France has extreme laws making it difficult for employers to fire
workers. Do workers in France work less hard when compared with
American workers? Generally by work I mean using muscle to move things
around. If no studies are readily available with those kinds of
statistics, then use any definition you want of "hard work" as long as
you explain the definition in the answer.

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Request for Question Clarification by answerfinder-ga on 29 Mar 2006 04:20 PST

Dear centure7-ga,

Hard work is difficult to define, even more so to research.  Instead,
I can provided statistics on productivity for their workers calculated
from GDP.

Would this answer your question?

answer finder-ga

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Clarification of Question by centure7-ga on 14 Apr 2006 17:37 PDT

If you believe the productivity data is the best answer to the
question, I will accept it as an answer. I realize it may be difficult
to find the best data to answer the question.

Dear centure7-ga,

Thank you for you clarification (I think you will have noticed that
there is a problem at the moment with receiving email notifications of
clarification requests).

Hard work is difficult to define, even more so to research. These are
some statistics which may be of interest.

The UK?s National Statistics Office provides information on
international comparisons of productivity based on Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) per worker basis and GDP per hour. This shows the US in
front of France for GDP per worker, but France is in front of the US
for GDP per hour worked.

These are revised estimates for 2004 published on 23 February 2006.

Web page 
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=160&Pos=2&ColRank=1&Rank=128
Download the excel spreadsheet
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/2006_Feb_ICP_revisions_tables.xls
More information and sources
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=9671&More=N


You may also be interested in this NewEconomist blog and comments.
http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2006/01/us_productivity.html
And this article.
http://www.economist.com/finance/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=3352969

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

The researcher was careful to provide a complete answer. Very good.

The French are not even allowed to work overtime.  It is a very f**ked
up country and new laws just make matter worse.

I found this article that maintains that the French are hardworking:

How the French can afford la vie en rose 
http://www.sixtymillionfrenchmen.com/media%20appearencies/lavieenrose.htm
An excerpt:  ..."Although the French project the image of being a
hedonistic lot, they work very hard, long days -- when they work.
Contrary to popular opinion, French workdays don't start later than
those in North America, but they do end later. Rush hour in the Paris
Metro lasts until 8 p.m.
The French also have a very strong but distinct work ethic. They
pretend they're not busy even when they're working like crazy. To the
French, looking relaxed shows you're in control. Hence, the long
leisurely lunches at cafés. But make no mistake. They're working hard.
They just don't have a stigma about taking their time and looking
relaxed in public..."

This site should be interesting to you.  Scroll down a ways and you
will see that the French work 330 hours/year less than Americans  -
due partly to longer vacations.  That number agrees with my
recollection from various reports on French and German working
time/year.  Other information is also interesting, but may be personal
interpretation.

http://www.understandfrance.org/Paris/WorkingParis.html

I would caution the use of productivity statistics.

It is very important to distinguish between output per worker and
output per worker hour.

I cannot remember the source (likely the Economist Magazine), however
I remember that French vs. American workers were evaluated for
productivity.

The conclusion was that per hour productivity did not vary greatly,
however hours worked per year per employee had a much larger
difference (Americans work substantially more hours than French
workers).

Sorry I can't be more definitive on the source, but I am certain enoug
to caution the use of aggregate productivity statistics.

On a personal note, my personal experience (I have family through my
father's 2nd marriage from France) is that the typical American or
French worker effort level is equally variable - for each hour
worked.. Whether this extends to an average work effort is highly
dubious.

golfresearcher-ga, well remembered. That is indeed one of the sources
which will form part of my answer if centure7-ga wants it.
answerfinder-ga

Just a comment regarding the answer:
The productivity per hour worked is far more important. I believe that
extreme job protections are going to result in a workforce that
doesn't put a lot of effort into their jobs. I don't believe the
current statistics are enough to validate that one way or another.

However, I believe that there are two main variables which influence
the productivity per hour. First is education, and second is job
security. Of course there are those who put effort into their work
regardless of job security, especially those who are passionate about
their work. There are also those who have a sense of ethic regarding
working hard.

Finally, I believe that it might actually be possible to "teach" a
population to work hard regardless of how secure their job is. If that
were to happen, then job security would have a lesser effect on
productivty. But of course all this is just theory until better
statistics are available.

Dear centure7-ga,
Thank you for the tip. Pleased I could help.
answerfinder-ga

I very much doubt that hard work applies to either the French or
Americans. Lazy and stupid maybe...