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Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on office, profession and management in her recommendation column Got a Minute? This week: socialising exterior work hours, heavy bins that received’t transfer themselves and younger individuals in disaster.
One of my managers desires to host a crew dinner with the workers who report back to them, exterior of labor hours, to foster cohesion inside the unit. One of my colleagues isn’t eager to surrender their private time to hang around with individuals from work. How can we handle this with out coming throughout like we’re not crew gamers?
Bottom line is: relationships matter at work. Informal connections could make day-to-day work smoother, construct belief and scale back pressure when issues hit the fan. Managers usually see these dinners as a option to create goodwill and crew cohesion, not as a loyalty check – even when it could really feel that manner.
If you genuinely can’t or don’t need to attend each occasion, be heat however clear. Thank them for the invitation, clarify briefly that evenings aren’t all the time potential and reinforce your dedication to the crew at work. Equally, selecting to attend often – even for a short while – pays dividends in relationships with out requiring whole give up of non-public time.
You don’t need to be everybody’s good friend, however a bit of “face time” at these items can go a good distance – and figuring out when to point out up, and when to say no, wants your skilled judgment.
I handed a medical examination to start out a brand new workplace function. However, I’m fairly obese and have unhealthy knees. My new boss asks me to hold heavy bins an extended distance and up steep stairs, even within the rain. I do that no less than twice per week and am in ache for the remainder of the day. I’m certain he finds it entertaining, as he lately requested loudly if I “felt fitter” after I bought again. I really feel completely humiliated and need to resign, nevertheless it took me a very long time to seek out this job. There is not any HR, and if I name Fair Work, I fear my boss will inform them I handed the medical, then be very nasty.
I’m actually sorry that is occurring to you – and no, this isn’t one thing you must merely need to endure. Your boss is breaking the legislation, and you might be entitled to have one thing completed about it.
In Australia, employers have an obligation beneath work well being and security legal guidelines to make sure work is secure and doesn’t trigger bodily or psychological hurt. Requiring you to repeatedly carry heavy hundreds lengthy distances, upstairs and in poor situations – particularly when it causes ache – raises respectable security issues. Passing a pre-employment medical doesn’t change these obligations.
The feedback you describe matter too. Humiliating remarks linked to your physique or bodily capability will not be “banter”; they’ll contribute to a psychologically unsafe office.
You don’t want an HR division to lift this. You can put your concern in writing to your supervisor, specializing in the duty reasonably than intent: clarify the bodily affect, ask whether or not the duty could be modified, shared or reassigned, and counsel alternate options comparable to trolleys or completely different supply preparations.
If that feels unsafe or goes nowhere, Fair Work can present common steering, and your state security regulator can even advise. Resigning might really feel tempting, however don’t rush it. What’s occurring isn’t about your health, it’s about unreasonable calls for – and also you’re entitled to push again on these.
I’m in my early 20s and struggling to seek out work. I can’t perceive why our authorities permits organisations to offshore so many roles. Why isn’t there a blanket ban on offshoring labour, particularly if massive corporations are making enormous income and may simply afford to have workers employed right here? It would give us younger individuals an opportunity to seek out work and no less than get our foot within the door after we end faculty.
You’re not alone in feeling that is unfair – and your frustration speaks to an actual shift in how work is altering in Australia. Many organisations have introduced they’re offshoring sections of their workforce with a whole bunch of jobs moved to nations just like the Philippines.
The larger structural points you’re grappling with – problem getting a primary job, lack of coaching pathways and employers looking for “experience” they don’t need to present – are different actual boundaries for younger staff.
We want stronger incentives for employers to rent and practice early profession staff, wage-subsidy packages, and enforcement of lawful recruitment practices. Your concern is not only financial – it’s about equity and dignity in a aggressive job market, and that’s an essential dialog.
To submit a query about work, careers or management, go to kirstinferguson.com/ask. You won’t be requested to offer your identify or any figuring out data. Letters could also be edited
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