What A Week!!!
Let’s keep it really simple. The image below is a visual representation how you should feel at the end of your work week, wherever days you work, shift length and pattern of hours. Satisfied and ready to relax. Your job here is done, right? It is, if your employer is complying with the maximum number of hours under the National Employment Standards. You can check out the details here, on the Fair Work Ombudsman website, but first let’s chat about the sneaky ways your hours can go on the up, and up, aaaaand up and you don’t realise it’s even happening. Let’s go!
‘Huh? How come some workers have 12-hour shifts and work in blocks? That’s more than 38 hours!’
These workers have negotiated to work in blocks of time.
This is, yet again, another one we need to break down into relationship status. The ways in which employees are taken advantage of, based on their employment status is key here. Remember, at the centre of every healthy relationship is feeling safe and secure. If you feel comfortable being yourself, doing what you want, within the confines of agreed upon standards set by society, then you shouldn’t even be here.
Go find your lifelong employment partner and go do your thang!
Still here? Okay then, let’s go…
- Casual employees
One common way our system abuses workers is to use casuals as full time or almost-but-not-quite-but-nearly full time employees. It is the equivalent of being in a FWB (friends with benefits) relationship, but the person sees you everyday, is not your friend and is never there when you need them.
Off sick?
Well, I hope you feel better soon, give me a call when you feel better.
Gotta attend your nan’s funeral?
Oh, I’d send some flowers but I don’t know the type she likes.
Oh, I mean liked, not likes.
Oh…look, just call me when it is over and done with.
Now that’s not to say all casuals are treated that way by an individual employer. There are great and caring businesses out there. But, we chose our framing above very carefully for one reason:
our system
If we, as individuals, continue to accept these subpar conditions and inappropriate workplace behaviours, we are creating the system ourselves. We are not suggesting it is easy to unpack these issues but we are saying this holds true for all Australian workers:
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
David Hurley
That man, in direct opposition to us at Pink Collar Workers, was high level personnel in the Australian Army. The person to use that quote in a high profile manner, David Lindsay Morrison, was the head honcho of the Australian Army. The matter? Gender-based sex related discrimination at work, where females were treated in a demeaning way by males at work. If an industry dominated by males and power over – with real power and big tankers – can say stuff you to the status quo, so can you.
Tired of being in the casual pool, floating on your back, entertaining yourself by watching the clouds, waiting for a sense of security, hoping you don’t lose one of your inflatable floaties? Check out the tool below to seek resolution to that sinking feeling you get, when you check your roster for the next work week.
The next step? We have outlined it below for you:
📑 Collect your pay slips and rosters.
📑 Make note of consistencies. Write them down.^
📑 Compile an overview. If possible, in writing.
📑 Approach your supervisor, manager or boss and seek to be made permanent or even to obtain partial permanence by having a minimum number of hours as permanent, the rest as additional bonus hours.
📑 Get a new contract. We cannot stress that enough.
📑 Congratulate yourself for having the courage to choose a more secure future for yourself.
^ Examples: I work every Monday and have done so for twelve months; I consistently work 30 hours a week, including every Saturday; and I never go below ten hours a week, generally working around 25 hours.
As a bonus, because we’re kind and you deserve all the help you can get, here’s a little gift for you:
🎁 RED HOT TALK TIP 🎁
A lot of workplace negotiations are based on timing. Let’s go back to our childhood, because that is where our interpersonal skills are developed. The adult of the house is cooking dinner, while cleaning up from the day. Their phone is tucked between their ear and shoulder as they talk to another school parent about the science experiment their fifth grader is supposed to complete. You need help with your own homework, otherwise you’ll get in trouble:
Child: I need help with my homework!!! It’s due tomorrow. Otherwise Ms Lennon will get angry at me.
Parent: Not now! Can’t you see how much I have got going on.
The parent has every right to be upset and the child has every right to be hurt. But, had the child waited until after dinner, the dishes done, there might have been a less agitated response. Keep in mind, that child had the right to ask for help. That’s normal.
So let’s get back to your boss:
✅ Choose your timing wisely.
❌ Before the morning coffee is a no. We’d probably sack you if you approached us before the caffeine hit. Just joking. No, seriously though, not before coffee. That’s a huge no no around here.
❌ During peak periods is also a no. The person won’t have the capacity to focus on your needs.
❌ Not at the end of a long day. It just be another thing for them to do and, like the child in need of homework help, you’ll get shouted down.
✅ Flag it with them that you want to chat at some point. If their brain knows a conversation is coming they’ll be able to prepare potential responses, will be safer in opening up to the conversation – as well as potential options – and you’re more likely to be heard.
❌ Don’t get drawn into a conversation about it.
✅ Do have an excuse ready to go, to get away, if they try and draw you in.
❌ Do not have the conversation in public, they risk being shown up as the ‘bad’ employer and that could make them positional, as opposed to open minded.
✅ Do thank them for taking the time to talk to you, even if they reject your request.
Keep in mind that change is a step by step process. This initial conversation might be the one that plants the seed and starts a new way of being. It is common, unfortunately so, that people in power need to think it was their idea. Highly manipulative people plant the seed, walk away, come back and water it, only to reap the fruits of their labour a few months later, sometimes weeks. We are all expert manipulators.
It is not a bad thing but it is when the goal is power over, hurt or harm. If the goal is to build something better, there is no shame in playing the game with pride. In fact, it is a shame that more people don’t do it. You deserve to feel safe and secure at work. There you have it, our little gift to you. You’re welcome.
- Permanent employees
This part is simple. The most common way that toxic employers will take advantage of their staff with permanent status is to give minimum permanent hours and then load them up with extra hours. They see it as a bonus; a way to create instability in the workforce.
It is also a way to avoid having empowered employees who’ll raise issues, if they see them. Scary stuff. It is a sign there’s a lot more at play than base weekly hours. The tool, provided above, is one way you can address this issue, to help you secure more hours permanently.
- Full time employees
This one is a challenging one and requires a case study to get it out and bring logic to an illogical sequence of events. Sadly, despite lacking logic, it’s too common in some Australian workplaces.
Let’s Diagnose This Little Brat
The key to getting to the core of any workplace issue is having a diagnostic mindset. In every story there’s a little brat who wants it all their own way. The big baby, sitting centre stage of this saga, was a male Human Resource Manager. He had a black titanium wedding band. We laughed that band was as as black as his heart but it was no laughing matter. Those workers were worked into the ground, then blamed for it. Let’s see how he did it:
🔍 The employees performed diagnostic work.
🔍 This required careful attention to detail.
🔍 Mistakes in this field could lead to a misdiagnosis, at best and a life lost, at worst.
◼️ The department involved was understaffed, well documented and known to management.
◼️Excuses used for the lack of staff was budget, budget and, wait for it, the budget.^
◼️ The employer managed this by making workers do overtime. Those who didn’t want to were shunned, in front of others in the department, then blamed for ‘letting the team down.’
◼️Some workers made it known their personal lives were being affected, with relationships breaking down due to lack of quality time, fatigue and that general irritability that comes with being at work all day, almost every day.
◼️ Eventually the toll hit and sick leave went through the roof. This led to increased pressures on the already strained budget. Management blew up and the tired workers took the hit. Guilted by the man with the black heart, they returned to work sooner than they should have, still sick, while dealing with vulnerable people.
^ Cost, money and access to funds is the last excise an employer can use when addressing safety issues at work. Fatigue due to overwork and excessive hours is a safety issue, not a funding issue. Do not let the toxic employer convince you otherwise. They are lies.
So how did this story end? Just like that. They quit and found a place that treated them well. That put more pressure on Human Resources to recruit but, a public sector service moving at a snails pace, it took months. Those years, sometimes decades of experience:
*poof*
Like magic, they disappeared. A quarter of them walked within a month and all because the man with a black heart, wedding band to match, determined to stay illogical, despite being faced with facts, wanted his own way.
They went to the private sector. That elusive work/life balance came back, along with better health and more hope. As for a top tool to help decide if you should stay or go, read the caption below to see if that helps.
Use that to guide your next steps. There is no wrong answer and your next steps may change. It is one tool to open your mind to a new possibility, outside the overwhelmed reality you inhabit.
The lesson here is simple:
Some places cannot be changed from the inside, they only change when you leave. Taking a stand and walking away is the most courageous step made, for your safety.
PINK COLLARv WORKERS
As for that Human Resources Manager? He later went on to bring a male security officer into a room and interrogated him, until the security officer was unable to speak. He was too busy sobbing. A 17-year-old male, a work placement student, was unfazed by the whole affair. He was asked to take notes.
You can see how, left unchecked, these problematic people will go on to ruin future generations. Let’s chat about that next, the elephant in the room, the real cost.
- The Unnecessary Expense
Reality is not always pretty. Bad people exist, they do bad things and good people are hurt in the process. The same line, a hangover from our childhood, creeps its way into the workplace:
We can’t afford that.
Every sector, both public and private, use this line to avoid adding more money into the mix. The cost of avoiding a safe workplace and safe workplace practice is beyond the dollar amount. It extends past current human capital too. It moves into the damage done by not adopting safe standards. For this reason, state-based legislation has two ways to prevent employers using money as an excuse:
1️⃣ Extreme exceptions; and
2️⃣ Reasonably practicable.
Extreme Exceptions
The legislation is similar in many states. For example, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia operate under the Workplace Health and Safety Act, while others, such as Victoria and Western Australia, go by the Occupational Health and Safety Act. An example is below but, first, an excerpt from the legislation, this time it’s the state of New South Wales that gets a feature:
‘Tough luck. Safety takes priority, pay up or you’ll be deemed to have an unsafe workplace.’
NB: Click on the picture above and you can directly to the legislation via a site called AustLII.
The point is, the use of:
We ain’t got the money for it.
Can no longer be used as a valid excuse when the focus is from a workplace health and safety angle. That manager, with a focus on budget, wouldn’t be able to use that angle, not anymore. Powerfully stuff.
Reasonably practicable
This one is throughout most of the health and safety legislation but in states such as Victoria, the focus is on occupational health and safety. That’s where we’re headed next:
Sub-section (2)(b): the degree of harm from an electrical fault is high, potentially fatal. It’s reasonably practicable to assume this is a safety issue. It needs to be addressed immediately, not later.
*NOTE: See how we pointed out the ‘right now’ above. Leaving workers dangling with future prospects of safety is a way of buying time. Often, unfortunately, it is a way to give the illusion of future action but with no intention of real change.
NB: Click on the picture above and you can directly to the legislation via a site called AustLII.
Office workers doing the 9-5, Monday through Friday grind might think they’re doing it tough. Let us give you examples from a few of the sectors lagging behind in workplace rights:
🧴 Workers in an aged care facility forced to dip into their own pockets to purchase conditioner for the aged care residents.
The man at the top, an accountant by trade, decided shampoo alone was adequate, ditched the conditioner. The residents, harmed because it was impossible to run a brush through their hair; those who raised it as an issue were targeted. Others snuck it in. He found out and hunted them down for bringing in ‘contraband.’ They faced disciplinary action.
An accountant should never have been in a role of Director at an aged care facility, in charge of some of our most vulnerable.
You might think it’s just a bit of hair care. In the hands of a tyrant, it was a form of bullying and harassment. That’s a hazard under the relevant safety act.
📱 Workers from a large, well-known multinational not-for-profit caring for children who were in the ‘system.’ That is, children who were no longer safe in the family environment.
Day workers, working standard hours were then asked to take on ‘on call’ duties. The outcome was a full day at work, an allocated work phone at night and being ‘available.’ Night shift workers, faced with a problem, were required to seek advice when faced with conflict or an emergency.
Interrupted sleep, full day shift at work, times for seven days. The safety issues are obvious. An employer that size could have afforded two extra employees to rotate through or work specifically in an on call role.
They chose not to. Their reasoning?
If we have to spend more on staffing, the clients will suffer. We’ll start it off as a trial, see how we go…
We’ll tell you how it goes. It is a trial that never ends, just like that annoying song sung by ons little white sheep. They’ll tweak it and trial that one, then change managers and re-trial it again. How bothersome, just like the song that never ends.
Logically it was logical – everyone starting shift when they arrived at the end destination. In reality, based on differences in job duties, it was the equivalent of asking a truck driver to haul their load along for 90 minutes, unpaid, then hit the clock once they got to their ‘start mark.’
🚙 One employer, three categories of workers – two were office-based, one was out in the field. The final group, required to attend sites around the state, started their day when they put the key in the ignition. The other two work groups began their day when they entered their office, either starting their day with the beep of their hard drive and flicker of their screen, the others huddled around the coffee pot.
That employer decided to ‘streamline’ the workforce and, without notice, they all started ‘on site’ Those affected by the change were now working 15 hours day longer each week.
Can you imagine truck drivers accepting this? No way. The trucking industry would stop and Australians would be up in arms. Rightly so. From a safety angle, the expectation to do an extra 15 hours a week is untenable and that’s the argument you would run, under the relevant legislation. A worker put at risk of running themselves off the road under the guise of ‘streamlining systems’ symbolises inept management. These types are replaced, usually sooner, not later. Sadly it is often after one of the affected workers dies at the hands of such poor judgment calls.
As for excessive hours, a common problem in Australian employment, you can work out whether or not your hours are the norm by calculating abnormal patterns on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website.
Maximum Weekly Hours.
PINK COLLAR WORKERS