Written by Tom Gill, freelance journalist and consultant, for The Guardian.
Sophie Fennelly was working in tech sales when the pandemic started. Initially, Zoom and Teams felt like a “lifeline”, allowing work to continue while many were told to stay at home. But as time went on, constant remote working began taking a toll on her mental health.
“I found myself attending endless virtual meetings, with little time left for focused work or even a proper lunch break. The constant ‘on-call’ feeling only amplified my stress levels,” she says. This led to burnout, and eventually she quit her job to go freelance so she could have greater control of her time.
It’s a feeling that might sound familiar to white collar professionals. A new report from the University of Melbourne and YouGov asked a nationally-representative sample of 1,400 workers from across Australia – the majority of whom held tertiary qualifications – about their experiences of employment since the pandemic began. It found around half feel exhausted and in poorer physical and mental health. And one third of Australian workers are currently considering quitting their jobs
Burnout, the study found, is on the rise. About 50% of “prime aged” workers aged between 18 and 54 reported feeling exhausted at work. Younger workers in particular feel there are fewer opportunities for advancement and are more likely to feel time-poor.
Worryingly for employers, a third of workers under 54 are considering quitting. In the US, 2021 and 2022 were described as the “great resignation”, with large numbers of workers quitting their jobs. But University of Melbourne researchers said that so far, the effects in Australia have been marginal.
‘The great contemplation’
Prof Leah Ruppanner, the report’s co-author, says the pandemic allowed many people to reflect on what was important to them. Now Australian workers are thinking carefully about their next moves.
“Work wasn’t working for many people pre-pandemic. People want more flexibility in how they work, but that should be moving beyond just ‘working from home’ and ‘working from the office’ – that’s an oversimplification.”
The mood among workers in Australia has been more akin to a “great contemplation”, says Prof Rae Cooper, who researches work and employment relations at the University of Sydney and did not work on the survey.
“People are having a really good think about the place of work in their lives. The ‘great contemplation’ is about people saying: what is my work, do I enjoy it, what can I do to make it better?”
Worker mobility in Australia – the percentage of those who changed jobs in a year – was at a historic low of 7.5% in 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, last year mobility increased to 9.5%, the highest level since 2012. In February 2023, the ABS reported that the number of people who left their jobs in the last three months either for “a better job” or because they “wanted a change” increased by about 14,200 to 343,200 people. In the first quarter of 2019, that figure was just 215,000. This suggests Australia may be at the start of its own “great resignation”.
Kate James, a career coach and mindfulness teacher based in Melbourne, says the impact of the pandemic was significant and many clients came to her seeking to change their working lives. However, she recognises that decision making has been delayed.
“2022 was quite a big adjustment period – [the pandemic] was a significant shock to us. It really feels like 2023 has been when people are getting back into the rhythm of life as we know it … there’s a sense of people coming up for air and saying, ‘what’s just happened?’
‘Working from home but working all the time’
So what are Australian workers looking for? Many appreciate the benefits of flexible working, and those who can work flexibly are less likely to report exhaustion, more likely to be motivated, and told the University of Melbourne’s researchers they have more time to complete work. A full three-quarters of workers under 54 say they would leave, or consider leaving, a job that didn’t allow for flexibility.
But while workers value remote working and flexible hours, it is not all upsides. Constant screen time led to increased instances of eye strain, says Cooper, who also notes poorer sleep and higher stress are commonplace. Remote working can also lead to “day stretching”, where work is interspersed with other activity, but people end up working more hours in total, for no additional pay.
March research by LinkedIn found that almost half of Australians feel they have to “overcompensate” while working remotely. “You’re working from home, but you’re working all the time - it’s a trap. Left unchecked, that’s serious amounts of unpaid work” Cooper says.
Although employers’ attitudes to remote working have changed significantly since the pandemic, many managers still treat it as a benefit, rather than an entitlement. Cooper says that this creates a sense that employees should be “grateful” for flexible working, and leads to overwork. It might also mean they are less likely to take proper sick leave, opting to work from home instead of properly recuperating. Surveillance techniques are also increasingly being used to monitor employees.
‘A seller’s market’
Although there is a consensus that workers don’t want to return to the office full-time, there are clear benefits of in-person work. Laura Wiseman, 30, started a new position in January 2020, just before her office went remote.
“Covid held me back, being at home,” she says. “Now I’m in back in the office … I learn much faster working directly with people.”
There are now huge variations in culture and attitudes to flexible working both across and within organisations – when it is even possible. Typical of many employers, National Australia Bank’s flexible working policy requires that employees are in the office two to three days a week. Susan Ferrier, the group’s executive for people and culture, says this approach gives employees “greater flexibility to integrate work with commitments at home and the need to attend the office for connection and collaboration”.
However, the benefits of flexible working haven’t been felt equally, Ruppanner says, with frontline workers, such as healthcare workers, least likely to be offered flexibility. Many frontline workers have also had to deal with increased levels of abuse from customers and members of the public in recent years.
Ruppanner says employers in all sectors, including those that require a physical presence, must now prioritise workplace wellbeing and adapt to give workers flexibility if they want to retain staff.
“You can’t bag groceries from your bedroom, but there are other ways you can generate worker control,” she says. This could include a choice of shifts, flexible start and end times and more control in the ways in which people complete tasks.
Given pressures on the cost of living, it is no surprise that workers are still being cautious about their career choices. However, with unemployment at historic lows, employees are actually in a very good position to negotiate, Cooper says. In terms of what employees can ask for at work, or of a new employer, she says “it’s a seller’s market”.
