Last week I attended a lunch with Michael Luscombe, organised by the Australian Israel Chamber of Commerce.

When Mr Luscombe spoke about the working culture at Woolworths, he gave an example how dedicated Woolworth’s employees are, by explaining that if you come as early as 7am, the parking lot is close to full, and the same applies at 7pm. He also said that if you visit on a Saturday morning, you won’t find the car park empty

He then went on to tell a story about an employee who joined the company and declared that he wouldn't be doing extra hours (which of course no one is getting paid by the hour at head office). Well, you know what happened, after a few weeks on the job, that employee was sucked into this “amazing” work culture where everyone was working more and more hours.

If you ask me, this is not something that Mr Luscombe should be proud of. It is very easy to demand your employees do more and more hours. I find it very hard to believe that these employees are working these extended hours because they like the company so much. They are staying so late because:

1.      They can’t handle the amount of work they have in the regular working hours.

2.      The pressure at the work place is just growing and they have to prove themselves.

3.      Everyone else around is staying late so the employee feels bad leaving before the others (especially if you are new to the company).

4.      The company overloads its employees with work and instead of hiring more employees to handle the work, they just demand more from their existing employees.

Is it really something to be proud of? What is the affect of this on our communities? Is the fact that mum and dad are staying until 7pm at work and then arriving home at 7:30pm or 8pm to spend the very little time they have with their kids, making our community better and our future brighter? Is the fact that parents are spending less and less time with their families, jeopardising our future in terms of education, crime and other sustainability factors?

I think so.

So, it might make business sense to build a working environment where employees stay more and more hours, but no one is taking into account the affect on the future of those families and our community in general.

Companies should try to find ways in which they can allow their employees to finish their work on time. That may be by demanding more efficiency at the work place, introducing technological solutions and most of all, hiring more employees to handle the increasing work load instead of asking the existing employees to do it. After all, at the end of the day, the employee who stays the extra hour, will ask to be compensated in some way. The monetary compensation will never compensate a kid for the loss of quality time with dad. Yes, he might get a new Xbox but, playing violent video games is not the solution.

In some countries, and thankfully not yet in Australia, the work culture is that everyone works until 7pm. So, if we don’t want to be there, we should all wake up and not congratulate companies who pride themselves in ruining our community.

You can also read this story about stress driving workers from job published by Inside Retailing on the 27th of Feb.