this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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I used to work for a French company. My colleagues in France would take the whole damn month of August off, and then complain that North Americans never worked.
TBF my experience with Japanese and American workers is that you spend a lot of time in the office, but aren't particularly productive. Hardly surprising, given there's loads of evidence that suggests a strict enforcement of leisure time, actually increases productivity.
No one works at 100% if they work 70 hours a week and check their emails during the weekend.
Or as I once put it to a boss, when he asked me why I was leaving the office at 1700 on the dot, I finish my work in 8 hours, my colleagues need 9.
Absolutely. I worked for one office where one founder would literally come around doing “bed checks” multiple times a day. I’m talking about a guy with a net worth well over $100 million, seriously connected to federal politics, major local influence on universities and government. This guy spent no less than 15 hours/week checking to see who was sitting in their seats. That was one of his top priorities.
Of course, this bled down to supervisors that he promoted. And as a result, the entire office was full of the most mediocre workers I’ve ever dealt with. Just sit at their desk doing nothing except ready to schmooze the boss. Many were afraid to use the bathroom, go to lunch, etc. Total nonsense.
My old boss told me that he didn't care how many hours I worked as long as I got the job done.
Months later I got called into the office and put on a PIP with the reason being that I left early. I worked from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM.
I ended up going back to the company I was at before then. They have the same policy but actually don't care. My current boss has told me multiple times to get off the computer and go home. Last time I had to leave early, she told me to make sure I factored in traffic.
That's the thing - if you have plenty of vacations and a short work week, then you tend to actually do work during your working hours. If you're in the workplace for 70 hours every week all year, then naturally you can't do useful work for most of these hours. Which is why it looks like you never work as you have to rest at work.
I'd rather have 30 incredibly intense and productive hours than 60 completely chill no stress do a little of this a little of that hours.
My old job was 60-70 hours of incredibly intense productivity (was working for a Japanese corporation) and I learnt at a rate well above what other workers would due to the intensity, but then I had a breakdown from burn out. Keeping that tempo for fewer hours is the best of both worlds. Employers need to be focused on output rather than time logged.
I agree. There's also that benefit you forgot to mention that you have 30 hours more free time to spend however you like, instead of somewhat "free" time that you have to spend at work.