Why the US has one of the most overworked populations in the world.

[Twilight Hue]

The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World

I think greed has a lot to do with it.

Less on people, more on profit.

Seems other nations have found a happy medium where profit and the human element have equilibrium.

How come the US dosent?

 

[TransmutingSoul]

The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World

I think greed has a lot to do with it.

Less on people, more on profit.

Seems other nations have found a happy medium where profit and the human element have equilibrium.

How come the US dosent?

Well Materialism was pretty well bred in the good old USA.

It has been said that America was one of the first places chosen to receive a Message from God, because of this materialism and its pernicious potential.

Regards Tony

 

[metis]

There's a saying I've heard that goes "Europeans work to live, while Americans live to work". IMO, we tend to be too materialistic here in the States, plus we have to pay so much out of pocket expenses just to have the basic needs, such as healthcare and post high school education, whereas western Europeans pay higher taxes to get them "free". Here in the States, 70-80% of all personal bankruptcies have healthcare costs as a major factor.

 

[Revoltingest]

The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World

I think greed has a lot to do with it.

Less on people, more on profit.

Seems other nations have found a happy medium where profit and the human element have equilibrium.

How come the US dosent?

I once tried over-work.
I've since over-come that attitude.
Now I under-work.
Guess what I wear.

 

[Secret Chief]

The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World

I think greed has a lot to do with it.

Less on people, more on profit.

Seems other nations have found a happy medium where profit and the human element have equilibrium.

How come the US dosent?

I think you've answered your own question.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World

I think greed has a lot to do with it.

Less on people, more on profit.

Seems other nations have found a happy medium where profit and the human element have equilibrium.

How come the US dosent?

Greed no. To me that's like saying Americans are greedy because we work in a profit based nation. To tell you honestly, since everyone works, who actually profits and have the time to be greedy.

If we weren't set up profit based, we may have a work/life balance.

I'm sure there other countries that have issues too. Why is the US singled out all the time

 

[JustGeorge]

I think besides just the materialism, we tend to view our job as our identity. Ask a person who they are, their job title will likely be one of the first things mentioned.

When a person is unable to work, they often complain of feeling useless, as if a career is the only way to be of value. We also tend to make assumptions about our unemployed, often judging it as a character flaw. We often don't ponder if there is a reason behind it, such as a health condition or an alternative way of life.

 

[Quetzal]

How come the US dosent?

Because anything outside of our current model is immediately branded as socialism/communism and dismissed by ~50% of the voting population.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I once tried over-work.
I've since over-come that attitude.
Now I under-work.
Guess what I wear.

All that hard work and long hours did for me was send me to the operating room. And a realization that this work fetish I grew up to idolize and see as proper and ideal leaves very little room and time for anything in life that isn't work. And it became apparent there is nothing good, decent, admirable or honorable about a parent missing out on their children growing up because the parent was always working.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Because anything outside of our current model is immediately branded as socialism/communism and dismissed by ~50% of the voting population.

That is the nutshell gist of it. It will hurt productivity, GPD will suffer, it does no one any good to do it like the commies.
Except other nations don't work nearly this hard and despite that are more productive.

 

[SomeRandom]

You guys don’t have a proper agreed upon minimum wage. That alone blows my mind.
People going bankrupt due to health reasons is also an American only phenomenon.

Overworked and unproductive sounds about right for the US capitalist model if you ask me.

 

[SigurdReginson]

I once tried over-work.
I've since over-come that attitude.
Now I under-work.
Guess what I wear.

I feel that! I work with a lot of workaholics. I used to be one, too.

I took a break, started to focus on myself more, realised that it was a nice way to live, and I just never went back. The only people that care about work productivity are your corporate overlords, and they have no qualms about overworking you until you're burnt out. Nuts to that!

 

[Twilight Hue]

Except other nations don't work nearly this hard and despite that are more productive.

Thats the thing I dont understand.

A well rested, happy person makes for a good productive employee.

I suppose a highly paid executive with a river of money coming his or her way could care less as long as the river keeps flowing for themselves.

I suspect their logic is an overworked desperate person clamoring for a living will do any amount of hours for slave wages just to survive and make ends meet. Its cheaper that way and keeps the company going. Turnover is now the rule rather than the exception.

 

[Revoltingest]

I feel that! I work with a lot of workaholics. I used to be one, too.

I took a break, started to focus on myself more, realised that it was a nice way to live, and I just never went back. The only people that care about work productivity are your corporate overlords, and they have no qualms about overworking you until you're burnt out. Nuts to that!

I need daughter to adopt your attitude.
Those 70+ hour weeks aren't worth the pay.

 

[JustGeorge]

I feel that! I work with a lot of workaholics. I used to be one, too.

I took a break, started to focus on myself more, realised that it was a nice way to live, and I just never went back. The only people that care about work productivity are your corporate overlords, and they have no qualms about overworking you until you're burnt out. Nuts to that!

I used to really confuse my old coworkers... while they were all trying to pick up more hours, I was always trying to scale back life so I could work less!

I actually became somewhat of a legend for refusing extra shifts. At first it was refusal with an excuse. Then it became just a basic "no thanks". Then it was 'ask me and prepare to be insulted'. We had a new supervisor who was unfamiliar with my ways, and despite all the other supervisors advising her not to call me for a vacant shift, she did it anyways. She was new, so I just gave her a basic no. A minute later, another supervisor called me back and said "You didn't ask what she's been smoking! No references to being drunk?" so I told her to have the other one call me back, and I'd properly insult her. Was just trying to cut a newbie some slack!

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Thats the thing I dont understand.

A well rested, happy person makes for a good productive employee.

I suppose a highly paid executive with a river of money coming his or her way could care less as long as the river keeps flowing for themselves.

I suspect their logic is an overworked desperate person clamoring for a living will do any amount of hours for slave wages just to survive and make ends meet. Its cheaper that way and keeps the company going. Turnover is now the rule rather than the exception.

It's the belief of people will do whatever and work whatever to get ahead (ideally it's not a bad idea, but especially here the odds are too heavily stacked against us this to be a reasonable outcome or expectation for most), but not only that, it's the idea we're nothing more than cogs. And for the most part, most jobs out there can be done equally just as well by just about anyone else. They don't need people or individuals, they need someone to stand in an assembly line and do mindless, menial, repetitive tasks for hours on end and days on end. And we aren't necessarily employees anymore, we are "human resources." And resources tend to not be treated with the respect and care they deserve here. They are for using and exploiting, and squandered away as if the consequences matter not and won't happen.

 

[Quetzal]

A well rested, happy person makes for a good productive employee.

I suppose a highly paid executive with a river of money coming his or her way could care less as long as the river keeps flowing for themselves.

Yeah, this kind of thing is pretty common in our model. We can do better and I think we will get there. As with all great things, it will probably take awhile.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I feel that! I work with a lot of workaholics. I used to be one, too.

I took a break, started to focus on myself more, realised that it was a nice way to live, and I just never went back. The only people that care about work productivity are your corporate overlords, and they have no qualms about overworking you until you're burnt out. Nuts to that!

Worst place I ever worked for was a distribution center that frequently worked us 14 to 16 hours, though orientation promised 12 hours would be rare and absolutely nothing more than that. But what made it so bad, at the beginning of the shift they would tell us we'd have a short shift, 8 to 10 hours, if we got how many ever pieces out. We'd do more than that and still get stuck with another 14 hour shift. They were so bad about this "carrot dangling" we wouldn't even know if we'd be working a holiday or not until we'd be clocking out the shift before we may or may not be required to show up for.
The overtime was good (well, then it was when I didn't know being above poverty), but work was life and about all there was time for because most of the off time was spent resting and exhausted. And by midweek people were showing up to work clearly starting to show signs of fatigue and exhaustion. End of the week (Thursday for the night shift) and everyone was starting worn out and exhausted.
Predictably the turnover is very high, but they have no problem burning through temps and regular workers, because they have a vast supply of resources to burn through. And burning through them means more money for executives and shareholders who aren't losing out on an extra shift, better benefits, and better pay for the work (I only made $9/hour).

 

[Inquire of God]

The U.S. is the Most Overworked Nation in the World

I think greed has a lot to do with it.

Less on people, more on profit.

Seems other nations have found a happy medium where profit and the human element have equilibrium.

How come the US dosent?

As a sailor I have been all over the world.
My impression is not that Americans are the most overworked.
It is anyone who works for an employer who is un-righteously demanding, due to what you say, their greed-the employer that is.
It also affects employees who are hell-bent on promotion at the expense of everything in their lives, friends, loved ones and especially co-workers.
This may be more prevalent in America, I am not sure, because I have been to plenty of businesses here where people are treated well and behave well.
In my last job, corrections, I was in an unbelievably demanding environment, in many ways it sometimes rivalled high optempo tasking I saw in the Navy. However, I knew many people working in other departments in my state that had easy going environments who did not have the pressure on them like we did. This was government work, so, the need for crazy expectations may be hard to accept, yet, it is true. None of us were making much of a profit, but the greed of those in charge, to make the next promotion was mind-bending and unnatural.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Has anyone noticed the erosion of the 40 hour work week, 8 hour day, and weekends off?

Its a disappearing commodity.

As a sailor I have been all over the world.
My impression is not that Americans are the most overworked.
It is anyone who works for an employer who is un-righteously demanding, due to what you say, their greed-the employer that is.
It also affects employees who are hell-bent on promotion at the expense of everything in their lives, friends, loved ones and especially co-workers.
This may be more prevalent in America, I am not sure, because I have been to plenty of businesses here where people are treated well and behave well.
In my last job, corrections, I was in an unbelievably demanding environment, in many ways it sometimes rivalled high optempo tasking I saw in the Navy. However, I knew many people working in other departments in my state that had easy going environments who did not have the pressure on them like we did. This was government work, so, the need for crazy expectations may be hard to accept, yet, it is true. None of us were making much of a profit, but the greed of those in charge, to make the next promotion was mind-bending and unnatural.

There's no doubt there are countries whose population works much harder and longer.

The article is referring to work among developed nations.

I think Mexico is the most overworked and arguably most tired on earth.