If the rest of the country is working, why aren't you? The colour co-ordinated month of March displayed the shaded RDOs clustered around a weekend and a public holiday to produce 5 days off in a row. Now I'm on the side of workers, having started my working life in a sawmill where workers rights had been protected by the very strong timber industry union. Nevertheless, I wasn't entirely sure about two things. First, why do we still have RDOs? They started life as a way of adjusting for flexible hours worked. Now, I like to start early, often at six in the morning, but I didn't expect office staff to be there then. Others had a different pattern and would work till 7pm or 8pm and come in a little later.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox. But now I question whether Australians should be having the days off that we do. Our economy is not doing well, despite what people say. We need to be working harder and while we have a wonderful standard of living, the world is a competitive place that has a habit of making the complacent pay dearly. A few months ago I looked out a 10th-floor window in Macau at 11pm to see arc welders in the building next door working through the night. Asia is a 24-hour economy without any RDOs. I'm sure I'll get plenty of reaction to the thought that longstanding working conditions should be renegotiated. Ned Kelly would moonlight as a bank robber. Credit:Jack Atley But the second thought was about what people do on their RDO, especially when they have so many of them.

"That's easy" says Charlie. "They moonlight." A great scientific career was born off the back of a day job. Credit:AP Good idea! I recently read that the great Albert Einstein couldn't find a job as a teacher after graduating from Zurich polytechnic and he spent two years living hand to mouth as a private tutor. He finally got a job as a clerk at the Federal Patent Office in Bern, Switzerland. It wasn't demanding for a man of Einstein's ability and so before, after and probably during working hours, he turned his mind to the universe and eventually came up with the theory of general relativity. And so a great scientific career was born off the back of a day job. A very good use of the RDO. And, more recently, the suburban bank manager who carefully scheduled his RDOs to co-ordinate with the metropolitan thoroughbred racing calendar. But he wasn't moonlighting as a professional punter. He could have done that from the office. His job was with one of our major bookies who needed what was called a bookmaker's assistant.

"You mean a bag man," says Louise, who has been reading too much of the political press this week. His part-time job called for a trustworthy person with experience in handling large amounts of money. Who better than a branch manager of one of our major banks? "You've got to be joking," said Charlie, who is still calling for a royal commission. But in any case an excellent use of the RDO. And those of us who have been involved with symphony orchestras well know the mad rush as the "musos" pack up their instruments, throw off the black tie and tails and quickly get into the suede jacket and head off to do a jazz gig till one in the morning, knowing they need to get up early next morning to do some private tutoring at one of our posh schools. Moonlighting is a time honoured tradition from colonial beginnings. After all, Ned Kelly did many jobs as a young man including a bit of blacksmithing. And then on his days off rob a bank or two. Moonlighting is not a hanging offence, chirps Louise, although Ned was the exception.

But the real point is. Can we work both harder and smarter? And is the RDO really working to everyone's advantage any more? After all, the cranes still seem to be moving around on a Saturday, a treasured day off. But at double and triple time, why wouldn't they be? I want everyone to enjoy their life, but I want the Australian economy to be world competitive. Unless we examine everything, it just won't be.