Barbara Pocock,
Centre for Work + Life,
University of South Australia
Seminar presentation to the David Unaipon College of
Indigenous Education & Research, 1 June 2009
At CWL we study work-life
What is it? How do we conceptualise it?
2. Why is it interesting? Why does it matter?
3. What do we know about Aboriginal citizens and
work-life issues?
4. What research questions are interesting?
1.

In the bigger picture, how important are these?
What ‘work-life’ is not, for us
Or this….
Socio-economic difference is vital
 Gail Kelly
‘Rosa’
Making sense of work-life: An
ecology exists across three spheres
Resources and demands
Demands: hours of
work, intensity
Resources: $, social
connection, support
Resources and demands
Demands: hours of work,
intensity of work, travel, boss
Resources: $, social
connection, support, boss
Demands: providing
support to friends,
family
Resources: support, care,
$, food
Resources and demands
Demands: hours of
work, intensity
Resources: $, social
connection, support
Demands: care of kids
Resources: computer,
support
Demands: providing
support to friends,
family
Resources: support, care,
$, food
Life stage matters: different resources and demands at
each life stage
2. Why does work-life matter?
 Australians are working more and more
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
1979
40.0
2009
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Male
Female
Persons
Feb-1978
Aug-1979
Feb-1981
Aug-1982
Feb-1984
Aug-1985
Feb-1987
Aug-1988
Feb-1990
Aug-1991
Feb-1993
Aug-1994
Feb-1996
Aug-1997
Feb-1999
Aug-2000
Feb-2002
Aug-2003
Feb-2005
Aug-2006
Feb-2008
Women are joining men in their
work ‘fetish’
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
Males
30.0
Females
20.0
Persons
10.0
0.0
Work and care combine for many
 Workers torn between work and care and the rest of
their lives?
 A third of workers responsible for the care of children 0-
14 years in their households
 Boundaries between work and home are weaker
 Work is greedy and expansive
We feel pressed for time
60
50
Always feel rushed and
pressed for time
Often feel rushed and
pressed for time
40
30
Always or often
20
10
0
Men
Women
Persons
Market work matters…too much?
 We have moved from:
 Rights of labour (industrial revolution….)
 Right to labour (post war full employment push…)
 Duty to labour (1990s….)

‘By the 1990s, the main message was that there was a duty to
labour, epitomized by talk about 'no rights without
responsibilities' and the 'reciprocity principle'.’ Standing,
1999: 1)
Duty to work
 In Australia ‘mutual obligation’
 Taken up by Noel Pearson and others:
 ‘no work, no pay’ and end to ‘sit down money’ as part of push to end welfare




dependency and exercise self-determination
Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership (CYIPL): ‘real jobs’
CDEP jobs need conversion to ‘real jobs’ (CYIPL)
“Magical things can happen when you give a person a job” (Pearson,
August 22, 2008)
Warren Mundine has argued that welfare payments to unemployed
Indigenous workers should be cut if they do not accept seasonal work in the
horticultural industry ‘even if it meant moving across the country’ (The
Australian, August 22, 2008)
 What is the meaning of the ‘work’ that is implied here?
 Only market work? Where does care work, community work fit? What is a
‘real’ job? Is caring for a child ‘real’? Is making art ‘real’?
 And how does work affect participation in larger life and community?
Policy and action around work matters, especially
to the disadvantaged and excluded, BUT
 A ‘triple movement’ is necessary:
 Access to work and its ‘magical things’
 Transformation of the terms and conditions of work

so that it does not suck life, but sustains it
 Transformation of the definition of work
 so that it embraces a broad definition of work and care,
community sustenance and political citizenship, and
contemplation and gives life meaning – not just a requirement
to exchange our time for money
 The same triple movement is required of genuinely
transformative feminist ‘work’ project
3. What do we know about Aboriginal
citizens and work-life issues?
 ‘Work-life’ research has been largely a study of white
work-life,


especially middle-class whites.
Some international comparative research.
 Reflects whiteness of researchers
 And nature of work for Aboriginal communities:

main ‘work problem’ is lack of work, prejudice at work
 So the relationship between work, households and
community life is understudied in Indigenous
communities around the world, and in Australia

However, we know some things….
What do we know about ALL?
 Our annual survey of Work-life outcomes across Australia (AWALI
n=1500 or 3000) - which does not distinguish Aboriginal from NAA tells us that
 Most Australians are reasonably happy with their work-life balance
 But many are affected by work-life strain and time shortages
 And it affects not just them, but their household and community
interaction.
 AWALI tells us that work-life outcomes are shaped by:









Hours of work – short hours good, long hours bad
Long commutes are bad – and are often paired with long hours at work
Fit between actual and preferred hours – good fit is good
Occupation – managers, professionals do badly
Sex – women do worse
Care responsibilities – those with care responsibilities do worse
Quality of supervision and supportive workplace culture matter
Employee-centred flexibility matters
Poor quality job (ie insecure jobs, feeling overloaded at work) result in worse
work-life outcomes
Research about work, life and
Aboriginal employment: sources
Australian Public Service Commission (no date) Connecting government: whole of
government response to Australia. priority challenges, APSC, Canberra.
Barnett, K., J. Spoehr, E. Parnis (2007) Equity works: achieving the target of 2%
Aboriginal employment in the South Australian public sector, Australian
Institute for Social Research, Adelaide.
Barnett, Kate (2007) Equity works: achieving the target of 2% Aboriginal
employment in the South Australian public sector, Accompanying report 1.
Literature review. Australian Institute for Social Research, Adelaide.
Kemmiss, S et al (2006) Indigenous staffing in vocational education and training;
policies, strategies and performance, NCVER, Adelaide.
Pocock, B (2003) The Work-Life Collision, Federation Pres, Sydney.
Purdie N.et al (2006) Enhancing employment opportunities for Indigenous
Victorians: A review of the literature. Australian Council for Education
Research, prepared for Victorian State Services, Authority
Williams, C., B. Thorpe and C. Chapman (2003) Aboriginal workers and
managers: History, emotional and community labour and occupation health
and safety in South Australia, Seaview Press, South Australia
What do we know?
 Aboriginal Australians have lower rates of employment

In 2006 186,900 Aboriginal people in the labour force


This gives a labour force participation rate of about 59% (cities 64%).



Including CDEP (35,000 or 25% of all employment)
It’s increasing.
Men higher than women
Unemployment – who knows? 17% in 2006, could be 77.6% if exclude CDEP
 Aboriginal employment is different – some differences give resources (R), most
create demands (D)










Mostly public sector or NGO
More likely to regard their managers as trustworthy
More likely to be short term or fixed term contract
More likely to have wages set by awards than bargaining
More likely to want more hours of work
Less likely to use flexibility provisions
Less likely to receive paid sick and holiday leave
Less likely to say they have control over their work environment
More likely to have days off sick or with injury
Discrimination more common for Aboriginal workers


(R)
(R)
(D)
(D)
(D)
(D)
(D)
(D)
(D)
APS 2006 census of workers found 18% of Indigenous workers had experienced
discrimination in past year compared with 6% of all
More resign from public sector because of family responsibilities and ill health
(D)
Aboriginal workers: unique demands at work?
 Aboriginal workers have ‘multiple roles’ as workers in the public sector (and
elsewhere?):
 They represent the government
 They also represent their communities
 At work, alongside their jobs, they face additional demands: (Purdie et al,
2006)






To deal with all Aboriginal clients
To speak for Aboriginal people in their service or workplace
To mentor other Aboriginal workers
To provide exemplary role models
To do additional representative work on a range of committees etc
Often isolated as Aboriginal workers: ‘predominant workplace culture acts as a form of
exclusion’ (Barnett, 2007, 7)
‘They can be expected to represent all Aboriginal people even through it is possible
only to represent themselves. There are often high expectations placed on them
in terms of providing role models and mentors to other Aboriginal employees,
and in providing time to be official representatives on a range of committees and
other structures. These create significant time and personal pressures that are
rarely acknowledged in practice, or in the research literature’ (Barnett, 2007, p
7).
Aboriginal workers: unique demands at work?
 Aboriginal workers lack ‘cultural security’ in the workplace:

‘feel the freedom to express cultural values and beliefs’ (Barnett 2007, p 7)
 Workplaces lack ‘cultural competence’

‘knowledge, skills and accompanying sensitivity to overcome the barriers
associated with cultural difference’ (Barnett 2007, p 7)
 They have high levels of
 ‘emotional labour’

the work one does to control ones emotions and deal with those of others and
 ‘obligatory community labour’
 the work and responsibility arising from combined responsibilities to family,
community and the workplace and in bridging cultural communities (see quote
Williams et al, 2003, p 26)
 For Aboriginal workers, there are often very weak (or no) boundaries
between work and home
 Lower levels of paid leave and job security
Manager and leaders especially affected
 Williams, Thorpe and Chapman, 2003, identified
extremely high levels of stress, with the highest levels
involving Aboriginal managers

‘They could be described as the most at risk group in terms of
high and ongoing levels of stress. They were the most
emotionally drained and exhausted of all the Aboriginal people
interviewed in the study. This is worrisome because they form
an official and unofficial stratus of Aboriginal leadership.’
(2003, p 98).
Aboriginal workers: unique demands at home and
in communities?
 Poorer health in households, communities
 More poverty
 More expansive, extended family care demands
 And unique resources?
 More support from extended family
 Denser community fabric which acts as resource

Example of care of school children in the Port (Pocock, 2003).
Research about what helps?






Aboriginal staff networks
Mentoring
Coaching
Promotion of role models
Flexible work practices
Measures that increase the ‘cultural security’ of the
workplace and the ‘cultural competence’ of co-workers
 Cultural leave
 Recognition of the extra work that arises from ‘cultural
bridging’?
Research questions?
1.
Are these threads of work-life difference – both in terms
of demands and resources – true?

2.
How much do they matter?
Are there particularly interesting issues around the
1.
2.
3.
4.
Double and triple workloads of Aboriginal workers?
The cultural, emotional and obligatory community labour of
Aboriginal workers?
And especially for leaders and managers?
And how much does burn out of the latter matter to the future of
Aboriginal communities?
What particular resources do Aboriginal workers and
communities bring to the work-life collision?
4. What else???
3.
References
Australian Public Service Commission (no date) Connecting government: whole of government response to Australia.
priority challenges, APSC, Canberra.
Barnett, K., J. Spoehr, E. Parnis (2007) Equity works: achieving the target of 2% Aboriginal employment in the South
Australian public sector, Australian Institute for Social Research, Adelaide.
Barnett, Kate (2007) Equity works: achieving the target of 2% Aboriginal employment in the South Australian public sector,
Accompanying report 1. Literature review. Australian Institute for Social Research, Adelaide.
Kemmiss, S et al (2006) Indigenous staffing in vocational education and training; policies, strategies and performance,
NCVER, Adelaide.
Pearson, N. (2002) ‘Noel Pearson discusses the issues faced by Indigenous communities’ Lateline, 26/6/07.
Pocock, Barbara (2003) The work/life collision: what work is doing to Australians and what to do about it, Federation Press,
Sydney.
Pocock, Barbara (2006) The labour market ate my babies: work, children and a sustainable future, Federation Press, Sydney.
Purdie N.et al (2006) Enhancing employment opportunities for Indigenous Victorians: A review of the literature. Australian
Council for Education Research, prepared for Victorian State Services, Authority
Snowden, Warren (2002) ‘Noel Pearson speaks for Cape York....’ The Age, June 6 2002.
Standing, Guy (1999) The end of labour? From labour to work: The global challenge, World of work, No. 31, September /
October 1999
Standing, G. (2002). Beyond the new paternalism: basic security as equality. London, Verso.
Williams, C., B. Thorpe and C. Chapman (2003) Aboriginal workers and managers: History, emotional and community
labour and occupation health and safety in South Australia, Seaview Press, South Australia
Abstract for seminar
‘Work/Life and Employment Research in Australia: White work, Black gaps?’
Barbara Pocock, Centre for Work + Life, University of South Australia
Australians increasingly give more and more of their time to paid work, as well as to unpaid work. Women have
increasingly joined men in what Guy Standing (2002) calls their ‘fetish’ for paid work. As a result many feel very rushed
and pressed for time, and torn between paid work and the care they want to give to their families and communities
(Pocock 2003, 2006).
At the same time, Aboriginal commentators like Noel Pearson (2002) have argued against ‘sit down’ money for Aboriginal
people, instead pushing for employment opportunities in conventional jobs, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
people to join in the paid work ‘fetish’. Others, like Warren Snowden (2002) have instead argued for ‘negotiation and
partnership’ around appropriate employment opportunities for Aboriginal communities across Australia, in all their
diversity.
This presentation will reflect on work and its consequences for the care that workers can give to the rest of their families
and communities, in the process giving an overview of recent research at the Centre for Work + Life. Aboriginal
workers and communities have not been the focus of this work at the Centre or more broadly in Australia to date,
leaving some important gaps in our knowledge about work, care and the lives of Aboriginal compared to nonAboriginal citizens.
What are the work and life issues for Aboriginal communities and what research questions might be given priority?
The purpose of this seminar is to open up a conversation about possible research questions in relation to the work and its
consequences for care and community life for Aboriginal compared with non-Aboriginal citizens, to reflect on how
these questions fit with the research priorities of the Aboriginal community in Australia, and to begin challenging the
whiteness of existing ‘work-life’ research in Australia.