How casual workers can find job satisfaction

Not everyone who works in a casual position wants to, but a new study has found what works. Photo / 123RF

When Jonathon Lo was working full-time after finishing university, he was run off his feet.

The newly minted medical doctor would work through lunch to be able to get home at a reasonable hour, and got used to spending Christmases and other holidays with patients and colleagues rather than family and friends.

Then almost four years ago, when he began studying again, Dr Lo began working in a casual position as a surgical assistant and couldn't believe his relief.

"As a full-time doctor I was always pressured and time poor. I'd jump from one task to the next and was never fully on top of everything," he told news.com.au.

"For the last years I've been in casual jobs with flexible hours, and I've been able to study full-time and manage my time so much better."

The PhD student was studying full-time, and would work about 15-20 hours a week.

Although he still committed the same number of hours to work and study as he had when he was working full-time, suddenly, he felt like he had a whole lot more free time.

The difference was Dr Lo was now able to be selective about his hours, and got to work and study when it suited him.

"From a personal perspective the most satisfying aspect is that I can deeply think through things," he said. "I get the opportunity to incubate ideas and be more creative than I've ever been. I really enjoy the headspace."

Dr Lo's experience isn't entirely necessarily representative of the hundreds of thousands of Australians who are in casual work.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has declared Australia is in a casualisation crisis, with secretary Sally McManus saying workers were enduring an "epidemic of insecure work".

Plenty of those who work casual jobs would rather not be in them.

But a new study of Australia's casual workforce indicates with the right attitude and employer, there are ways to survive casual employment.

The Australia's Casual Workforce Report by Care Support Network and McCrindle shows that there is a strong correlation between the amount of control casual and contract workers have over their work, and their level of satisfaction.

Jonathon Lo has preferred the casual jobs he's had to working full-time. Photo / news.co.au

The research found work-life balance was very important to casual workers, and greatly affected their happiness and satisfaction at work.

Casuals who felt they had control over their work-life balance reported a 90 per cent satisfaction rate, while those without control over this had only a 26 per cent satisfaction rate.

Workers who said they had control over the hours they worked, and who they worked with, were also found to be more satisfied and happier at work.

Those who had control over who they worked with reported a satisfaction rate of 85 per cent, while that rate dipped below 39 per cent for workers who didn't.

Overall, 43 per cent said they did not have control over who they provided services to, and 56 per cent said they did not have control over their pay or the fees charged for their services.

Care workers like Dr Lo were found to be more affected by lack of control in their work. For care workers, 24 per cent said they experienced anxiety around unfamiliar clients and different environments in the last month, compared with 14 per cent of casual worker sin other industries.

The study also identified the ideal number of hours casual workers preferred to work. This was 22.9 hours, which equates to three days per week.

Casual employees who said they controlled how many hours they work were three times more likely to be satisfied.