Obscenity and equilibrium

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. Gina Rinehart (pictured) [1] is the first woman to top Forbes Asia’s list of the wealthiest Australians [2]. Her current fortune’s an estimated US$9B – up US$7B in the past year. That’s obscene. Presumably Ms Rinehart’s money lets her buy whatever takes her fancy. Unlike we mere financial mortals, who need to exercise care that we don’t spend too much. Despite our consumerist materialist society imploring us to spend as much as possible. Even if that’s more than we can afford. And/or more than we have. Indeed the temptation’s to work harder to earn more to spend. But if we do that, we put our work-life balance out of equilibrium. Restoring its equilibrium’s often not easy. Maybe it’s never easy. Vicki Robin [3], co-author of the finance self-help classic Your Money or Your Life [4], recommends converting the price of a TV, icecream, vacation, or whatever we’re considering buying, into life hours, i.e. the time (in minutes or hours or days) it takes to earn the money we’re thinking of spending. That, she says, puts our own true value on money, and teaches us to truly love our money for what it is (rather than what we think it is) [5]. And if by doing that we restore our work-life equilibrium into the bargain, then how positive and optimistic is that.

P.S. Ms Rinehart’s unimaginable wealth didn’t stop her protesting against the government’s resource rent tax (aka tax on mining super profit) [6]. That’s beyond obscene.

Work-Life Balance (and my bedside table)

Work-life balance. It’s a trendy topic. The stuff of websites [1], YouTube clips [2], NGOs [3] and even consultancies [4]. I mentioned it in one prior Farmdoc’s Blog post [5]. I began to think about it over 12 years ago. Until then I had no WLB. For me it was all work and no life. Starting in 1998 I’ve consciously redressed that imbalance. Part-time work was big step. (Sweetheart Vivienne would tell you I’ve never stopped working full-time. If so then I’ve reduced my work from 140% to 100%.) Working less has left more time for me to do non-work things. And I’m doing them: reading, walking, blogging, listening to podcasts and music, and even thinking (aka omphaloskepsis [6]). Oh, and farming. Since my rebalancing started, I’ve had a feeling of urgency. A need to make up for lost time. Lost decades. But my interests are so broad I’ve found it hard to avoid non-work overload. The photograph top left’s of my bedside table yesterday afternoon. Piled up are 12 books and 10 magazines. Another book’s awaiting pickup at the library. On my iPod are 29 unlistened-to podcasts. And my iTunes downloads 11 new podcasts each week. So you see, folks, I’m not coping. I need to nut out a strategy and a plan. I can’t see myself working much less. So I have to reduce the competing demands on my non-work time. Because I don’t know how sturdy my bedside table is.

farmdoc's blog post number 584

Did you do it today? Well, did you?

Do what?

Did you go home from work on time?

Why do you ask?

Because today’s Go home on time day.

What’s that?

It’s a day for all Australian workers to leave work on time, for a change. The latest research from The Australia Institute finds that Australians work more than 2 billion hours of unpaid overtime every year! Around half of all employees work more hours than they are paid for. On average, a typical employee works 49 minutes of unpaid overtime per day. For full-time workers, the average daily amount of unpaid work takes more than one hour.

Why is leaving work on time important?

Overwork can have negative consequences for your physical and mental health, your relationships with loved ones and your sense of what is important in life. Go home on time day is a chance to think about your work-life balance – or more likely imbalance. And to make sure the amount of work in your life is what you want it to be.

It’s all too easy to work more than necessary, I suppose.

Yes. That’s for sure. Especially if the extra work’s unpaid. But even if it’s paid. And it’s all too easy to keep overworking without thinking about it.

Like being on automatic pilot, eh.

Indeed. So did you do it today?

I’m not telling you. But I may do it tomorrow.