I was brought up in the good old U.S. of A.– the land of the free and the home of the brave, where opportunity runs rampant, the streets are paved with gold, money grows on trees and everyone is a workaholic.
It’s true. The United States is home to more workaholics than any other country in the world. Most Americans work more than 40 hours a week and spend most of their time thinking about work, even when they’re not working. Evenings and weekends are spent running errands, paying bills and dreading the return to work.
On average, Americans work about 9 weeks more each year, per capita, than Europeans (source: Felicia Benamon, Renew America). Many Europeans take out a couple of months each year to relax and spend time with their family and friends. Many Americans, on the other hand, go years without taking any real vacation time. In fact, even employees who receive paid vacation time often don’t take advantage of it and give up, on average, three paid vacation days each year! Even when Americans do take vacation time it is frequently spent on non-vacation activities such as running errands and going to appointments.
The American work schedule is one of the largest sources of stress and anxiety as well as having a negative effect on family life and on our mental wellbeing. In my opinion this is not a healthy or enjoyable way to live!
I think that many Americans live by the principal of “work hard now and play later.” They believe that if they work hard today they will have time to relax in a few years, but then a few years becomes 10 years and then 20. They’ve missed their kids’ childhood, their youth is gone and they are too tired and burned out from working to have fun and be adventurous. I simply can’t imagine living like this!
I’m adopting the European lifestyle. I want to work hard and play harder. I want to work just hard enough that I can travel, spend time with my family and friends, do everything that I’ve always wanted and live my life to the fullest. Maybe this is an idealist or overly optimistic point of view but I don’t care, I’ll make it work! Who’s with me?
1 response so far ↓
Marie // January 18, 2008 at 6:51 pm
As an European who has lived in the United States, and especially in the hectic New York, I completely agree with you. What is money compared to a good quality of life and pleasure? People tend to forget that we are supposed to work to live, and not to live to work.