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Work and mental health

By Glen Davis - posted Thursday, 1 February 2018


In November 2015 the ABS recorded 20.1% of the workforce was in casual employment. This figure has been quite constant since the 1990's. Similarly it is estimated 30% of the workforce is part time. Around 5% of the workforce is on a temporary contract(s). Adding to the equation there is further impetus to make the retirement age, 70.

Wages are currently stagnant, moving at a level like the 1960's. Weak growth especially over the last four years, accentuate this. Wages being the primary source of household income; if they're not rising, households feel the pinch more, increasing stress related to work.

The words of Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission Judge, HB Higgins, back in 1913, that working time is time purchased by the employer who has exclusive rights to it, certainly still ring true in 2018.

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Do we work to live, or do we live to work? We are seeing many jobs replaced by new technology, including robots and artificial intelligence. These new productive forces should assist in developing new productive relations. Work will remain a reality, albeit in changing forms.

When do we reach the stage in human progress where instead of work being a means to live, as well as creating power and profits for others, work becomes important in creating a social wealth? In that world where automation has replaced much of the mundanity of work, this should allow people more time to focus on leisure, or enhancing their intellectual capacity. What is considered fixed and permanent, what is deemed human nature, is always changing. One can't deny that in societies where there is an economic reward for work, people will work for that sort of gain. But if the paradigm changes and the incentive for work are rewarded by social responsibility, pleasure in the quality of your work, also prestige and praise for your work, would work be less stressful? If work no longer is purely a means to live, but something enjoyable, will mutual regard one day supersede economic reward as the basis for work?

Human nature is not constant for all time. Individualism, greed, are not biological features, but more so reflects the society we exist in. In a society premised on different social ideas, with work having a different meaning, we may we no longer have concerns like work place stress.

So in closing, may I ask; is work good for your (mental) health?

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About the Author

Glen Davis has post graduate qualifications in Humanities and Health Sciences and is a freelance, writer, blogger and broadcaster.

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