February 03, 2010

Work to Live versus Live to Work

Having just returned from a 3 week trip to Paris and London, it amazed me just how many of us here in the U.S. simply live to work.

The standard paid vacation for most salaried jobs in Paris is approximately 6 weeks, meaning most people take what I call “real vacations” of two weeks at a time, three times a year. The standard work week is 37.5 hours per week. Personally, being born and raised in London, this was true for over there also. If you go visit many places in Europe during the month of August, you will find that everyone is on vacation, enjoying time with their friends and family. Here in the States, one is lucky to get two full paid weeks of vacation. I think people are more productive when they have something to look forward to and work harder if they know there’s a vacation coming up. Don’t you find that when you are going on vacation, you rush to get everything done and you are way more productive? I do.

And so, I realized, it’s important to prioritize what is important. Living to work is not it, for me. Working to live? Now that’s a concept…really living means being able to enjoy the money you make. Unfortunately it seems most Americans are so deep in debt this may not be possible. So people commute and are on the road several hours a day, working from 8 to 5 or 6, not getting home until late in the evening, leaving their kids to be raised by others. This is quite unfortunate. I can’t change the way people live their lives, but maybe we could take a lesson from the Europeans and enjoy our lives a little bit more, spend time with those who really matter a little bit more.

Posted by:Pam Dakan