 per cent. Demographic, educational and economic activity data are collected in considerable detail from individuals aged 16 and above. Each quarter, a new 'wave' of 12,000 households is introduced and the oldest wave leaves, so that 60,000 are interviewed at any one time with each wave or panel being tracked over about 12 months. The ability to monitor changes for individuals over time is obviously important for a study of employment transitions. This study used a sample of entrants from spring 1997 to summer 2000, to give a sample of just under 43,000 people aged 50 years or more.
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Marcus Letcher believes that the skills we need to remain part of the workforce have changed. He believes we all need saleable skills, an enterprising outlook, networking, self-management, and to find ourselves a niche familiar territory to portfolio workers.
You can find his article on the Future of Work on http://www.seek.co.nz/editorial/0-3-6_future_work.htm
Also Marcus s book is available from the NEWORK library.
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New Zealand Developments
On 30 June, a group of people from all over NZ involved in research around work and age issues got together in Christchurch.
The goal was to coordinate and maximise research efforts in this growing field of interest.
The meeting, jointly organised by the NZ Institute for Research on Ageing and the Canterbury Development Corporation, covered employment, work, education, work-life balance and retirement issues.
They identified areas for research, listed initiatives (such as an upcoming seminar with Charles Handy), and discussed possible sources of funding and support.
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Diary note &
CONFERENCE
9 10 October 2003
Christchurch
Age Advantage Forum
To be held in conjunction with NZ Masters Games
Further details to follow.
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Changing Times is edited by Elizabeth Clements. If you would like to contribute send your experiences of portfolio work, book reviews, articles on these issues or comments on matters in this edition to portfolio@paradise.net.nz or to PO Box 9826, Wellington.
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Notice of AGM
The AGM of the Trust will be held at 1pm Thursday 7th August 2003
@ the NEWORK Centre.
All supporters of the Trust s work are most welcome.
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Work & Age Trust NZ Inc.
The NEWORK Centre
Level 2/57 Willis St, Wellington
Ph. 04-499-1048
Email workage@xtra.co.nz
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