What Northern Europe Seems to Do Right
I imagine that many of us have, at one time or another over the last few years, seen one of those “Happiest Nations” lists. In fact, to much fanfare in the business and internet news world, the Legatum Institute released an exhaustive and comprehensive Prosperity Index, which ranked one hundred and ten countries, a full ninety percent of the world’ s population. Using eight categories and eighty-nine variables, the Legatum Prosperity Index essentially attempts to quantify what it is that makes a country a happy and prosperous place to live.
The results of the study were rosy for northern Europe and particularly glum for Africa, with six of the top ten most prosperous nations in Northern Europe and sixteen of the bottom twenty in Africa.
A summary of Legatum's Prosperity Index
Out of curiosity, I cross-referenced the Prosperity Index with the OECD rankings of work week hours per nation. Interestingly, I discovered that of the ten hardest working countries in terms of paid work time, only Canada (#7) and the USA (#10) were also on the Prosperity Index top ten. Of the five nations that have the longest work week (Japan, South Korea, Mexico, China and Canada), only Canada seemed to enjoy the fruits of its labors.
The next highest nation on the prosperity index that also works the hardest was Japan, with a prosperity ranking of 18 against the longest work week in the world. Comparing the two lists, it looks like certain Northern European nations seem to have an excellent formula: low work hours, better work / life balance and high prosperity – two tickets to Norway, please!
No doubt, working a few too many hours yourself – from your experience, what nations seem to work the hardest and what nations seem to enjoy the most prosperity, and are they one and the same?
What can we learn from culture in each of these countries about the value placed on a decent work / life balance versus the status many of us derive from being hard workers?
Adam
I think the reason is productivity, smart instead of hard working. There is no point to sit in a cubicle for 12 hours and produce 6 hours worth of work and return to work exhausted the next day.
I notice the same pattern sometimes in work days. When I have planned activities at the end of days which required me to leave early, I tend to be super productive because I knew I didn’t have so much time.