With one stone for two birds, Thomas Friedman addressed the recent hubbub over the EU Constitution and his ongoing love affair with India as follows:
[France’s and Holland’s rejection of the EU Constitution] is interesting because French voters are trying to preserve a 35-hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day. Good luck.
Is old Europe really going to crumble because its workers don’t want to give up their vacation days? Is this a symptom of something larger about the European corporate ethic? This is interesting in light of a recent conversation with my Senior Legal Advisor For Large Pharmaceutical uncle who believes that major European companies are going to fail in coming decades because of their impenetrable management structures and insurmountable processes which keep them from achieving progress in an increasingly competitive global market.
Friedman continues:
The Indian state of West Bengal has the oldest elected Communist government left in the world today. Some global technology firms recently were looking at outsourcing there, but told the Communists they could not do so because of the possibility of worker strikes that might disrupt the business processes of the companies they work for. No problem. The Communist government declared information technology work an “essential service,” making it illegal for those workers to strike.
A somewhat troubling precedent in the arena of workers’ rights.
Back to the topics of vacation and work-life balance: a sufficient break from work to enjoy the fruit of your work. I hate the fact that all I get is two weeks worth of paid vacation. Half of it is automatically sacrificed to conveyance alone. In Kuwait, adults work hard and enjoy two to three months of vacation a year. If a decrease in productivity is the concern, not everyone has to take vacation at the same time. Again, I don’t advocate a whole quarter of vacation, but a month would be nice even for the junior-most workers, with the stipulation that it can’t be taken all at once. Where is the power of the individual when they are only required to be an economic-value-generating machine?
Yes I have always wondered about this too – vacation divide among the various nations. Can economic success come only at such a high price – you just keep your nose to the grindstone but for what?
I hear ya. Working for a French company where those of us on the U.S. payroll get the 2 weeks, and those on the French payroll get the standard six weeks or whetever it is there. The response to this is “do you want to earn less like they do?” Well, I am not so sure they earn less…
The power of the individual lies in his/her ability to generate more economic value in less time.. That way, he/she can reach the desired level of income in less and less time… A process known as increased productivity.
It also helps if one learns contentment. After all, almost all companies allow longer vacations than 2 weeks. Just that the rest of the time is unpaid.. not prohibited.
As an aside.. I really enjoy watching these commies try to reverse the incredible de-industrialization they’ve brought upon Bengal.
What about the studies that show that productivity decreases after 35-40 hours per week? IMO, to each his/her own. If you produce high-quality work but can only work 25 hours a week, so be it — you get paid accordingly. However, if you capable of and willing to work double the normal American workload, you shouldn’t get penalized for that, either.
This study shows that super-long work weeks increases the chances of cardiac problems.
How about this for a happy medium? Company pays in full for an annual gym membership and semi-monthly massages if you work at a computer. (Oooh ooh, me, me!!)
Okay, I know I’m nitpicking here…
But why assume one should stop working when your productivity dips below your peak level? Sure, you do your best work in the first N hours of the week, then productivity falls. But if you continue working, your total output for the week is still higher than if you stopped. Right? (Except airline pilots and doctors/surgeons and other such ‘no mistakes permissible’ professions..)
Yes, I know I am defining professional / job output to be the only economic output..
But to be honest, I disagree with the notion that professional work must stress one out. I don’t take that as a given. I know that the ‘artisan’ lifestyle, of pursuing a passion single-mindedly, may or mayn’t be an option. But surely one can find a vocation that one likes enough to put in a decent 60 hour week?
I’m reminded of a TV program I watched in Tokyo a while ago. It was a documentary about a ‘master’ angler. (How boring do I have to be to sit and watch a guy fishing on TV :-P ? I hadn’t learnt Japanese, so my choices were rather limited.. this program’s USP was it’s English soundtrack..)
Anyway, some time into the program, the voiceover said … “…Mr. Takano has now been waiting for a bite for 5 hours…”
And I expected the sentence to end as “.. and is bored to death and wondering what on Earth he is doing here, when he could be home watching TV..”
But instead, it continued.. “… and his mind is concentrated at it’s peak level…”
That’s when I had an epiphany about what a passion can do to anyone. I still envy Mr. Takano because I haven’t found any activity that can hold my attention for 5 hours while sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere.
Thankfully, I work at a job in which my mind concentrates at its peak level just as soon as its time to go home, i.e. I could sit there and interpret away at seismic data until the city lights come on and the cleaning lady has been and gone. Same with my graphics and 3D work.
But, we’re talking about people who have to work for a living as opposed to want to and have to. I’m one of the lucky ones, really.
(Secret: I’m not a morning person. My ideal work day would be 10 am – 9 pm)
It would be nice if I could go home when I don’t actually have work to do. I’d get about a week a month, because that’s the cyclical nature of the beast at a monthly magazine. I suspect I’d be a ot more productive, too, because I wouldn’t be farting around all the time! Really, the tourism industry should lobby for increased vacation time for American workers. That’s the only way anything gets done in the country anymore, anyway.