8+Tabling Americans And 4 Tabling Europeans

[Peter McDermott]

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Try this thought experiment. Assume your goverment mandates 50 weeks of paid vacation per year, and only 2 weeks of work. Do you really believe companies could still pay the same wages? Auto factories would see production drop by 95%, their revenues from selling those cars would also drop by 95%. Do you really think they'd have enough money to pay the same wages?


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But this scenario gives the worker *more* freedom, not less. He can either choose to take his paid leave and have more free time, or he can work his paid leave and have more money. In the American scenario, if the boss says that you get two weeks leave a year and you decide you want four, you're out on your arse.
Ergo Europeans are actually *freer* than Americans!

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The more hours you work, the more you produce and the more valuable you are to employers. Even if salaried. In a competitive labor (er, labour) market, on average you'll see the benefit of extra work, either through promotions, raises, or a higher offer from a competitive firm. All other things being equal, an employee who comes in at 7 am, and leaves at 7 pm, working hard the entire time, is worth more than a twin who comes in at 9 am, and leaves at 5 pm, even if the twin works equally hard whilst in the office.

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There's an abundance of research that shows that we're only effective when we work a certain number of hours a day. Once you start to go over that number, you start to become less effective and less productive, not more so.

And if it takes me four hours to do the same amount of work that it takes my more diligent twin eight to do, then I can either choose whether I want to invest that extra time in my future employment prospects, or I can choose whether I prefer to enjoy it as free time now.

In the US professional workplace culture where everybody seems to work ludicrous hours simply because that's what's expected, regardless of how effective they are during that time period, employees seem to me to be both less happy and, once again, less free.