Work Well Calgary

Work Well Calgary
Work Well Facts
Newsletter
E-Mail Forum
Literature and book reviews

Work Well Calgary is a volunteer organization than envisions a workplace that incorporates a balanced, cooperative, democratic, flexible life style for the individual into an environmentally sustainable prosperous economy.

Mission Statement

Work Well Calgary advocates an improved quality of life, a healthy economy, and a sustainable environment through the reduction, distribution, and equitable sharing of working time and benefits.

What Do We Promote?

Work Well promotes alternative work styles:

job sharing
leave of absence
flexible work hours
four-day work week
balanced life
fair share of wages and benefits

For Information About:

exploring new ways to work
negotiating healthier work arrangements with your employer & employees
requesting a speaker for meetings or conferences
joining the Work Well Group

Call: Lois (403) 239-3419 Germaine (403) 284-1616

Work Well Facts

Reference:

Working Hard Isn't Working by Bruce O'Hara (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1993) Put Work In Its Place by Bruce O'Hara (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1994)

1. The Dream That Disappeared

What happened to that wonderful future we were promised?
Why do we have the age of stress instead of the age of leisure?
How could the futurists have been so wrong?
Two main assumptions were made:
a) Technological progress would generate an increasing ability to create more wealth with less effort.
b) Government would manage the economy sensibly and rationally, intervening as necessary to maintain a healthy economic balance.

References:

Yesterday's Future: Past Visions of the American Future by Joseph Corn and B. Horrigan (New York: Summit Books, 1984]
Work and Well-being: The Changing Realities of Employment by the Canadian Mental Health Association (Toronto: CMHA, 1984)
Unemployment: Its Impact on Body and Soul by Sharon Kirsh (Toronto: CMHA, 1983)
Put Work In Its Place (Victoria: Work Well Publications, 1988)

2. The Stress and Pain Triangle:

An economy with high unemployment creates hurt all round: stress and struggle for those who are working; pain and deprivation for the unemployed; damage and degradation for the environment. The imbalanced workload of the modern lifestyle brings to families: high-stress lifestyle; increased working hours per year; increased poverty; environmental crises.

References:

The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure by Juliet B. Shor (New York: Basic Books, 1991)
Canada Yearbook 1992 from Statistics Canada (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1992)
The Canadian Green Consumer Guide by Pollution Probe (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1989)
A Matter of Survival by Anita Gordon and David Suzuki (Toronto: Stoddart, 1990)

3. The Financial Costs

We all pay to have less leisure; declining hourly wages; rising UIC and welfare costs; higher family expenses; educational inflation; high health-care costs; rising crime; collective insecurity; high prices; inflated housing costs; high advertising and packaging costs; rapid inflation; and high interest charges debt charges.

References:

Head to Head by Lester Thurow (New York: William Morrow, 1992)
Canadian Global Almanac: A Book of Facts by John Robert Columbo (Toronto: Macmillan, 1992)
Betrayal of Canada by Mel Hurtig (Toronto: Stoddart, 1992)

4. The True Scope of Unemployment

The official jobless figures are, they severely understate the true level of unemployment in Canada. The government only counts as unemployed those people who are actively seeking employment. They leave out the people who want to work but who have been out of work for so long that they have given up looking.
References:

Unemployment and Opportunity Lost by Barry George, from Perspectives of Autumn 1990
A Shorter Workweek in the 1980s by William McGaughey (White Bear Lake: Thistlerose Publications, 1981)
StatsCan's Canadian Economic Observer, August 1992
Statistics Canada's Methodology of the Canadian Labour Force Survey 1984-1990 (Ottawa: StatsCan, 1990)

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Better Times is the quarterly newsletter of the Work Well Network, a grassroots network of individuals and organizations committed to promoting a national debate on working times. Subscriptions are $10/year, payable to Food Share(32 HOURS), 238 Queen St. W., Lower Level, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1Z7

E-Mail Forum

Futurework is a University of Colorado international e-mail forum on redesigning work, income distribution and education, hosted by Communications for a Sustainable Future. All messages posted to the forum will be redistributed, unedited, worldwide.

Internet address:
ecol-econ@csf.colorado.edu

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