Is UK work ethic different from US work ethic?

[Broady Brio]

Currently, looking for one. Funny how unemployment is present yet the majority of recruiters say 3 years in said field is essential, but how can new workers get it without such experience. I'm also waiting for my AS results in August.

Ah, when you said "I don't have a job" I thought that implied you were out of school, fair enough then.

Yes, next time I'll make sure to be clear on that. I can see how that could look like that I am a person who just lives on benefits.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

If you read any of the research by most sociologists, psychologists etc., you'll find they're generally in agreement on one thing: the US is statistically the hardest-working and most work-driven Western society. We, the US as a whole, have an almost unhealthy attachment to work and working. We take the least amount of time off, work longer hours, and place the importance of work above a lot of other things. The extreme work ethic is integral and inseparable part of American society.

Of course, it pales in comparison to some other countries, particularly countries like Japan, but against other western nations there isn't much of a comparison.

We're also one of the top countries in the world where people are unhappy.

Happiest people in the world? I believe it's the Jamaicans, the study shown, that more often then not reported that they feel content.

 

[xorinite]

The numbers seem to speak for themselves.
The US mean work week is 42.X hours
the UK mean work week is 36.X hours.

No. That's bad use of statistics. If you're doing it right, you need factor in hourly productivity. After all, it it *really* worth those extra hours if, when it comes down to it, you're doing nothing particularly productive with them? Of course not. If anything, it's *detrimental*.

That is very true, you could work very hard for a short period of time, or work very little for a long period of time. Of course hourly productivity would require only using like for like in a lot of things or normalising using some kind of regression analysis. It would be a far more daunting task than I initially considered. You have to correct for everything from costs of non labour production factors and how they vary, education, technological multipliers etc.

Then you have the problem of what is a work ethos, is it the desire to work full stop, the desire to work well, the desire to work based upon compensation?

Even if you got the ultimate productivity per hour it wouldn't on its own answer the question of a work ethic since you wouldn't know how much of this is ultimately down to a work ethic, and how much of it is down to competitive or other pressure.

If you HAVE to work longer and harder or will suffer, is that the same thing as a strong work ethic?

Maybe a case study of like for like in volunteer work, and yet again is this a work ethos, or some other ethic that is responsible.

Anyways, thanks for the correction. The mistake, like most mistakes, seems obvious now its been pointed out

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I hold myself to my father's work ethic as well. Unfortunately, being only just starting on the laddr of work I don't have enough to keep me at work this long, but on the days when I do I'm in by 8 and leaving gone 7. Everyone that I see at my office is prepared to and does work simliar hours. I've worked in three offices and two labour intensive factories so far, and aside from one or two bad eggs I haven't seen anyone who isn't prepared to work like that.

I find it interesting that you call them "bad eggs". I would just call them people who don't want to work themselves to death all hours of the day. I expect there are reasons other than working hours.

Sorry, I didn't phrase that as clearly as I should have.

I have nothing against people who want to work a normal 9-5 job. More power to them, I actually wish I could work like that sometimes, because I fully recognise that my work ethic is not healthy and is likely to get worse.

What I do dislike is people who take four twenty minute smoking breaks through the day, or arrive fifteen minutes late and leave fifteen minutes early just because they know that the boss' back is turned. There's only ever one or two per office though. Everyone else is either crazy over the top or just wroking a regular day like a regular human being.

 

[Flames66]

I hold myself to my father's work ethic as well. Unfortunately, being only just starting on the laddr of work I don't have enough to keep me at work this long, but on the days when I do I'm in by 8 and leaving gone 7. Everyone that I see at my office is prepared to and does work simliar hours. I've worked in three offices and two labour intensive factories so far, and aside from one or two bad eggs I haven't seen anyone who isn't prepared to work like that.

I find it interesting that you call them "bad eggs". I would just call them people who don't want to work themselves to death all hours of the day. I expect there are reasons other than working hours.

Sorry, I didn't phrase that as clearly as I should have.

I have nothing against people who want to work a normal 9-5 job. More power to them, I actually wish I could work like that sometimes, because I fully recognise that my work ethic is not healthy and is likely to get worse.

What I do dislike is people who take four twenty minute smoking breaks through the day, or arrive fifteen minutes late and leave fifteen minutes early just because they know that the boss' back is turned. There's only ever one or two per office though. Everyone else is either crazy over the top or just wroking a regular day like a regular human being.

Ah ha, I see what you are on about now. People not doing the work they are paid for when you are working your socks off.

I personally intend to work part time. I would do the work to the best of my ability while working, but as soon as my shift ends I am gone.

 

[wintercoat]

Yeah, just look at their tipping culture.

In the UK: People give good service and a tip is a nice bonus
In the US: You have to give a tip and not doing so is used as an insult and you will probably get your food spit in if you return.

Errr, it's considered douchey not to give a tip.

Is it? I am british, I dont think its "douchey". If they provide a particularly fantastic service then yes, maybe. But being compulsary, thats ridiculous. It becomes meaningless and just another thing for companies to exploit, like companies who include the tip in your bill without telling you and then you tip ontop of that tip or companies that use tipping as a reason to pay their employees less. Do I want to be the reason for uncertainty between paycheques because you might not have enough tips this month? No, I want you to be paid a livable wage for doing the work that the company that employs you gets much more money out of and being paid the occassional tip on top of that if you work hard thus promoting hard work.

I agree with this chap on the subject. I will only tip someone if they go above and beyond what they are already paid to do.

I'm just going to quote you all, a thread on tipping is a lot more interesting haha

I am of the English persuasion, and if the service isn't bad, I'll leave a small tip, just to say thanks, £1.50, something like that.

My sister was a waitress for a while, and she got paid £7 an hour (that's like what, $12 an hour?) So not at all bad pay, and in the weeks leading up to Christmas she was bringing in about £50 - £100 a night tips! wish I made that kinda money

In the U.S., she would've been payed ~$4-5/hour(~£2.60-3.20), working 12+ hours six days a week, given maybe a weeks worth of sick days a year, if she were lucky. If not, maybe 3 days. Oh, and she would be given one 10-15 minute break a day. The American Dream people!

 

[FamoFunk]

From what I gathered in the thread, us in the UK are paid a bit more than those in the USA.

Thing is, I'm pretty certain to live and buy things in the USA is still a damn sight cheaper than it is in the UK, things like fuel and food. It's disgusting the amount of VAT and fuel duty we pay for petrol, especially when you need it for work etc.

I think both places are the same regarding work ethnic, you get those who work bloody hard for barely any money and those who think the world owe them something and think they're too good for McDonald's when they're clearly not.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Errr, it's considered douchey not to give a tip.

The people who work as waiters or whatever get paid for doing their job, there's no reason you should feel like you have to throw money at them to do they've already agreed to do.

Yeah, just look at their tipping culture.

In the UK: People give good service and a tip is a nice bonus
In the US: You have to give a tip and not doing so is used as an insult and you will probably get your food spit in if you return.

Errr, it's considered douchey not to give a tip.

Is it? I am british, I dont think its "douchey". If they provide a particularly fantastic service then yes, maybe. But being compulsary, thats ridiculous. It becomes meaningless and just another thing for companies to exploit, like companies who include the tip in your bill without telling you and then you tip ontop of that tip or companies that use tipping as a reason to pay their employees less. Do I want to be the reason for uncertainty between paycheques because you might not have enough tips this month? No, I want you to be paid a livable wage for doing the work that the company that employs you gets much more money out of and being paid the occassional tip on top of that if you work hard thus promoting hard work.

I thought that unless they gave a bad service, it was usually expected. Not agreeing with it, but I was under the impression that was how it was.

Yeah, just look at their tipping culture.

In the UK: People give good service and a tip is a nice bonus
In the US: You have to give a tip and not doing so is used as an insult and you will probably get your food spit in if you return.

Errr, it's considered douchey not to give a tip.

Talking of EU Crisis, how's Ireland doing?

Nice dig, Northern Ireland is doing just fine, you failed pretty badly there. You seem pretty confident to insult me then edit it out, hard man.


And no, it's not rude in the UK to not leave a tip, it's for people who offer great service not just normal service.

Last time we spoke you didn't specify that you were from Northern Ireland, so I'm sorry I had to check for you, even if it was afterwards.

 

[Martin Toney]

I'm irish, but i live in the north or ireland now, so i technically live in the UK, can I weigh in on the matter?

 

[Lethos]

I'm irish, but i live in the north or ireland now, so i technically live in the UK, can I weigh in on the matter?

Spoiler

Okay, I guess I'll grant you permission.

 

[Weaver]

My personal work ethic is that working very hard for a short period of time is going to be far more productive than the number of hours you put in. Quantity definitely isn't everything, especially if you're at risk of burnout. Then again, it doesn't always pan out this way for my work productivity...

Studies are actually showing this is true. I recall reading a story about a company in France that dropped their office hours to 6 hours a day from 8 hours a day and their productivity (measured by some sort of output) went UP by 150%.

 

[Wadders]

Generally we don't really do work. Most people are on benefits.

Bullshit.

Moving on, we (the UK) seem to have people who have a "live for the weekend type attitude" and don't really see their job as anything other than a means to get money for spending on stuff they need, like bills, and want, like beer.

Then there are others, who seem to live to work, and will take every second of overtime offered to them, god knows what drives them on.

Those are just 2 types of people I've come across, I think we have a mix of work ethics but overall most people work pretty hard to bring home the bacon. I'm not sure how all that compares to a US work ethic though. I'd just say less people live for their work perhaps, preferring to leave it at work and not bring it home.

No it's not "bullshit", no matter how hard the BBC, the Guardian and the Mirror try to lie about it.

The latest figures show 5mn on housing benefit alone. We are increasingly becoming a nation where the few work and an ever increasing number sponge. Labour's ruinous 13 years of bribery created a massive handout culture.

5 million out of 62 million isn't really "most people" though is it.

However, I don't deny that a lot of people sponge and abuse the system, no doubt because it is easy to abuse; but the way the poster I quoted phrased his/her post, they were making it sound as if almost the entire nation is workshy and lazy, which is simply not true.

Also, ever think how many people on housing benefit, unemployment benefits etc. actually deserve the money they get? out of the 5 million on housing benefits, not all of them will be scroungers.

For example, a person who has worked most of their life and is suddenly unable to work (for whatever reason, being laid off and having difficultly finding new work) surely deserves unemployment benefits, as they have been paying for them out of their wages all their working life.

Overall I agree that we do have too many scroungers, but their are people who deserve benefits, it was the wording and the implications of that post that annoyed me.

 

[Liberaliter]

Generally we don't really do work. Most people are on benefits.

Bullshit.

Moving on, we (the UK) seem to have people who have a "live for the weekend type attitude" and don't really see their job as anything other than a means to get money for spending on stuff they need, like bills, and want, like beer.

Then there are others, who seem to live to work, and will take every second of overtime offered to them, god knows what drives them on.

Those are just 2 types of people I've come across, I think we have a mix of work ethics but overall most people work pretty hard to bring home the bacon. I'm not sure how all that compares to a US work ethic though. I'd just say less people live for their work perhaps, preferring to leave it at work and not bring it home.

No it's not "bullshit", no matter how hard the BBC, the Guardian and the Mirror try to lie about it.

The latest figures show 5mn on housing benefit alone. We are increasingly becoming a nation where the few work and an ever increasing number sponge. Labour's ruinous 13 years of bribery created a massive handout culture.

"Most people are on benefits". What, 5 or so million out of 62 million? So what point were you trying to make exactly? It sounds more like you read a Daily Mail headline and decided to post your false notion here.

 

[catalyst8]

The UK has been predominantly a socialist country for some time

Playing a bit fast and lose with the term socialist there. We certainly have elements of socialism, but we're far from predominantly socialist[...]

Nahh, I'm with wadderz here, have been extremely left wing for a little too long. Fucking Hug-a-Hoody nonsense... When this current generation retires and we're left with a load of soft-degree media students and drug addled benefits-for-life rioters to keep the country ticking over.. we're all doomed![...]

I was born in the '60s & there's never been a socialist government during my voting lifetime; Great Britain & Northern Ireland is a social democracy with a capitalist free market, how do you equate that with socialism? That is to say, how is the means of production & exchange owned & regulated by the population & not the free market?

The most socialist aspects of our nation are the National Health Service & state education (the dole can be traced back to the Roman occupation, the Anglo-Saxons, & later the Church), so if you consider health care & education as socialist features then perhaps so. Bear in mind though that the US has about the same number of people with no health care as the population of the whole of England.

The latest figures show 5mn on housing benefit alone. We are increasingly becoming a nation where the few work and an ever increasing number sponge. Labour's ruinous 13 years of bribery created a massive handout culture.

I was under the impression that 25% or so of that figure are retired pensioners. Incidentally are you aware that Blair's New Labour was more 'Thatcherite' in its promotion of an unregulated free market than the Conservative opposition, & that lack of regulation is exactly the reason this recession occurred?

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

We used to have a pretty strong socialist bent from 48 to the end of the 1970's (government control of various sectors, such as the railways, electricity, mining, at one point even car manufacturing), and pretty much entirely socialist during WWII; but it was largely abandoned as it was found to be pretty counter productive.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with criticism of New Labour's deregulation; I don't expect government's to be in possession of a crystal ball, and, whilst it did eventually cause a bust, it was also a major contributor to the boom that came before it. The line between over-regulation (which can have disastrous economic consequences - one can see the Black Wednesday collapse as being attributable to this) and under-regulation, and finding that line (unless there is some previous precedent - i.e. if it ain't broke don't fix) I can't see being a particularly easy job. With regards to banking regulations, something was broken, the fix seemed to work...and then it didn't.

That doesn't mean that Labour are free from criticism - there's plenty of times they cocked up and should have known better, and I'm far from their greatest fan - but this isn't an instance of it. Government spending in a manner that demonstrated an odd belief that a boom period of economic growth was going to last forever was rather lacking in common sense, for example; but criticising a lack of hindsight strikes me as a tad unfair, and not very useful.

 

[Martin Toney]

I'm irish, but i live in the north or ireland now, so i technically live in the UK, can I weigh in on the matter?

Spoiler

Okay, I guess I'll grant you permission.

See, I found that in the north, there is a clear divide between those who want to work and those who don't, I personally think that if the distribution of unemployment funds where more closely regulated then we could force more of the lazy bones into working. Not to say all the lazy bones are perfectly capable of working, I'm unemployed but that's because no one will hire me, even though I'm a very qualified individual, when they see my walking stick they tend to run a mile, and I haven't had a job in around 4-6 months. But I find that a great deal of Americans don't work because (and here comes the fury from trolls) they are either to stupid (ie: under educated) or just damn lazy (a lifetime of government benefits, why would they want to work?). And what makes it worse is that these are facts and not my opinion (but someone will surely shout). So I personally find a very clear divide between the 2 work ethics, I work hard for my money when I'm employed. And I always will.

 

[Susurrus]

So I can only speak for law, but:
- In the UK, corporate lawyers end up working scary amounts of hours - its not uncommon to have to be in past midnight, or even pull all-nighters. Having said that, from what I hear from friends I have who have worked in New York, it's even more common over there, AND they get less holiday and routinely work weekends as well.