Why we cant drive a hard bargain.

last updated 8 January 2015

Australia

Richard Glover

Australians don’t demand raises, said Richard Glover in The Sydney Morning Herald. Ours is not a “bang-the-table sort of culture, thank God.” When we come to a new workplace, we don’t ask what’s the most we can squeeze out of the employer. Instead, we just want to know, “What’s the go?” What is the going rate for this work? That’ll do fine. We have an admirable “desire to understand the social norms and be part of them.” That’s not to say we’ll put up with lousy wages. But if we have to negotiate, we’d prefer to do so collectively. That’s why a new government proposal to introduce “flexibility” in worker contracts is such a bad idea. Aussies simply don’t have the ruthlessness to wheel and deal aggressively for benefits, trading less pay for more vacation or vice versa. Instead, we’ll look to see what everyone else in the firm is doing, and adopt that schedule—even if it’s not in our best interest. Precious worker protections “will have been traded off for a few dollars, which will be eaten up by inflation pretty quickly.” Flexibility may be a fine concept for Americans. For us, it’ll just be a euphemism for “How low can you go?”