How many people actually work 9 to 5?

I often feel a sense of guilt when I work fewer than 8 hours on a particular workday, or when I have a day off. I know I’m far from alone in this!

While a full-time, 9-to-5 office job seems to be a normative social ideal, it is really just a myth. Here is some data to show that the number of Australians who work a full-time, 9-to-5 job are, at most, a minority.

This article from the ABS shows that only ~30% of employed women worked between 35 and 44 hours (depending on the specific year). A further ~30% worked between 20 and 34 hours, and a further ~28% worked fewer than 20 hours.

This article reported that, as of September 2020, 40% of Australian workers worked from home at least once a week.

This older article from 2010 reported that around 16% of employees worked shift work.

So, clearly, the majority of Australian women workers have jobs that are below full time. Sizable chunks of the population also work from home and/or work shifts. This indicates that people who work 9-to-5, let alone in an office, are really just one small segment of the population rather than the norm.