Yikes!!!!! Spain plans to cut workweek to improve work-life balance

[exupgh12]

Working hours are only one side of the equation, productivity matters more.
I don't see what's wrong with shortening working hours as long as productivity remains or getting better (which usually it does).

Spain unemployment rate is 11%-12%, so shortening working hours might lead to better rates in unemployment, as fewer hours per employee can create space to hire additional workers. also, this allows companies to distribute work among more employees, creating additional job opportunities.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Tinka lived in Ibiza for two years. She has spent time in Madrid. She has made many trips to Barcelona.

I've been to Ibiza twice and Barcelona twice and Madrid once.

I believe that very generally Europeans tend to think that Americans work too much, and that Americans tend to think Europeans don't work hard enough.

The Spanish already take a mid-afternoon siesta during the workday. From the point of view of American work culture -- especially Manhattan work culture -- I thought this was silly and annoying and lazy. By American meal-time standards the siestas in Madrid really screwed up lunch times and dinner times.

From Tinka's extensive experience living in and dealing with Ibiza local government and trips to Spain, and from my limited trips to Spain, I believe the Spanish should work more and harder, and not fewer hours. From these limited data points I have the belief that in comparison to America, and certainly in comparison to the Netherlands, Spain is not a well-run country.

In general I believe that Spaniards think that Americans work way too hard and have a poor and unhappy and unhealthy work/life balance.

 

[Lagonda]

Tinka lived in Ibiza for two years. She has spent time in Madrid. She has made many trips to Barcelona.

I've been to Ibiza twice and Barcelona twice and Madrid once.

I believe that very generally Europeans tend to think that Americans work too much, and that Americans tend to think Europeans don't work hard enough.

The Spanish already take a mid-afternoon siesta during the weekdays.

From Tinka's extensive experience living in and trips to Spain, and from my limited trips to Spain, I believe the Spanish should work more and harder, and not fewer hours. From these limited data points I have the belief that in comparison to America and certainly in comparison to the Netherlands Spain is not a well-run country.

In general I believe that Spaniards think that Americans work way too hard and have a poor and unhappy and unhealthy work/life balance.

And i would claim we are into discussing politics on WBF at this point. The mid afternoon siesta is a way to work around high temperatures, they often work longer in the evening.

 

[Ron Resnick]

The idea is to work smart not hard

This is what lazy people always say.

 

[Ron Resnick]

And i would claim we are into discussing politics on WBF at this point.

I thought I was discussing comparative cultural work/life balance values based on some actual experience. But I respect your view. Please feel free to report my post for the moderators to evaluate.

My posts are subject to reporting and to moderation and to deletion just like every other member's posts.

 

[Lagonda]

I thought I was discussing comparative cultural work/life balance values based on some actual experience. But I respect your view. Please feel free to report my post for the moderators to evaluate.

My posts are subject to reporting and to moderation and to deletion just like every other member's posts.

Not just your post Ron, the whole topic is about labor policies, do you want me to tell you how i feel about the development of US labor situation and labor laws ?

Yikes!!!!! ​

 

[andromedaaudio]

This is what lazy people always say.

I would nt have expected such a dumb answer from you Ron .
People are not on this planet to be consumed by a rat race.

Only for Blackrock to add another zero lol .
It makes no sense more money doesnt make you happy

 

[Ron Resnick]

Not just your post Ron, the whole topic is about labor policies, do you want me to tell you how i feel about the development of US labor situation due to lack of proper labor laws ?

Yikes!!!!! ​

Again, I totally respect your point of view. The answer is for you to report my post, and to report Mike's opening post, to the moderating team for them to adjudicate.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Again, I totally respect your point of view. The answer is for you to report my post, and to report Mike's opening post, to the moderating team for them to adjudicate.

and as i noted in my original post, i realized that my subject matter could 'go' political and be deleted. so be it.

 

[wisnon]

Just days after Spain’s economy was revealed to be far outpacing its peers, Pedro Sanchez’s government has a new message for voters: stop working so much.

In a move that risks invoking international stereotypes about the Mediterranean lifestyle, the premier and his cabinet agreed on Tuesday that employees in the fourth-biggest member of the euro zone should now have a shorter week.

The cap on hours will be 37.5 as of the start of next year, down from 40 at present, if the proposed law now passes through parliament. The measure was presented in Madrid as a victory for work-life balance — and so horrified business leaders that they walked out of talks on the matter.


i just hope Wadax keeps it together.....

if this thread is viewed by the mods as too political then i will understand if it is deleted. my purpose is more about Wadax than the social political aspect.

Spain plans to cut workweek to improve work-life balance

Just days after Spain’s economy was revealed to be far outpacing its peers, Pedro Sanchez’s government has a new message for voters: stop working so much. In a move that risks invoking international stereotypes about the Mediterranean lifestyle, the premier...

www.seattletimes.com

Hay que trabajar muchísimo! This is the PSOE ate catching strategy. Ridiculous as the Eurozone economy is in tatters.

 

[Gregm]

It all started in France 20 years ago!!

IMF Survey: France's 35-Hour Week: Benefit or Straitjacket?

France's 35-hour workweek appears to have had a mainly negative impact. It failed to create more jobs and generated a significant—and mostly negative—reaction from companies and workers.

www.imf.org

Yes. It was customary at the time to migrate to a nearby cafe with our laptops, as of Thursday afternoon or Friday morning...

 

[Ron Resnick]

I would nt have expected such a dumb answer from you Ron .

Thank you for your opinion. I wrote it somewhat "tongue in cheek." In my statistically invalid set of data points the several people who actually have said this to me over the course of my life were not people I would consider to be disciplined or hard-working.

People are not on this planet to be consumed by a rat race.

Other than my very hardworking friends in Lochem and Oldenzaal the Dutch definitely embrace this view.

It makes no sense more money doesnt make you happy

Thank you for your opinion on an extremely subjective and personal topic.

 

[Kingrex]

I would nt have expected such a dumb answer from you Ron .
People are not on this planet to be consumed by a rat race.

This is ridiculous. Life takes work. Even when man was a hunter/gather, you had to hunt and gather, or you died. I bring that up as what I have read argues life was more relaxed and balanced when we hunt and gather. Society ruined life forcing workers onto the land to live in poverty while rullers and armies seized children and crops as taxation and labor/military for the king/elites.

That has nothing to do with the topic. What does is, what is a work week mean anyways??? Who does it apply to. In the USA, if your salary, a 40 hour work week neans nothing. If you work 40 hours, most likely you will be one of the 5% to 10% chopped each year. Vacation, most people I know have close to a year of vacation time built up as they have no time to take it. Then some business and state set laws rules you loose your vacation if you don't take it. More savings for the business.

If your labor like I was, a 37.5 hour work week is an immediate 9.2% cut in my take home pay. When I owned my own business and hired people, there is no way I would ever pay you time and a half or double time to get you to 40 hours. I would tell the general here is the new schedule based upon mandated labor laws.

I know nothing about anything outside the USA, but in the USA, I would be pissed as a laborer if the gov forced a 10% cut in my monthly pay check.

 

[Tangram]

@Mike Lavigne For a wealthy country Americans work hard. The United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation time. The average hours worked per year is higher than most advanced countries. Currently the U.S. is 1,800 hrs/yr and Spain is 1,630. At the extremes are Mexico (2,207 hrs/yr) and Germany (1,343 hrs/yr).

The NYT just published an extensive review of the U.S. vs. 38 other wealthy countries in which the U.S. shows the best total GDP growth of the lot (China excluded) since 1990. But on virtually every other metric the U.S. does not do nearly as well. A few highlights:

Life expectancy: from 19th to 29th (out of 39)
Prevalence of depression: 18th to 32nd
Child death rate: 22nd to 33rd
Murder rate: 31st to 33rd
Suicide rate: 13th to 33rd
Drug death: 36th to 39th

Unfortunately, other than the U.S. the charts don’t show which country is which, otherwise I’d show the Spain data as well. But I find it shocking how much the quality of life for Americans has deteriorated over the past four decades. But the main point is that there is no correlation between wealth and happiness, at least on a countrywide basis. Some countries value their citizens’ happiness more than their GDP growth. I suspect Spain is one such country.

 

[Al M.]

That has nothing to do with the topic. What does is, what is a work week mean anyways??? Who does it apply to. In the USA, if your salary, a 40 hour work week neans nothing. If you work 40 hours, most likely you will be one of the 5% to 10% chopped each year. Vacation, most people I know have close to a year of vacation time built up as they have no time to take it. Then some business and state set laws rules you loose your vacation if you don't take it. More savings for the business.

This is the typical boneheaded,, mistaken American mentality. No time to take your vacation, that's ridiculous. The boss of our very successful company is persistent in asking us to take all our generously allotted vacation. Unlike other business leaders in America he is smart enough to know that burned-out people cannot be creative and productive, and are useless employees.

If you don't take your vacation, you are stupid. And if the employer thinks that's a good idea, he/she is stupid, too.

And no wonder that Americans are so sick, too. Work, work, work till you drop. Now, how smart is that?

If your labor like I was, a 37.5 hour work week is an immediate 9.2% cut in my take home pay. When I owned my own business and hired people, there is no way I would ever pay you time and a half or double time to get you to 40 hours. I would tell the general here is the new schedule based upon mandated labor laws.

I know nothing about anything outside the USA, but in the USA, I would be pissed as a laborer if the gov forced a 10% cut in my monthly pay check.

Note that I did not advocate for a less than 40-hour work week.

 

[Al M.]

@Mike Lavigne For a wealthy country Americans work hard. The United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation time. The average hours worked per year is higher than most advanced countries. Currently the U.S. is 1,800 hrs/yr and Spain is 1,630. At the extremes are Mexico (2,207 hrs/yr) and Germany (1,343 hrs/yr).

The NYT just published an extensive review of the U.S. vs. 38 other wealthy countries in which the U.S. shows the best total GDP growth of the lot (China excluded) since 1990. But on virtually every other metric the U.S. does not do nearly as well. A few highlights:

Life expectancy: from 19th to 29th (out of 39)
Prevalence of depression: 18th to 32nd
Child death rate: 22nd to 33rd
Murder rate: 31st to 33rd
Suicide rate: 13th to 33rd
Drug death: 36th to 39th

Unfortunately, other than the U.S. the charts don’t show which country is which, otherwise I’d show the Spain data as well. But I find it shocking how much the quality of life for Americans has deteriorated over the past four decades. But the main point is that there is no correlation between wealth and happiness, at least on a countrywide basis. Some countries value their citizens’ happiness more than their GDP growth. I suspect Spain is one such country.

Yeah, Americans are not very smart about their lives.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

@Mike Lavigne For a wealthy country Americans work hard. The United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation time. The average hours worked per year is higher than most advanced countries. Currently the U.S. is 1,800 hrs/yr and Spain is 1,630. At the extremes are Mexico (2,207 hrs/yr) and Germany (1,343 hrs/yr).

The NYT just published an extensive review of the U.S. vs. 38 other wealthy countries in which the U.S. shows the best total GDP growth of the lot (China excluded) since 1990. But on virtually every other metric the U.S. does not do nearly as well. A few highlights:

Life expectancy: from 19th to 29th (out of 39)
Prevalence of depression: 18th to 32nd
Child death rate: 22nd to 33rd
Murder rate: 31st to 33rd
Suicide rate: 13th to 33rd
Drug death: 36th to 39th

Unfortunately, other than the U.S. the charts don’t show which country is which, otherwise I’d show the Spain data as well. But I find it shocking how much the quality of life for Americans has deteriorated over the past four decades. But the main point is that there is no correlation between wealth and happiness, at least on a countrywide basis. Some countries value their citizens’ happiness more than their GDP growth. I suspect Spain is one such country.

respectfully; any response would get quite political and venture down a forbidden road. i acknowledge the priorities of the US are not the same as other wealthy countries for many reasons. some noble and others debatable. it is a melting pot.

i'm not a world traveler, although the company i managed for decades had a rainbow of employees from everywhere. Seattle, where i live, is very very diverse. most in Seattle were not born here. but i would not want to be anywhere else and am proud to be from the US.

 

[Al M.]

it is a melting pot.

That's always the typical lame excuse to explain away why things are so screwed up here in the US.

 

[andromedaaudio]

If you don't take your vacation, you are stupid. And if the employer thinks that's a good idea, he/she is stupid, too.

Lol .
In the end you cant take all the marbles you collected with you anyway

 

[DasguteOhr]

Tinka lived in Ibiza for two years. She has spent time in Madrid. She has made many trips to Barcelona.

I've been to Ibiza twice and Barcelona twice and Madrid once.

I believe that very generally Europeans tend to think that Americans work too much, and that Americans tend to think Europeans don't work hard enough.

The Spanish already take a mid-afternoon siesta during the workday. From the point of view of American work culture -- especially Manhattan work culture -- I thought this was silly and annoying and lazy. By American meal-time standards the siestas in Madrid really screwed up lunch times and dinner times.

From Tinka's extensive experience living in and dealing with Ibiza local government and trips to Spain, and from my limited trips to Spain, I believe the Spanish should work more and harder, and not fewer hours. From these limited data points I have the belief that in comparison to America, and certainly in comparison to the Netherlands, Spain is not a well-run country.

In general I believe that Spaniards think that Americans work way too hard and have a poor and unhappy and unhealthy work/life balance.

But that has to do with the temperatures. This has been common practice for decades. When temperatures are above 40 degrees in summer, people change their working hours. Only the crazy tourists walk around in the midday sun (I include myself in that group). But at the moment Spain has a completely different problem: horrendous rent prices for apartments, which is why people are already taking to the streets and demonstrating. Something similar is happening in Germany right now and it won't be long now.