Pi-Consulting

An American-led “puritan work ethic” is supposed to underlie the North Atlantic societies’ attitudes to work. Work is good. Time-outs are for slackers and wasters. “You must be very busy” are words we reserve for people we esteem and admire.
What drives us to work? The whole idea was questioned by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, writing in an age when a strong work ethic was an unquestioned article of faith for almost everyone. “Far too much work is done in the world, [and] immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous”, Russell wrote in In Praise of Idleness (1935). “Leisure is essential to civilization, …and the road to happiness lies in an organized diminution of work”.

Two generations later, his words are finding an echo in our lives. Europe is beginning to look distinctly work-averse. Paris and Brussels close down for the whole of August, as the French and the Belgians take their simultaneous and near-universal Summer holidays. Germans increasingly start their weekends at lunch-time on Friday. Traditionally upstanding Protestant countries are turning otiose. Their reputation for hard work is going the way of history, and they don’t seem unduly fussed about the fact. Indeed, many people would now agree that much of what they do in the name of work is probably a waste of time.

Time, rather than money, is increasingly what people think it’s about. Emerging trends show significant change in attitudes to work over the last two decades, both in the USA and here in Europe. The idea of driving oneself to meet stringent self-imposed work standards has tailed off Europe-wide since the late 1980s. Self-confessed workaholics in the UK have dwindled to only one in five. ‘Driven’ work habits made a come-back in the USA in the go-getting early 1990s, but they have been sliding downhill again since 1995.

What is work for? The signs everywhere imply that work’s main purpose in people’s lives has less and less to do with the gaining of material wealth. Only a quarter of people in Europe’s big five markets now claim material success as one of their goals. In Britain the number of success-seekers is falling just as fast. In the USA, more people still cling to the American dream of success, but that figure has recently receded somewhat.

By contrast, a rising number of respondents in Britain, the rest of Europe and the USA are saying that the reason they work is to make a living and survive, as opposed to ambitions of personal development or self-fulfillmebnt. The figures suggest a switch of European interest towards working for an improved personal quality of life, but dedication to work per se is progressively falling victim to what the French, with a shrug, call “M’en-foutisme”, or “Don’t-give-a-hootism”.

Simultaneously, more Europeans have been saying they would like to cut down on their commitment to the job, even if it means a drop in earnings, in order to have more time to themselves. There has been a sharp increase in respondents who say they want to take time to really appreciate things in life. The time/money equation is being re-calculated, this time in favor of Time.

How much time off are we actually getting, anyway? A multi-country check by The Economist showed that, when statutory holiday allowances and public holidays are added together, the result is surprisingly variable. The Austrians lead the chart, enjoying a positively decadent forty days a year, with their German neighbors only three days behind them. The French, Italians and Spanish all get more than the UK’s rather parsimonious 30 days, (though the British lack of free time is more due to our comparatively short ration of public holidays).

According to the chart below, Americans could claim to be the hardest workers in the West. Certainly two weeks’ annual holiday seems pretty thin, a third week only being awarded with five years’ service. However, before Europe starts sympathizing too much with its trans-Atlantic cousins, note that Americans know a thing or two about evening things up. They have things called Conventions. These are, among other things, a subtle way of getting time off without actually taking official holidays.

Around two in three members of the US work-force get to participate annually in meetings or conventions organized by their companies or trade associations, mostly in ‘relaxing locations’ like Las Vegas, and sometimes in Europe or the Caribbean. You can legitimately call it work, and even put some of it on expenses. A modest amount of training or real work is certainly expected. Nonetheless, at least half the time tends to be passed on the beach, golf-course or skeet-shooting range. All in all, even workaholic America has ways of quietly slackening the pressure of the daily grind.

We have seen the future, and it doesn’t work as hard as it used to.