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Would refusing to work 60 - 80 hours (which most Americans do despite being in denial about this) while being paid 40 hours count as a disciplinary issue(attendance)?
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“American companies do not seem to impose any working hour restrictions on their employees. With the choice to work 24/7, a 70-hour week could be completely normal in the US"
Please notice the difference between the wording of your question and the other quote. You asked if Americans are forced to work 60-80 hours. No, they are not, unless it is their choice.
Please notice the difference between the wording of your question and the other quote. You asked if Americans are forced to work 60-80 hours. No, they are not, unless it is their choice.
Right - not only that, let's look at that quote again:
Quote:
“American companies do not seem to impose any working hour restrictions on their employees. With the choice to work 24/7, a 70-hour week could be completely normal in the US"
This is absolutely untrue. Many American companies impose STRICT working hour restrictions - some are because overtime pay is hard on a company's budget (it must be factored into the budget at a much higher rate). Some restrict hours due to safety standards or laws. Some restrict hours simply for quality of life purposes.
Some jobs are commission based rather than hourly - in other words, if you produce and sell you get paid -if you don't, you don't get paid. I worked straight commission for years and it was very lucrative for me. However, since I wasn't paid by the hour, overtime laws didn't apply to me - and I was glad for it. Some weeks I only worked 20 hours a week - or 10 hours a week. Other weeks I worked 60 or 70 hours a week. It was great - if I wanted to make more money, I just worked more! If I wanted time off, I just took it.
My son in law just started working at a company BECAUSE of their overtime schedule. He wants overtime. He's disappointed if he only gets to work a 40 hour week. But even that company strictly monitors overtime, for safety reasons. Besides many laws that govern various industries and job descriptions for that very purpose, companies often simply do not want their workers to get burned out and won't allow overtime for that reason alone.
I will go with unbiased, objective studies over anecdotal pseudo evidence every time, but you do whatever you want.
Actually, that was anecdotal evidence from a link that you posted.
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By the way, I never said that SOME American in SOME industries don't work long hours. Heck, my own husband works 84 hours a week! When he's working. He only works 26 weeks a year though. He's completely off the other 26 weeks out of the year.
I know from the tech sector, the only field I am familiar with, that people in the US work far more than 40 hours. It's more like 60 - 80 hours and the pay is actually lower than a decade ago.
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The AVERAGE work week for Americans is under 40 hours a week.
If you count all the unemployed and underemployed people I am sure you will get to an average of 40 hours. One works 80 hours and another 0 hours so on average they work 40 hours.
I know from the tech sector, the only field I am familiar with, that people in the US work far more than 40 hours. It's more like 60 - 80 hours and the pay is actually lower than a decade ago.
If you count all the unemployed and underemployed people I am sure you will get to an average of 40 hours. One works 80 hours and another 0 hours so on average they work 40 hours.
Please. They don't count unemployed people or anyone who is not full-time. You are only familiar with one employment sector, and you can't extrapolate from that to all American workers.
Spend a few minutes googling and you will find that the average FULL-TIME American worker works about 46-47 hours per week. Is that more than 40, yes. Is it anywhere near 60-80??
It's also quite possible that we may have also created the world's first wildlife refuge. The National Wildlife Refuge system is based off of the system first created in California. The first of CA's refuges is the rather humble and urban Lake Merritt Refuge in Oakland, CA which predates not only the national refuge system but also Yellowstone National Park by 33 years.
I know Lake Merritt !
Looking around the net, it seems they had animal sanctuary in the 3rd century BC !!
Ugh..from wiki...but interesting
"In the 3rd century BC, King Devanampiya Tissa declared the area around Mihintale, Sri Lanka as a sanctuary for wildlife,[1] probably the first of its kind in the ancient world. According to stone inscriptions found in the vicinity, the king commanded the people not to harm animals or destroy trees within the area."
In Canada the history animal protection started in the late 1800's..haven't found an exact date yet, and seems to be wrapped up in the National Park system, which of course caters not just to preserving nature and animals, but tourists.
Perhaps because Canada is so large and mostly empty the needs were different. This link has a lot of info about Canada's wildlife refuges/sanctuaries/preserves
Let's assume you need more money; I provided a link that the median American does have more money to spend. Where's the evidence that the median American is worse off?
Please notice the difference between the wording of your question and the other quote. You asked if Americans are forced to work 60-80 hours. No, they are not, unless it is their choice.
But is it really a choice? If all of your coworkers are working 60 - 80 hours but you refuse, who is the first to get laid off if the economy tanks? 'Voluntarily' working more than 40 hours per week for 'career advancement' like the article mentions is just a euphemism for protecting yourself for being the first to get fired.
And it seems that all the overtime is unpaid, unlike here in Western Europe. You claim to have high salaries but in reality they are much lower than here in Europe in many fields if you consider you work 50 - 100% more than we do. You also get much less holidays and limited paid sick days for that money than we do.
i get 10 hour shifts every now and than which isn't too bad considering you get either a 1 hour break or 2 half hour break but i can't imagine doing that multiple times a week...
Pretty sure only Wall Street people work that much, your average joe is probably just some lazy office worker.... working 9-5 monday through friday.
Last edited by iNviNciBL3; 11-21-2014 at 02:31 PM..
And it seems that all the overtime is unpaid, unlike here in Western Europe.
Where are you getting your information? Are you just pulling these statements out of the air? In almost all cases, American employers are required to pay overtime.
This statement is from the U.S. Department of Labor: An employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work. Employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek of at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay.
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Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3
How do people work 60 - 80 hours in a week?
Pretty sure only Wall Street people work that much, your average joe is probably just some lazy office worker.... working 9-5 monday through friday.
Thanks, exactly. I'm pretty sure that if the "average" American was working 10 or 11 hours a day, seven days a week, I would know at least one of those people.
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