Is 28.5 Hours a Week Really “Working”?
June 13th, 2006 Posted in International living/working, Work/Life/Travel BalanceA few weeks back I pointed to a depressing survey showing how vacation-deprived most Americans are.
Compare that to Europe, where it’s common to have four to six weeks off. A much more sensible and healthy life. But what if those Europeans are barely working when it’s a work week? The World Cup aside, it came out in the news this week that German VW workers only have to put in 28.5 hours per week to get a full salary.
The automaker is having tough times and wants to increase the weekly hours to 35. The union is flatly refusing to even discuss it. (In all fairness, they’re being asked to do it with no increase in pay or benefits either.) Here’s the article.
Now I’m all for everyone getting lots of vacation time to renew and rest, but how much do you need if you don’t even work 30 hours? Are you kidding me? Even if you only work four days, that’s still only 7.125 hours per day. You can stop for a leisurely beer after work and still be home by dinner. There’s a phrase for the 28.5 hour work week: “part-time.” No wonder Germany has an unemployment rate that’s perpetually above 10 percent. When you can get double the work at a fraction of the cost in another country, why hire at home?
There’s got to be a middle ground somewhere. A happy balance where we work hard when we’re working, play hard when we’re playing, and do absolutely nothing an adequate amount of time each year.
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4 Responses to “Is 28.5 Hours a Week Really “Working”?”
By Mike on Sep 2, 2006
Hi Tim – I’m surprised by your opinion here… I agree with so much of what else you say about prioritizing – why not in our daily lives as well? As far as I’m concerned, I work to earn time. I do love my job (self-employed window washer) but the free time is when I get to – you know – live. Read, try a new restaurant, wander around the city.
Independent travel is as much about lifestyle as it is the destination, and it’s important to bring that lifestyle home. Why not work a comfortable amount, if you can afford to do so?
By tim on Sep 3, 2006
I agree wholeheartedly that we all need to find a good balance in our lives. My problem comes when people think an employer OWES them a full salary for only working 28.5 hours a week. A person who works that many hours should expect to earn less than a person who works 40. That grand European experiment of “less hours means more people working” has proven to be a huge mistake. It has hurt the competitiveness of the companies (like VW) and the unemployment rate in Germany is still twice as high as it is in the U.S.
I’m not saying the latter style is good either–as we’re seeing from the “shrinking vacation syndrome.” There’s got to be a middle ground in there though, and in fact many progressive companies seem to have found it. A friend of mine works his butt off for Intel, but he just got an 8-week paid vacation. He and his family are traveling all over the place this summer.
By Bryan on Sep 19, 2006
Another question worth asking is “how productive are people after a certain number of hours anyway”? I know a number of lawyers, management consultants, etc. that complain about their 60 hour work weeks yet they probably screw off during half of it. Or if they do work the whole time, they’re often inefficient because they’re stuck in the mode of “I need to be here 12 hours today”.
I also think work should be evaluated based on your productivity. I generally finish high quality work in about 15 to 20 hours that takes many of my colleages a solid 2 weeks. My wife is the same way. She finishes at least 2 to 3 times the workload of her co-workers (and does better work). Granted it’s difficult to quantify these things, but it’s worth considering.
By tim on Sep 25, 2006
Very good point. Too many bosses (and companies) are still on a time clock mentality, whereas the good ones are focused on results. There have been a few studies too that found people who telecommute are far more effective than ones who work in an office. They’re not working more hours, but they’re focused on what really matters.
The scary thing is, we Americans have all worked for/with people who don’t accomplish jack squat while they’re at work, or not nearly as much as they should during that time. Yet the U.S. is way ahead of the rest of the world in terms of productivity, revenue per employee, profit per employee hour, and other similar statistics. So how much worse is the screw-off factor in other countries?!