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January 31, 2006
Working hours
How many hours in a day do you work? I don't mind working long hours, but it is important to me to have time to connect to my family and especially be there for my boy. If my current job (the one besides coaching) would demand too much of my time and energy, I would jump to something else.
Based on what I experienced in the US I googled for information comparing international working time and this came up:
(link from Web-Japan, quoting the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)
Okay, it is for the manufacturing sector, but then who says that the service sector works far lesser? May be even more hours?
Books write about the work ethics in the US. This is all theory, and the experience in the US was - shocking, amazing, awesome, frightening? I scrample for words.
People run around with their laptops in their hand, their Blackberry in the pocket, and may be the mobile phone between the teeth. Anytime there is a break, they sit down to write a message. Even during the workshops, laptops were open, and listeners continued with their work.
Coming home from a restaurant late at night, I opened my laptop to go one more time through my presentation I was about to give. My client had send me a mail, inquiring about something - I responded 5 minutes later.
Those regular readers of my blog will recall that one of my Indian colleagues has now been transferred to the US. He is already fully in the work. Anytime, anywhere. Getting up in the morning, first thing is to check the and respond to mails. Going to work and sitting in the bus - checking and responding to mails.
Basically - no break. Constantly on the run. Think about the connections in the brain that are being created, or connected, and strengthened. Ongoing. We can get addicted to work, to what we are doing. Work can overlay all the other purposes in life. As one colleague says, she lives for the project, is in it day and night, dreams about it and spends every free minute on it.
Is this what is called loyalty to a company? Or is it fear of losing when you get retrenched and the hope that because you worked harder that the person aside of you, you will be spared? What will you do when there is nothing left behind? What is your message to the world, the legacy you are leaving behind?
It surely is interesting and amazing to see the energy that is created in those US companies that work incredbily long hours and demand a lot. It would be interesting to know, how many drop out along the rat race.
Posted by Andreas at January 31, 2006 03:20 PM
Comments
Seems like Asians are workaholic and Europeans are not as hardworking as Japanese. Unfortunately, even though Asians are smarter nowadays, we are still considered as cheap labors. When European or American expats work in Asia, they are paid double or triple but when Asians work in Europe or America, do we get the same treatment?
Posted by: Nizar at February 9, 2006 12:34 PM
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