The Myth That Greeks Do Not Work Hard

Originally posted by rickymouse

Originally posted by HelenConway

Originally posted by michael1983l
reply to post by rickymouse

 

I think like in all aspects of life, a happy medium will probably be the best way to approach working hours. A work/life balance is certainly needed and I think those countries that go to extremes of working their people can develop their own social problems because of it. I could not work for a company that only gave 2 weeks paid holiday a year, that is a disgrace as far as I am concerned.

I know 2 weeks a year is a disgrace. Americans why do you let them do this to you !

We are conditioned to think it is normal.

I don't think that is right. 2 weeks is what most everyone gets. I have a job that gives me 2 weeks a year but we let me take as mush unpaid as I want. i can even work extra hours and bank them to build a paid week off. but no dose that. They want something for nothing. Fact is a person willing to work will alway have what they need and for the most what they want. Eating horse isn't normal in the States but in the EU it is. Just what we are used to.

well firstly, the number of hours that you spend in your place of employment does not really indicate how much effort/graft you put in - i am sure that we have all seen that in many ways..

and secondly - 2 weeks paid vacation

in the uk you typically more as stated earlier, and it increases with the length of service in one companay etc - for example, i have been with the same organisation some 9 years now, and get 30 days (ie 6 weeks) paid hols, plus bank holidays/public holidays.

sheesh american folks, i dont envy you - cant you all fix up and do something about that?

reply to post by mythots


People should be able to bank some hours at straight time here in the USA. Working in construction it would be beneficial to have it that way. If you had to do something you could use your hours and the employer would not be penalized by paying higher wages. In Construction you could have no work from a weeks rain, it would be nice to have hours in the bank so you still have an income. I can't see having more than a couple of weeks banked for emergencies and down time though. Under present law here any overtime has to be paid at time and a half, sometimes costing more than it's worth. If it is acceptable between the employer and employee, I don't see why it can't be done. I am sure some employers would take advantage of this but so would some employees and it could disrupt the workplace. Small employers count on their limited employees being there so things run efficiently. Having an extra guy on the payroll just in case an employee doesn't show means that each employee gets less pay for hour. When dealing with contract work, it is good to control efficiency so the client gets a fair price.

reply to post by michael1983l


Figures taken from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) link



Europe's top 10 and bottom 10



Most hours worked --- Most productive --- Fewest hours worked --- Least productive

1 Greece** --------------------- Luxembourg ---------- Netherlands --------------------- Poland

2 Hungary-------------------- Norway ----------------- Germany ------------------------- Hungary

3 Poland---------------------- Ireland ------------------ Norway ---------------------------- Turkey

4 Estonia--------------------- Belgium ----------------- France ---------------------------- Estonia

5 Turkey---------------------- Netherlands ----------- Denmark ------------------------- Czech Rep

6 Czech Rep---------------- France ------------------ Ireland ---------------------------- Portugal

7 Italy-------------------------- Germany --------------- Belgium --------------------------- Slovakia

8 Slovakia-------------------- Denmark --------------- Austria ----------------------------- Greece**

9 Portugal-------------------- Sweden ---------------- Luxembourg --------------------- Slovenia

10 Iceland------------------- Austria ------------------- Sweden --------------------------- Iceland

Source Article

The article compares the economies of Greece and Germany;

Pascal Marianna, who is a labour markets statistician at the OECD says: "The Greek labour market is composed of a large number of people who are self-employed, meaning farmers and - on the other hand - shop-keepers who are working long hours." Self-employed workers tend to work more than those who have specified hours in an employment contract.

The second reason Mr Marianna points to is the different number of part-time workers in each country. "In Germany, the share of employees working part-time is quite high.

This represents something like one in four," he says. As these annual hours figures are for all workers, the large proportion who work part-time in Germany is bringing down the overall average.

In Greece, far fewer people work part-time. So, because the two labour markets are structured differently, it is actually hard to compare like with like.

If you account for these factors by stripping away part-time and self-employed people and look only at full-time salaried workers, the Greeks are still working almost 10% more hours than the Germans.

BBC News

reply to post by HelenConway


The auto industry is Unionized. Unions are a whole different story.