Work Means Have Come to an End

Hula Kahlal – S3236327

Work Means have come to an End

Over the past decades, and with the influence of the new technologies and sciences, and the major transformations that have happened and still happening, especially after the industrial revolution, the means of work have slowly changed, and people’s interests and opinions of work, and culture itself have also changed, leaving major consequences on the structure and management of organisations. Nowadays, and thanks to all the different influences that affect people’s behaviours towards work. They started viewing work as getting a job, and the two are different. Some of the most important influences that affected and are still affecting people’s opinions about work are the levels of education and skills people actually have, globalisation and the unstable economic situation that Australia, as the other countries of the world, is currently going through and has to cope with, the different cultures and opinions within the Australian culture itself, have also a recognisable impact on how Australians view work. Gender inequality as well as discrimination, in its many forms has negatively influenced the way people perceive work, and their attitudes in and outside the workplace.

In the recent years, Australia and other countries of the world have suffered a very unstable economic situation. Prices of goods and services have and are still increasing remarkably. Some people can no longer afford what they used to afford a few decades ago. The increasing interest rates, mortgages and bank loans, along with the increasing needs and wants have had a massive impact on many people’s lives. Adding to that, globalisation has threatened some people’s jobs. People, with less skills and education comparing to others with high education levels and skills, are threatened to lose their jobs. These economic conditions pushed people to work longer hours and weekends sometimes, so workers are more secure about their jobs and can actually afford a good living and satisfy personal and family demands. Globalisation has left a big mark on how people actually view work. The freedom of trade between countries, with no or little barriers has had its positive side of more goods and services flowing in and out of the countries of the world, but has also affected people’s opinions of work. Along globalisation and advancing technologies, people’s needs and wants have increased dramatically, and the only way to cope with these living expenses is again to work longer hours. Working longer hours eventually lead people to lose interest in what they are doing, leading to less ‘productive’ workers and high levels of anxiety and depression among workers. This is when people view work as a source of income, and not an activity where they develop their own skills in their field of interest and contribute something to the economy.

While the participation of women in the workforce has increased since World War II, women have continued to be concentrated in only a few employment categories, have fewer opportunities for promotion and have access to less employment benefits than men, making the goal of gender equality in Australia’s world of work harder to achieve. While millions of women have become successful entrepreneurs, women are still grossly

1 | P a g e Hula Kahlal – S3236327 underrepresented in the world’s board rooms. Women have made significant contributions to every aspect of Australia’s development, including its society, culture and economy. However, women in Australia, as in other countries, have had to battle institutional and social barriers as they struggled for equality of opportunity. Australian women have faced setbacks as well as tremendous victories along the road to equality. Despite the high numbers of educated and skilled women in Australia, their skills and talents have not yet been utilised to the fullest possible extent. Being a woman, looking after family has always been a setback for women in Australia. Employers expect women to be absent from work or taking maternity leave to look after family, which makes them less motivated to employ women in the earlier stages of recruitment. In some sectors, women are disproportionately found in the lowest paid employment categories and are also less likely to have attained managerial and senior executive positions within firms, with a figure of 4% of women in the workforce, attaining managerial roles, compared to 10% of male managers. Artificial barriers to management for women - referred to commonly as the "glass ceiling effect" includes various types of attitudinal and organisational bias. In high technology organisations, women, with science qualifications have been given lower employment and promotional opportunities, comparing to the men with science or engineering qualifications. Giving fewer opportunities to females in the workforce demotivates them to get their work done efficiently; thinking that when doing their best, their effort will still be underestimated, and eventually, the goal of going to work will only be for financial purposes.

Another phenomenon that has aroused in the recent years is the dramatic increase in the numbers of young people entering the workforce as part-time and casual employment conditions. Again, with the increasing needs and wants of people, especially with younger generations, who are most of the time still studying, students, started entering the workforce in huge numbers, usually working as part-timers, to afford their education and other personal needs. Usually, the purpose of work with younger people is only to earn a steady income, and not necessarily doing something within their field of interest. Moreover, some, if not most employers usually underestimate the quality of work young workers do, and think that they can be easily replaced, leaving them with less training and promotional opportunities, and investing only little in their young workers, whom they see as being basically unskilled, non-essential, and easy to replace. Students complain about the fundamental lack of respect they are shown at work. Moreover, they feel as set apart from the permanent employees, in terms of differences in payment, benefits, work status, or working conditions.

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The culture of the Australian society and the way they view work and education has also left a print on the world of work in Australia. In most cultures in the world and specifically in Australia, parents play a major role in the decisions of their children. As children grow into adolescents, they begin to make decisions that will impact their future. One of the most significant areas in which parents impact the decision-making process is in career choice and preparation. Obviously, the career path of the parent greatly influences their child's decision about his/her professional future. Children can see the benefits and disadvantages of their parents' careers and react accordingly. They might decide that a career in the same field is for them, or they might take the opposite route. This is when some parents think it’s better to put pressure on their children to study or work in the field they think is best for them, not giving them the space to choose what they really want to do and what they think they’re good at, and consequently, children end up working in the field their parents wanted them to be in, in their earlier lives, so they eventually lose interest in what they are doing, even if it was financially rewarding, but not self-fulfilling.

Motivation and enthusiasm manifest as desire and interest, and as a driving force that pushes to take action and pursue goals. Lack of motivation and enthusiasm denotes absence or deficiency in desire, interest and driving force. People who are generally unmotivated are also unmotivated to work and contribute to the society. Lack of motivation and enthusiasm can manifest at work in pursuing goals and in everything else. This often brings indifference, unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Lack of motivation can be caused by; lack of faith in one’s abilities and capabilities, low self-esteem, stress and nervousness, lack of incentives, fear of failure, and so on. These causes generally drive people to work less, lose interest in what they are doing, because they think that what they are doing is pointless anyway, and they are the ones that usually produce inefficient work, comparing to those have higher work motivation.

Discrimination is another issue that Australia is experiencing, especially in the workplace. Discrimination includes many areas, such as racial, gender, which we have discussed earlier in the essay, discrimination based on religious views, sexual orientation and so on. Racist attitudes are positively associated with age, non-tertiary education, and to a slightly lesser extent with those who do not speak a language other than English, the Australia-born, and with males. About 15% of Australians have experienced racism within institutional settings like the workplace and in education. Racism at work may take various forms, including physical violence, bullying, name-calling and more subtle discrimination like not promoting someone simply because of their race. It may be an employee targeting another worker or aimed at the customer. Workplace discrimination can take place in many forms. Often it can’t be pinpointed to one action or event but is a combination of things. Examples of workplace discrimination include:

 missing out on specific opportunities like transfers, promotions  not being paid the same as someone else doing the same job, with the same experience and qualifications  an employer or fellow workmate deliberately withholding information you need to do your job  physical or verbal abuse  being excluded or isolated by workmates or your boss  Being given an impossible task.

Workplace discrimination can also happen when you apply for a job. So, if for a reason during an interview or a recruitment process you feel that an employer has made negative judgements about you based on your gender, religion etc, then you may have grounds to take action. Workplaces where racism is happening generally have higher levels of stress and conflict with decreased efficiency and productivity. There may be increased staff turnover, absenteeism, work related injuries and workers compensation claims. Sexual discrimination is another type of discrimination that is common in the workplace. Sexual discrimination is defined as the unfair treatment of harassment because of your sex; it may include things as unwanted sexual comments or abuse, unwanted sexual suggestions, offensive gestures and unwanted sexual contact. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is another subfield that falls under sexual discrimination, where people are discriminated because of their sexual orientation. Employees who suffer any of type of sexual discrimination are generally unmotivated to go to work, and may also suffer anxiety and depression, and may even lose interest in their field of profession.

Summarising this essay, it can be clearly seen that over the past few decades, work has lost its moral meaning, where most people work only for financial purposes, slowly forgetting that the meaning of work is doing something within one’s interest, and actively contributing to the wider society. Looking at Australia’s world of work, economic instability in Australia, as in the rest of the world is one of the reasons why employees no longer enjoy their work, as much as they look forward to their pay day. With the constant increase of prices, along with the increasing needs and wants, people tend to give up on some of their leisure time and work longer hours, to be able to cover up their personal and family needs. Working longer hours and in the holidays, and having less leisure time causes imbalance between work and life outside work, eventually causing anxiety and depression, as people spend most of their time working, and not having enough time for their life outside work. Gender inequality is still a setback for some women to advance within their career. Women, in some organisations, are given fewer advancement and promotional opportunities comparing to men, who are equally qualified. In addition, discrimination, in all forms, is also an issue in Australia’s world of work. Some people with different religious views, backgrounds, (including those with language background other than English), different racial groups and sexual orientations, have suffered unlawful discrimination in their workplace, which impacted negatively on the way they get their work done, and themselves, as individuals. Younger generations, who are generally students, are motivated to join the workforce to cover up their increasing needs and wants. Work, for them, is generally a source of

4 | P a g e Hula Kahlal – S3236327 income, and not necessarily something within their field of interest. And still, they are not treated equally with those who are permanent full timers, and their work quality is usually underestimated because employers think that young workers can easily be replaced, leaving them with fewer training and promotional opportunities. Motivation and enthusiasm, as personal attributes, are the main reason why people get their work done efficiently. Individuals who lack motivation and enthusiasm usually suffer low self-esteem, low faith in their abilities and capabilities, have fear of failure and consequently, stress and nervousness, leading to less work efficiency and productivity.

References:

 Brown, K, Nov/Dec 1997, ‘Glass ceilings in high-tech companies’, Vol.28, Iss.10, pg 179, 3 pgs. 22 March 2010, ProQuest Full Text  Dunn, K, 2003, ‘Racism in Australia: findings of a survey on racist attitudes and experiences of racism’, New South Wales, pp. 1-13  Jules, 2006, ‘Workplace Discrimination’, ActNow, viewed 22 March 2010, http://www.actnow.com.au/Issues/Workplace_discrimination.aspx  Khilawala, R, ‘Lack of Motivation at Work’, Buzzle, viewed 22 March 2010, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lack-of-motivation-at-work.html  Morin, E, 2004, ‘The meaning of work in modern times’, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, pp. 1-12  Maurer, T, Wrenn, K & Weiss, E, 2003, ‘Towards Understanding and Managing Stereotypical Beliefs about Older Workers’ Ability and Desire for Learning and Developing’, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, viewed 22 March 2010, Emerald

 Nugent, M, 2002, ‘Women’s Employment and Professionalism in Australia’, Australian Heritage Commission, viewed 22 March 2010, http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications/commission/books/p ubs/womens-employment-and-professionalism.pdf

 Winkler, I, 2008, ‘Students as Non-Standard Employees. Exploring Work Related Issues in Students' Perceptions on their Term-time Job**’ Vol.19, Iss.10, pg 179, 21 pgs. 22 March 2010, ProQuest Full Text

 Australian Government, 2008, ‘Women—Towards Equality’, Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, viewed 22 March 2010, http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/women.html

 International Labour Organization, 1996-2010, ‘Gender and employment’, International Labour Organization, viewed 22 March 2010, http://www.ilo.org/employment/Areasofwork/lang-- en/WCMS_DOC_EMP_ARE_GEN_EN

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