Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Quote of the Day

On average, Americans work over 1,800 hours per year, substantially more than most workers around the world. Although we get fewer vacation days per year than other Western countries (thirteen days, compared to twenty-eight in Great Britain, and thirty-seven in France), we let more than twice as many go unused. And really, what's a vacation to us these days without our BlackBerry? In 2006, almost a quarter of us (23 percent) checked our work e-mail and voice mail while away - up from just 16 percent in 2005. A lot of us love to work.

- Mark J. Penn

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting post - the question for me is do you love to work or is it socially and culturally unacceptable to say I am having 3 weeks off on holiday with the family? My experience says many US colleagues would love to do that but that it is culturally unacceptable. Raises the well known question of whether you are working to live or living to work?

Michael Wade said...

Mike,

I'm not so sure about that. I think many people badmouth work and talk about what a grind it is but then they put in unnecessary hours. There is a high to work that can be addictive, possibly because of the cultural pressures that you describe. Work may be filling a void that was once filled elsewhere.