Working Hours from Around the World

Working late tonight? See how you stack up against workers from other countries with this online tool from the BBC: Link

The data is gathered from 34 developed nations by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They're quite interesting in and of themselves:

A look at the average annual hours worked per person in selected countries puts South Korea top with a whopping 2,193 hours, followed by Chile on 2,068.
British workers clock up 1,647 hours and Germans 1,408 - putting them at the bottom of the table, above only the Netherlands.
Greek workers have had a bad press recently but, as we reported in February, they work longer hours than any other Europeans. Their average of 2,017 hours a year puts them third in the international ranking

But working long hours doesn't necessarily mean working better:

"Generally speaking, long working hours are associated with lower productivity per hour. Workers are working very long hours to achieve a minimum level of output or to achieve some minimum level of wages because frankly they're not very productive," Messenger says.

Wesley Stephenson of BBC News has the complete report: Link

@PacRim Jim : You're quite right. Including bank holidays, I started this year with 44 days leave to take and I haven't been at this job long enough to be granted additional days off (1 day per 5 years worked). Similarly, employed people here are entitled to (something like) a year off for maternity leave over which 6-9 months they'll be paid. The holiday entitlements in the USA or Japan are hideous in comparison to most other countries.