Apparently, the average American works nine more weeks per year than the average Western European, who gets shorter hours, more vacation, and so on. In other words, as of today (10/24), we in the U.S. have worked as many hours as Western Europeans will work all year (article).
So… I guess we can… stop, now. Or something.
Right?
–crickets–
Damn. Back to the grindstone.
Hah, I work for the feds, I haven’t worked all year. 
Lazy Brits.
This news is gonna thrill the 10,000 elderly dead French people.
Poor tax policy begets crappy work week. I’m with you. Let’s work fewer hours. How do we go about starting a movement?
Eat more bran.
Clearly, I need to change continents.
Yeah, but aren’t wages lower in Europe?
A friend of mine says the Brits and French love to come and do a year or two in the US for her company because they can bank.
Except, of course, I would much rather have less money and more time and universal health care…
I wish I was working. 
Come to New Orleans, where the workweek ends on Friday at noon, pretty much. Assuming you can find a job, it’s a pretty sweet deal. Unfortunately, it’s the finding that’s tricky. But I’m trying.
Well, OK, I’ll stop for the year. I mean, as long as I have your permission, what my boss says really shouldn’t matter, right? 
Agreed, there is no reason what so ever that we all work this hard in this day and age.
Uh-huh! Who’s got TiVo? Who’s got a zillion cable networks? Who’s got multiple PC’s per household, 24 hour convenience stores, overnight delivery, Netflix, and all-you-can-eat sushi bars? We do! And you know why? Work, work, work! Hard work, so that some day, in our deepest, most vivid dreams, we’ll be able to sit back and enjoy these things.
You get two friends and you walk into your local government office and sing “You can get anything you want for 35 hours a week” and walk out.
Italy takes August off. The whole country. The whole month.
hey! you! pizzabrat!
baack sloowly away from my TiVo. i’ll need it to keep the next few months occupied. the rest you can have.
even if i didn’t have the rest of the year off why are you still fondling my TiVo??
LOL FForest. let me guess. you found my TiVo under a half a ton of garbage?
I guess I’m one of the lucky Americans. I get 8 weeks of vacation per year. The ample vacation time is one of the main reasons I love this job. Most people I know only get about 3 weeks of vacation per year.
I’m so with you on this!
The lack of vacation time is the single suckiest thing about America. We’re ruled by workaholic loons.
My last job had only six lousy holidays a year, four sick days and two weeks vacation. They also gave us a miserly half an hour for lunch. On top of everything else my boss periodically whinned I didn’t work fast enough and took too many bathroom breaks.
I’m very glad I don’t work there anymore.
I retired this year, so I can begin to catch up for lost vacations.