Is there any such thing as a 9 to 5?

Clodagh Finn ponders if the work/life balance is a myth in a world where technology has blurred the lines between business and pleasure

THERE’S always a holiday snap you wish you’d taken. This year, the missed photo op was of a sign hanging outside a (closed) craft shop in Marseilles that read: “Opening hours: Very often”.

I imagine, though, it wouldn’t be hard to convince anyone that the laidback southern French have a whimsical approach to the working day.

The sign and its promise of finding that elusive thing known as work/life balance came to mind earlier this week with news that just one in ten Irish people are working in their childhood dream jobs.

In truth, one in 10 seemed rather a lot but it turns out most young people don’t want to be astronauts, circus acrobats or fire-engine drivers any more; instead, they told researchers at the Open University of Ireland they wanted to work in education or medicine.

Dream job is one thing but you have to wonder what the work/life balance is like in education and medicine these days.

It’s not popular to take the side of doctors refusing to sign up to free healthcare for the under-6s, but the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) has a point when it says doctors are already overworked and could now be completely swamped.

Nurses already have a large degree of public sympathy — and rightly so — but that should also extend to teachers.

True, your average 9 to 5 office worker might curl a lip at the suggestion, particularly at this time of year as teachers’ long summer break draws to a close. But research is on their side. The hours worked by Irish secondary school teachers are the fourth highest in Europe, according to the annual OECD ‘Education at a glance’ report.

Come to think of it, is there any such thing as an average 9 to 5 worker in the modern world of work with its shifting boundaries and ambiguous mores? And if so, can the end be far away?

In one way, that’s a good thing. Technology has opened the way for flexibility, accessibility and endless variety. Depending on your line of work, it’s now possible to live the life of a digital nomad, logging on wherever and whenever takes your fancy.

That’s the dream, and it does work for some. The downside, however, is that you are always switched on.

Cultural theorist Johathan Crary wasn’t the first to kick off the digital debate with his book 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, but he did put it very well when he said that we have dealt with the problem of leisure by getting rid of it.

There was a time in the 1960s when the big issue was what people were going to do with all the free time technology and better working conditions were going to unleash. Now the issue is how we might claw it back.

Crary is unambiguous about new media and technology. They have not heralded a new age of freedom and self-determination, but have ensnared us in a stickier web of control, he said.

He is absolutely right. The generation who got their Leaving Cert results last Wednesday are the ones who will have to negotiate a path through the digital maze. One of their biggest challenges will be to find a way to separate work and play in a world where tweets, Facebook, texts, emails and blog posts feature prominently in both.

If we could tell them anything, let it be this: The idea of striking a work/life balance is a nonsense. It somehow casts work as something to be endured and life as a saving grace. But work is part of life, and life is often (hard) work. If you can be reasonably happy in both, you’ll be doing extraordinarily well.

However, we have to draw some kind of line in the sand, with “public, paid, professional” on one side and “private unpaid” on the other. That’s too many P’s to make a catchy phrase, but the next generation must make a distinction if they are to find a way of mentally clocking out.

The workplace has already changed beyond all recognition — and not for the better. The worker of the future is going to need a way to figuratively close the office door.

In some ways, it seems as if we are going backwards. Now, time-motion advocates like Taylor and Henry Ford who wanted to increase efficiency but, at the same time, improve pay and conditions seem like radical pioneers.

One of the most profoundly depressing developments in recent months is the emergence of the #WorkMustPay campaign, a group of activists campaigning to end JobBridge and unpaid internships.

That young Irish people have to point out basic rights, such as “a day’s work = a day’s pay”, shows that something is seriously wrong in the Irish workplace. Poor Jim Larkin must be spinning in his grave.

Trying to achieve the perfect work-life balance? Here are my tips: http://t.co/CvBJ4A5uuK pic.twitter.com/mk6geMMXVf

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) August 8, 2015

At least the campaign seems to be having an effect. This month, a private school, Headfort School in Kells, Co Meath, withdrew two adverts for teachers through JobBridge after a backlash.

Its principal Dermot Dix apologised, saying he had not done enough research on the scheme. In a rather poetic and surreal statement, he wrote: “I feel a bit like the blind man in a dark room who couldn’t see the black cat that wasn’t there.”

Hats off to him for the admission, but the Department of Social Protection confirmed last week that a further 94 education jobs are being advertised under the JobBridge scheme before the start of the school year.

Trade unions — and even government ministers — have said emphatically that JobBridge was designed to provide developmental opportunities rather than displace full-time jobs. Let’s hope the schools doing the hiring will take note of that.

But the problem extends well beyond JobBridge. There is something seriously amiss in the wider employment market. Just ask the Clerys’ workers who were dismissed, in some cases, with just 30 minutes’ notice. Or the Dunnes Stores workers who are campaigning against low-hour contracts.

Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of disheartening news. Statistics point to a growing wage inequality in Ireland. Half the population in Ireland now earns less than €28,500 a year.

EU figures tell that dispiriting but familiar story of the wealthy few: The top 10% of households in Europe have nearly 25% of the wealth, but the bottom 10% have just 3.1%. Here, the figures suggest the scales are tipped even more in favour of those at the top.

Workers in Ireland aren’t the only ones trying to fight battles they thought they had already won. In the US and across Europe, workers have been demonstrating against low wages and erratic work conditions.

One study of Dutch workers found that being on call when they were not scheduled to work increased stress, anxiety and family conflict.

But what now for the new school-leavers and the 11 to 16-year-olds who still cite teaching (number two) and medicine (number three) as their dream jobs?

Central Statistic Office figures suggest that the most promising way to guarantee a good income is to work for a large firm, get a good education and join a union.

There won’t be any guarantees of stability, though, or that the ‘professional’ won’t leach into the ‘private’. It’s time to really start thinking outside the box.

Taking inspiration from that little craft shop in Marseilles mightn’t be a bad place to start.