How many hours do you work a week!

[JordanK]

After hearing a commentator on an American news station make fun of Europeans for their "laziness" I decided to look up the facts and it turns out to be true. Us Europeans work much, much less than Americans. Where Americans percieved value is in the size of their home and how much their car costs, Europeans percieved value comes from where they are able to vacation to and for how long.

How many hours do you work a day?

http://hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Basic-Differences-Between-the-USA-and-Europe

 

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[Vigilante]

Varies by week.

As many as I want.

 

[JordanK]

Varies by week.

As many as I want.

I guess it really is a case of work smart not hard.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Depends.
Sometimes 2hrs/day, sometimes 14hrs/day.
My little moneytree still needs frequent watering.

 

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[Andy Black]

Weekly:
• 20 hours onsite for contract work.
• 10-20 hours on my stuff.

 

[EPerceptions]

I get stuck at the definition of 'work'. When I'm reading business magazines or self improvement books, my family says I'm working but I see it as relaxing. When I'm browsing forums and other hangouts looking for trends, problems, solutions, etc I see it as procrastination and/or downtime. I'm not actively developing products but I'm fully open to whatever may come. Again however, family and employee types see that as working. So according to some... because my mind is always racing in one way or another... I work 24 hours a day

Hardcore in the zone mass productivity ranges from 8-15 hour stints depending on the project and stage.

 

[johnp]

70 hours per week on average. I have weeks when I hit over 110 hours. I try not to track it though.

I'm self employed.

Love every second of it..for the most part..But I don't want to keep this up.

On the flip side, I had days when I wanted to drive my car into a wall when I worked less than 40 hours per week for the government.

 

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[theag]

All of them.

 

[SBS.95]

That author has a serious hard-on for Europe. Her attitude pissed me off, mainly because most of her "points" were things I have never experienced having lived here my entire life. I disagreed with like 7/10 points of the article.

She's definitely spot-on with food portion sizes though.

 

[luniac]

"It's not a job, it's an adventure!"

 

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[safff]

My current working week is 10 hour days, 7 hour weeks (but a week off every month). In addition, anywhere up to 5 hours a day on my own business, more in the weeks off. But it won't always be that way.

 

[DST]

It's true europeans tend to work less. In Norway a lot of people don't even work full time yet have more than enough money. My neighbor earns well over $130k (as far as I know) and starts his weekend on thursdays.


Working on your own thing is good(fastlane), but I cringe whenever I hear people complaining about how busy they are and how much they work while earning a fixed salary and slowly dying on the inside.

 

[Supa]

I can only speak for how it is in germany, people here work an average of 40hours/week..

 

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[H. Palmer]

After hearing a commentator on an American news station make fun of Europeans for their "laziness" I decided to look up the facts and it turns out to be true. Us Europeans work much, much less than Americans. Where Americans percieved value is in the size of their home and how much their car costs, Europeans percieved value comes from where they are able to vacation to and for how long.

How many hours do you work a day?

http://hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Basic-Differences-Between-the-USA-and-Europe

I read the article and it's too superficial to learn anything from.

. There is no such thing as Europe when it comes to work or entrepreneurship. There is north-western Europe, southern Europe and eastern Europe.
Almost all successful high tech industry is located in north western Europe because of work ethic. Southern Europe is food, Eastern Europe is cheap labor and low tech industry.

. Productivity per hour in north-western Europe, where the USA derived its culture from, is higher than in the US. It's output what counts, not hours. This also means that NW Europeans, when they are at work, have to work far harder than their American brethren. Very high stress levels.

. Though most north western European workers get off on vacation and retiring early (partly because they really work their asses off), entrepreneurs don't gave a damn and it's not part of their lifestyle.

. Lunch is NOT considered the most important meal of the day. That's dinner.

. TV shows are talked about all the time at work, but also how the kids are, vacation destinations, stuff like that.

. She's right about public transportation providing an alternative to the car, but it's widely considered not the best way of moving around. Nobody wants to go to work in Europe in an overcrowded tin can with body odors all over the place. Just think the London tube.

. I am confused what she's trying to say about sports. In the USA rooting for your team is just as important as in Europe. In southern Europe sports IS a family affair, just as in the USA. Only in northern Europe it is exclusively a male bonding thing.

. Dressing up in public space. Differences all around. The Dutch dress largely like Americans, always casual or business casual. Hair-do is also casual. In places like the London City, Frankfurt and Paris almost everyone is power dressed.

. She's right about Europeans walking a lot.

. Urban sprawl not common in Europe? She probably never heard about the Randstad in the Netherlands or the Ruhr area in Germany or the Antwerp-Mechelen-Brussels area in Belgium. All three several times the size of Los Angeles. The average Randstad worker spends an hour per day in a traffic jam plus more than an hour in moving traffic.


In general, the article paints a world view wherein Europe is better in many respects than the US. The main problem is it's based on false observations and American style wishful thinking of what Europe is supposed to be, not what it is.

 

[Darius]

11-14 hours per day during the weekdays. About 8-10 hours on the weekends.

 

[Vigilante]

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

This question depends on how you define "work".

My personal definition of "work" is doing something that I hate. Trading time for money.

So by my definition, I work maybe 5 hours a week. However, if you look at the number of hours that I put into my business and economic pursuits, then it gets closer to 80 hours a week.

 

[juggler619]

60 hrs a week - Stupid Middle East!

 

[DeletedUser394]

~3.50

 

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[The Grind]

All of them.

This, people of the fastlane forum...

Is the correct answer.

Touche.

 

[Bigguns50]

The only hours I count are when I'm working at my friend's hardware store...other than that...I have no idea. I just do what I do. It's all good.

 

[funkj25]

~3.50

 

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[JordanK]

Thanks for all the great replies. Plenty of value in this thread. Just a response to H.Palmers lengthy post as an Irish European I found that most of the points weren't too far off, they were just exaggerated and generalized.