Work-life balance in Australia and how to improve it

Work out what's out of balance

Balance rarely means an even split between work and home. A long day can feel manageable when the hours are predictable and you switch off afterwards, while a shorter one can wear you down if messages keep arriving all evening. It can help to look at the separate pieces rather than a general sense that work is taking over.

A few questions can narrow it down:

• Are you regularly working more hours than your contract, award or agreement sets as your ordinary hours?
• Does contact from work, clients or colleagues reach you after you've finished for the day?
• Do your start and finish times, location or roster clash with caring, study or health commitments?
• Have you been able to take your annual leave, or has it been building up?
• Is the amount of work itself the issue, so that fewer hours wouldn't be realistic without a change in what you're expected to do?

The answer points you to the right section below. Extra hours and after-hours contact have their own rules, a clash with your commitments is often a flexibility request, and a workload that doesn't fit the hours is a conversation about priorities.

How many hours your employer can ask you to work

Under the National Employment Standards, an employer can't ask or require a full-time employee to work more than 38 hours a week unless the extra hours are reasonable. Your award or enterprise agreement can set a different figure for full-time hours. For part-time and casual employees, the limit is 38 hours or your agreed ordinary hours, whichever is lower. The Fair Work Ombudsman's maximum weekly hours fact sheet sets this out, including how some awards average hours over several weeks.

You can refuse additional hours if they're unreasonable. Whether they are depends on the circumstances, and the factors that must be considered include:

• any risk to your health and safety
• your personal circumstances, including family responsibilities
• the needs of the workplace
• whether you're paid overtime, penalty rates or a salary that reflects an expectation of extra hours
• how much notice your employer gave, and any notice you gave that you'd refuse
• the usual patterns of work in your industry
• your role and level of responsibility.

This means a senior employee on a high salary may reasonably be expected to work more than 38 hours in a busy period, while the same request made of someone on an hourly rate with no overtime and school pick-ups to manage may not be reasonable. Authorised leave also counts towards your weekly hours, so a day of annual leave is included when working out whether you've gone over the limit.

If extra hours have become normal rather than occasional, keep a record for a few weeks before you raise it. The Fair Work Ombudsman's free Record My Hours app is one way to do that, and a record makes it easier to talk about the actual pattern with your manager.

Contact after hours and the right to disconnect

Employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside working hours unless refusing is unreasonable. The right covers calls, emails, texts and messaging apps, and it applies to contact from your employer and from third parties such as clients and suppliers. It has applied since 26 August 2024 for employees of businesses with 15 or more employees, and since 26 August 2025 for employees of small businesses.

The right doesn't make after-hours contact unlawful. Your manager can still send an email at 9 pm; the question is whether it's unreasonable for you to leave it until morning. That depends on the reason for the contact, how disruptive it is, whether you're paid to be available or to work extra hours, your role and responsibilities, and your personal circumstances, including caring responsibilities. A refusal is always unreasonable if the contact is required by law. If you're on call or working overtime, you can be required to answer.

All awards include a right to disconnect clause, and some set out when you can be required to respond, for example when you're paid an on-call allowance. Enterprise agreements can include their own terms too, so check yours.

In practice, the most useful step is often agreeing expectations before there's a problem. You could ask your manager what counts as urgent enough to need an answer after hours, and how you'll be contacted if it is. Disputes should be discussed at work first, using an approach like the one in resolving conflict at work. If that doesn't resolve things, either side can take the matter to the Fair Work Commission, and your employer must not stop you from using the right.

Asking for flexible work

If the problem is when or where you work, a change to your hours, pattern or location may help more than working fewer hours. You can ask any employer about this informally at any time. Some employees also have a formal right to request flexible working arrangements, which comes with rules about how the employer must respond.

Full-time and part-time employees can make a formal request after 12 months with the same employer if they:

• are a parent of, or responsible for the care of, a child who is school aged or younger
• are a carer under the Carer Recognition Act 2010
• have a disability
• are 55 or older
• are pregnant
• are experiencing family and domestic violence, or caring for an immediate family or household member who is.

Casual employees can make a request if they meet one of those criteria, have worked regularly and systematically for the same employer for at least 12 months, and reasonably expect that work to continue.

The request needs to be in writing, say what change you're asking for and explain why. Your employer must respond in writing within 21 days. They can only refuse on reasonable business grounds, such as cost or a significant effect on productivity or customer service, and only after discussing the request with you and genuinely trying to agree on an alternative. A refusal must give reasons and say whether they'd accept a different change. If you can't resolve it at work, the Fair Work Commission can deal with the dispute. Where a state or territory law gives you a better flexible work entitlement, that law continues to apply.

It usually helps to suggest how the work will still get done. If you're asking to start and finish earlier, for instance, say how you'll cover the late-afternoon calls or who can pick them up.

Taking the leave you've earned

Full-time and part-time employees get four weeks of paid annual leave a year under the National Employment Standards, and some shiftworkers get more. You need to ask before taking it, but your employer can only refuse a request for annual leave if the refusal is reasonable. Leave doesn't have to be taken in blocks: if you and your employer agree, you can take a single day or part of a day.

A few scattered days can give you some of the recovery a long break would, without waiting for a quiet period that may not arrive. Casual employees don't get paid annual leave, which is one of the trade-offs covered in our guide to casual vs part-time vs full-time work.

When the workload is the real problem

Sometimes the hours are long because there's more work than one person can do in them. Safe Work Australia lists high job demands as a psychosocial hazard, which means they can cause psychological and physical harm. It describes this as more than being a little busy now and then: demands become a hazard when they're severe, long term or frequent, and its examples include long hours without enough breaks and having too much to do in too little time. Employers have duties under work health and safety laws to manage those risks, and each state and territory has its own regulator, listed in the table further down.

A workload conversation tends to go better when you bring a list of what you're working on and roughly how long each item takes, then ask which tasks can wait, move to someone else or be dropped. Our guide to time management at work covers how to prepare for that conversation. If long hours come with being singled out or treated badly, the guide to workplace bullying explains what counts and where to get help.

If you've tried these steps and the job still doesn't leave room for the rest of your life, it's reasonable to consider whether a different role or employer would suit you better. When you're interviewing, you could ask what hours the team typically works and how after-hours contact is handled. If the strain is already affecting your health, our article on resigning due to health or stress covers leave and other options to think about before you decide.

Where state and territory rules apply

The hours, right to disconnect, flexible work and annual leave rules above come from the Fair Work Act, which covers most employees in Australia but not all of them. State public sector employees in most states, local government employees in several and, in Western Australia, employees of sole traders, partnerships and some other businesses are in a state industrial relations system instead. If that's you, your entitlements come from state law, your award or agreement, and your employer's policies. Your HR team is a good first stop, and these state bodies give information or deal with disputes:

• New South Wales: NSW Industrial Relations for advice, and the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW for disputes
• Queensland: the Office of Industrial Relations for information on the state system, and the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission for awards, agreements and disputes
• Western Australia: Wageline on 1300 655 266 for private sector state system employees, and the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission for disputes
• South Australia: SafeWork SA, which provides state-based industrial relations services, and the South Australian Employment Tribunal for industrial and public sector matters
• Tasmania: the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, whose work mainly concerns the Tasmanian State Service.

Work health and safety is different again. Every state and territory runs its own law and regulator, although all except Victoria have adopted a version of the model work health and safety laws.

Source: coverage from the Fair Work Ombudsman's page on who is covered by the Fair Work system; laws and regulators from Safe Work Australia's WHS regulator contact information, both checked September 2026.