Thursday, March 15, 2007

300 More

I recently read that Americans work on average 300 more hours a year than Germans do.

I am sure there are many, many reasons Americans work so much. The fabled work ethic, out of necessity for lower-income brackets, the huge amount taken out of your check for health and/or child care, the consumer-driven society that says when we have more we will finally be at peace.

I have a good friend who decided a year ago to take her yearly raise in time and she dropped down to a four day work week.

I find this idea soooo desirable. What I would do with that extra day! Would I have that much more time and energy to put into all my many artistic projects? Additional hours with my amazing child? Or would I just watch more TV?

I think I could reasonably request it this year, maybe without having to take a pay cut. No guarantees they would go for it of course, but I think I would not be out of line to suggest it.

However, we want to move to CA in a couple of years and need to save as much money as possible for that. (not that we're saving any now, har har har)

what to do. what to do.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never hurts to ask if it is done in the right way. All they can do is say no

Anonymous said...

My philosophy: this is your life and there's no dress rehearsal. One shot and at the end, I guarantee you won't wish you worked more.

alexis said...

now, how come I didn't get advice like THIS yesterday? Stef gets the thumb's up, I get "well, my guess is they're going to fire you".

alexis said...

oh yeah, guess who works more than Americans? South Koreans! They work the most hours on earth, evidently. Or in 2003 they did.

stef said...

Durn those South Koreans!