The question is most difficult to answer in the United States. Norwegian workers work an average of 1,399 hours per year, while Japanese workers work nearly two weeks less than their American counterparts. German hours fell from 1,742 to 1,560 between the 1980s and the late 1990s. In the UK, hours declined only slightly from 1,775 in 1980 to 1,731 in 1997. At the same time as workers in Europe have been working fewer hours, productivity has actually been rising.
Explanations are welcome.
Technology is driving up productivity. As fewer and fewer people do more and more demanding jobs, the demand for those skilled workers increases and they are forced to achieve more and more each day. Little wonder, then. A five-year tracking study by the UK's Institute of Management and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology found that over 80 percent of executives worked over 40 hours a week and one in ten worked over 60 hours. The trouble is the entire debate about working hours is mired in mythology and machismo.