On Life In Norway
“According to the International Labor Organization, Americans now work 1,978 hours annually, a full 350 hours - nine weeks - more than Western Europeans. The average American actually worked 199 hours more in 2000 than he or she did in 1973, a period during which worker productivity per hour nearly doubled.
This NY Times piece on the subject points out that “by contrast, over the past 30 years, Europeans have made a different choice - to live simpler, more balanced lives and work fewer hours. The average Norwegian, for instance, works 29 percent less than the average American - 14 weeks per year - yet his average income is only 16 percent less. Western Europeans average five to six weeks of paid vacation a year; we average two.”
What do you think? Why the drive to work so much and vacation so little? Are Americans missing the point of what’s important about life? Or is this emphasis on productivity a good thing?”
I spend quite a bit of time in Norway working and it’s hard to quantify any one specific thing which leaves the impression of a ‘better’ quality of life. In general I notice everyone seems enormously focussed and free from distraction when they are working, I think a lot of the Norweigans I see at work get more done in the eight or so hours at the office than we might in a longer period. There’s also a lot of respect for personal time and family needs. It seems that here people feel like they have to sneak stuff in on work time - sometimes - as opposed to a clearer recognition that people have personal lives in Europe and employers need to accomodate it, since it’s going to happen anyways.
At lunch today a friend of mine whose house hunting was contemplating how our parents ‘did it’. Dono pointed out that our parents [when they were our age] didn’t have two cars, five TV’s and lunch/dinner out all week. It’s all a question of balance. I’m not sure we need to work more or less [as a society that is]. I do know we just need to adopt the European habit of dialoguing about what an individual needs at work to be happy and productive…and provide it. And we also really need to involve everyone in the company in the company’s financial issues, challenges and success.