Worklife in the new millennium

In little more than a decade the experience of paid work has profoundly changed for many Australians. The scale and rapidity of change has affected what people do at work, when they work, how they are managed, and the conditions in which they work. In Australia, as in many other English-speaking countries, the 1990s saw massive restructuring and changes at workplaces as a result of increased competition, new technology, and an economic climate that gave management, assisted by a 'reformed' regulatory environment, the confidence and incentive to make these changes. During the 1990s, the standard working time and wage earner model, traditionally associated with the notion of an employee working 'normal hours' over a five-day week for eleven months of the year, was being dismantled as employers, aided by governments, pursued what was widely known as 'workplace flexibility'. In this chapter we examine the nature of these changes and the impact they have had on people's lives. Other chapters in this book examine the drivers for these changes in greater detail.

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