In many Australian work environments, if you have a certain work ethic or even just normal standards, you are considered "anal". "
Shoy'll be royte" is the usual mantra (Transl: She will be right = nevermind, it will sort itself out, don't worry, etc). The result is that people can become defensive, arrogant, argumentative or even aggressive if you try to change how the job should be done, or they mock you if you are meticulous and have attention to detail.
Thus, having pride in what you do is not common anymore which I guess is a result of the general suspicion employees is treated with here - and this again probably a reflection of the casual and/or contractual workers system. It is very difficult (unless you are working for the government ((except this is also changing, especially if you are working in natural resource management, academia or anything science related since the government doesn't like science that isn't short-term profitable)) or some large corporation) to get full time or even part time permanent positions. This means a large percentage of Australians are employed on contractual or so-called casual basis which gives no right to paid sick leave (don't get sick), maternity leave (don't fall pregnant), holiday pay (don't take holidays) or even guaranteed hours (don't make a mistake).
People are constantly at the mercy of their employer, with the result that employees often do not respect their employers. It is a terrible system as it breeds distrust, fear and anxiety on both parts. It is a system based on punishment and not reward, often driven by cronyism and favouritism which pitches employees against each other because managers generally tend to focus on mistakes or how fast you can work, which again becomes a card the employer can play against you if the situation presents itself. I have seen it play out countless times in my time here, usually always with terrible results for the employees.
At my current work place (which is probably better than average) every single employee has one or two university degrees, PhD or Master's degree - most of them science related (finding reliable science related work has become very difficult in Australia since the change of government). The managers are all unskilled, uneducated people who have gotten to that position because of their prolonged employment and "product knowledge". Interestingly, and what has been observed by most of us, is that the business runs like a highly efficient and dynamic clockwork when the managers are absent, but slows down and becomes a frustrating ordeal of being "managed" when the managers are there....one of them is ESFP and spends most of the time ranting and gossiping, which is very distracting
I Norway, at least people don't frown upon having standards - it is expected that you perform
at least to the minimum standard, and work hard while you are at work. And people in Norway are employed on a fair basis as far as I remember- there is no casuals system. For this reason people hang onto their jobs while here, there is a lot of movement in the employment market as people are constantly upping and leaving.
I guess Serac is talking about hours worked, but I haven't worked in Norway for many years. Norwegians have short working hours but from what I remember that's because they usually work efficiently when they are at work, and I think this is partially due to the fact that they don't have to constantly live in fear that their hours will get cut short, or worry about being able to pay rent for the next month, or that they are not able to take time off due to the fact that they always have to worry about money. Working hours in Norway are family friendly while generally, Australian empoyers do not respect or rarely even consider the fact that employees have a life outside work and are thus expected to put work before anything else. So people here work long hours and feel stressed which means performance is affected.
The result is that average Australians are not encouraged to have families because they cannot afford to due to the government encouraging more or less unhinged foreign and local speculation in the property market ("the economy,
mate - the economy!"), housing and rental has generally become a nightmare with the result that in the cities (where the work is) people pay unreasonably high prices for crappy to terrible living standards. So while the government is encouraging immigration the building market is of course booming to accommodate the population boom while the cities become more and more crowded as the infrastructure doesn't follow suit. The winners are the speculants, real estate agencies and the tradespeople who are lucky to be surfing the building boom wave; the
nouveau riche bogans in the over-sized concrete fortress next door.
Note that I am speaking in general terms - there are of course exceptions. I guess compared to some Asian countries, Australian conditions probably seem luxurious.
