All in a day's work: A less than greedy start to 2011?

Photo / Thinkstock

Happy New Year! Hopefully you have started 2011 feeling refreshed and looking forward to the challenges the year may present - whether they are new challenges or the continuation of existing challenges.

A New Year is of course traditionally a time when people set new challenges for themselves; the old New Year's resolution... To quit smoking, lose 5kgs, spend more time with the kids or perhaps learn a new hobby. Many people look to make changes at work too - to work longer hours to get ahead or to work shorter hours and achieve a better work life balance.

As we slowly move out of the recession and the difficult economic times of the last 18 months, my suspicion was that most people's focus would be on financial improvement - the lure of the lucre... So imagine my surprise at reading over the holiday period that more people are motivated by their environment at work, than the money.

For many of us, work can be, at least from time to time, if not on a regular basis, the place where we spend the most significant portion of our 'awake time'. It's unsurprising then that a good working environment is a priority for many.

But ahead of salary - that did take me by surprise. When most people change jobs it is a move to something better - more responsibility, greater challenges, a promotion within the industry and/or increased salary. But it seems that these days, even in the current economic climate, it takes more than money to spin our wheels - and certainly to spin them enough to propel us from one role to the next.

I wonder if certainty has something to do with it? Having advised on numerous redundancies over the last 18 months, many employees perceive a certain amount of vulnerability in being the newest recruit.

The reality of a genuine redundancy situation is that unless 'last on first off' is legitimately specified as the criteria, downsizings often focus on longer established roles, which perhaps haven't been looked at for some time, and could run more efficiently.

More newly created roles have recently been assessed as being necessary and therefore it is harder to justify removing the role in short order. The risk is that it looks like the person and not the position, is the issue - which isn't a genuine redundancy situation. But I do wonder whether people are taking the approach - better the devil you know, than the one you don't...

So, how is 2011 looking on the work front for you? Would a hefty pay-rise be enough to tempt you to the competition? Or do you enjoy your current colleagues so much that you would prefer to stay where you are?

What is it that motivates you to move?

We'll see how a new job works out for Petra Bagust and Corrin Dann this morning on Breakfast on TV1. I suspect their moves were motivated by the challenge as opposed to the salary, but equally, my penchant for shoe shopping tells me that more money never hurts either...



Bridget Smith is an employment lawyer at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.