By Natalie Burg
When an American worker sends a critical work email at 11p.m. or shows up in the workplace early on a Saturday, her coworkers all understand the implications: she's the hardest worker, an overachiever; she's really going places. But that's not a universal reaction. In Denmark, for example, she might receive a reprimand. What a culture clash!
"Most Danes don't feel obligated to check their smartphones and e-mail after hours," writes Brigid Schulte in Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time. "In fact, they say, people who put in long hours and constantly check e-mail after hours are seen not as ideal worker warriors, as in America, but as inefficient."
Talk about a culture clash. And it's not just Denmark. The American concept of the ideal worker is fundamentally different throughout Europe, where the European Union's Working Time Directive prevents most workers from exceeding 48 hours of work in a week, requires at least 11 consecutive rest hours a day and guarantees four weeks of paid leave each year. Here in the U.S., we're guaranteed no paid leave at all. In fact, according to a 2014 Expedia Inc. study, while we're given 15 annual vacation days on average, we only take about 14 of them. It's no wonder that in a ranking of work-life balance among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations, the U.S. was ranked twenty-third…of twenty three.
The average American worker faces these culture clashes too often in the workplace.
Plenty of labor experts have plenty of arguments as to why Americans averaged 1,788 work hours a year in 2013 compared to Denmark's 1,411, France's 1,489 and Germany's 1,388. But regardless of why Americans outwork most of Europe, should we be working so hard? Is the culture of overwork benefiting us in any way, or could Europe be proving it's possible to build a more ideal workforce by working less? Here, we examine the advantages of Europe's work culture—not only for European workers, but for their businesses as well.
Getting Away
Europe knows how to vacation. In fact, they take pride in it.
"Europeans’ self-worth is often tied up not with whether they drive a
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 10 million Americans, or about nine percent of the total workforce vacationed in July of 1980. In 2014, just seven million got away in July, which is less than five percent.
It's the impact of that reticence to take a break that should most have American businesspeople looking enviously toward Europe: The Harvard Business Review reports that an Ernst & Young study found performance reviews increased eight percent for each additional ten hours of vacation workers took. That's not to mention vacation's proven ability to improve mental health, increase mindfulness and enhance family relationships.
Better Flexibility
The European embrace of work-life balance includes flexibility as well as limited work hours. Businesswoman Teresa Arbuckle, who has worked in the U.S., France and the United Kingdom, experienced the difference herself.
"The flexible options that we see a lot of in the UK simply don’t exist," she writes of her time with American employers in The Guardian. "Here, you can hold a successful senior position and still have a more flexible work style like four day workweeks or work from home days."
That's no small deal. As The Washington Post reported last year, "study after study has shown that employees with flexible work arrangements tend to be healthier, happier, more productive — and even less likely to want to change jobs."
A Competitive Edge
Where does this leave the U.S. in terms of global competitiveness? If nothing else, we Americans tend to pat ourselves on the backs for our workaholic culture. Certainly, that makes us more competitive, right? Wrong, according to labor lawyer and author of Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life, Thomas Geoghegan.
"What country has the highest exports in the world today? It’s the country with the highest wage rates and union restrictions," Geoghegan tells Salon. "Germany has become more of a power, not less of a power as the world has become more global. Our problem isn’t competing with China, it’s competing with Germany in China."
Our comparative productivity bears out that finding. Though the OECD may have found the U.S. to be more productive (based on GDP per capita) than Germany in 2013, the three countries with higher productivity than the U.S.—Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg—racked up far fewer working hours than American workers that year (1,408, 1,585 and 1,643, respectively, compared to the U.S.'s 1,788).
Could Americans be more ideal workers by working less? European work culture suggests it's possible. Without comparable labor laws to force employees out the door, however, it could be a tough sell to change the American culture of overwork. But business owners and executives don't have to wait for regulations to convince them. By encouraging workers to take more breaks, they just may improve their employees' lives and their companies' productivity at the same time.
Additional Reading:
1. 20 Innovative Ways IT Can Impact the Business in 2015
3. The Top 5 Traits of Successful Digital Enterprises
