Class Acts || More than hard work is required for happiness

I suspect the sharing of, and receiving of respect in the workplace is one of the many things influenced by the neoliberal managerial ideologies that govern many organisations and the behaviour of their leaders.

Certainly, the Australia Talks project showed that more and more younger people claim that their work-life balance is badly skewed in favour of work (66% of 18-24 year olds compared to 61% of 30 - 39 year olds and 42% of 50 - 64 year olds).

Neoliberal ideology positions work as important, not only for our own wellbeing but also as the most important way individuals can be responsible for themselves and their lives.

Work, under neoliberal ideology, is seen as the best (and often the only) route out of poverty. Interestingly, the extent to which Australians support this view varies depending on their political leanings. Around a third of ALP supporters claimed working hard will lift people out of poverty, but 72% of LNP supporters indicated this as their belief. Green supporters were much less likely to position hard work as the route out of poverty (23% supported this idea).

Over 3000 studies published in 2019 alone in the international literature clearly demonstrate that employment is just as likely to result in a class now called 'the working poor' than it is to elevate families out of poverty.

One of the key tenets of neoliberal ideology is that wealth is essential, as wealthy individuals and organisations will create employment for workers, thus excusing the state from providing welfare support.

Neoliberal economies around the world focus on tax relief for those who are wealthy based on this assumption, and on the belief that wealth is the reward for hard work and therefore those with wealth should not be penalised for their success with excessive taxation. As a consequence, we see increasing gaps between the rich and the poor.

The Australia Talks survey identified 49% of Australians believe that the gap between the rich and the poor is too big. The kinds of gaps we see in Australia are substantial: consider the salary of Alan Joyce of Qantas ($23.9 million pa), the July 2019 minimum wage (around $38,500 pa) and the annual newstart allowance for a family (around $19,500 pa). For some, these gaps are considered acceptable; for others they are unconscionable.

A substantial body of literature demonstrates that the more inequality there is in a nation, the more unhappy the population. Poorer levels of national health and wellbeing are also associated with increasing inequity. The survey showed that many Australians (around 1 in 3) are unhappy and lonely. Neoliberal managerialism operates to exacerbate this as workers are in perpetual competition, not just with their peers, but with themselves as they are forced into a regime of continuous improvement.

Nothing done is ever good enough: I have seen colleagues with perfect student satisfaction scores on their unit evaluations being told they have to identify how to improve. Loneliness and unhappiness can be killers. Some research suggests that lack of social support creates as big a risk factor for early death as does heavy smoking.

Interestingly, in a neoliberal nation, whilst we might educate our students in ways to help them acquire the necessary skills and knowledge for employment, we do not educate them to gain the necessary skills and knowledge for happiness and wellbeing.

Restricted income levels, limited family and social networks, and societal expectations that Christmas involves spending on gifts and special foods often combine to create pressures that some simply do not have the emotional and mental resources to manage. This is a time when we need to all work together, reach out to others, and function as a caring community whose priorities are not more money and more productivity, but concern for our friends and neighbours.