Over the past few years, Canada has paradoxically experienced a decrease in annual working hours and an increase in overtime. An overview of various studies.
According to Statistics Canada, average annual working time has decreased slightly in Canada over the past two decades, from 1,805 hours per worker in 1980 to 1,736 hours in 2007. This result is not surprising, given the trend towards the decrease in work hours in all industrialized countries. Based on International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators published every year, however, Canada is one of the industrialized countries that spends the most time at work. Canadian employees work fewer hours than their U.S., Australian, and Japanese counterparts, but more than the Europeans.
Marked differences from province to province
A Statistics Canada study released March 18, 2008, shows that Quebec workers had the shortest work week of all Canadian provinces in 2006 (part time and full time combined), for an average of 35.5 hours. This represents a decrease of 0.8 hours since 1997, the steepest drop of any province, the Canadian average being 36.5 hours. Newfoundland and Labrador, in contrast, recorded the highest average number of weekly hours in 2006, with 38.9 hours worked, or an increase of almost an hour since 1997.
Overtime
Canadians worked an average of 145 hours of overtime a year. A Workopolis study released at the end of August 2008 indicated the Canadian labour force worked three hours more each week on average than the hours specified in their contracts. According to the study, 51% of respondents believed it was expected of them, one quarter said they couldn't leave work behind and 22% cited financial compensation. The overtime was also explainable by the very nature of certain jobs, like ER doctors and firefighters. Another reason given by 35% of Canadian employees was the labour shortage, a situation mainly observed in Western Canada. Men and women differed, with women more likely to work hard to prove their worth and men to get ahead.
Furthermore, almost 60% of respondents considered their work load just right, one third thought it too high and 9% too low. Age was a determining factor in the perception of work load: 40% of respondents 50 and over said they worked too hard compared to only 20% of 16–24-year-olds.
Not necessarily more productive
The number of hours worked was not necessarily indicative of productivity. For example, according to a May 14, 2008, Statistics Canada study, Alberta and British Columbia recorded, for the second year in a row, the highest increase in the number of hours worked in construction, wholesaling, teaching and health care services; at the same time productivity declined. Moreover, according to Proudfoot Consulting's global 2008 productivity report, unproductive supervisor time rose 1.4 points since 2006 because of time spent on administration. These tasks currently account for 39.4% of a Canadian supervisor's day.
According to a Workopolis study of 4,107 Canadians, "hard work" was linked to other factors than the time devoted to a task. It was considered a simultaneous measure of the degree of responsibility and work load, not always easy to judge. . . When asked who they thought worked hardest, six in ten managers believed they work harder than their employees because increased responsibility is a sign of hard work. But three quarters of employees disagreed with the statement, because they're able to get more done during a work day. Nurses, air controllers, surgeons and firemen were considered the top hardest-working professions.
By Caroline Chabir