Week 15: American Work Ethic
This week I have been working in Netchemia. What I have slowly come to notice while working here, and hearing stories from other internship students, is the work ethic in American business.
The average working day is 8am-5pm. Often though I have found that many people are in the office before 8 and these same people are still in the office after 5. Compare this to the UK where office hours are 9am-5pm and workers stick to these hours quite rigidly. In previous companies I have worked for in the UK I found that as soon as 5PM comes the office is suddenly deserted.
Does this lead to higher productivity? I am not sure. In America the general practice is to take 1 hour for lunch; in the UK I have found lunch to usually be 30 minutes. I don't feel 30 minutes gives the same amount of down time to relax and unwind as an hour for lunch. This lack of unwinding means that the UK worker doesn't get the same chance to 'disconnect' from their work, which could in turn affect productivity.
During the lunch hour American's tend to go out of the office to a restaurant or takeaway. This allows greater socializing with colleagues in a more informal environment. UK workers tend to sit at their desks or the canteen with sandwiches. This could be because of the time allowed for lunch or maybe because in America the number of options and the price of eating out is so much cheaper.
Looking at the figures, America's GDP per capita is $43,500 compared to the UK's of $31,400 (source CIA World Factbook) I wonder if the work ethic has anything to do with it. (Maybe its a direct effect of incentivized employee payment through commission and tips).
On a side note, the US Courts have just had a landmark patent case challenging the meaning of 'obviousness' in a ruling against Teleflex's patent for being to obvious. Maybe the system will now reform! (see Bloomberg coverage here).
The average working day is 8am-5pm. Often though I have found that many people are in the office before 8 and these same people are still in the office after 5. Compare this to the UK where office hours are 9am-5pm and workers stick to these hours quite rigidly. In previous companies I have worked for in the UK I found that as soon as 5PM comes the office is suddenly deserted.
Does this lead to higher productivity? I am not sure. In America the general practice is to take 1 hour for lunch; in the UK I have found lunch to usually be 30 minutes. I don't feel 30 minutes gives the same amount of down time to relax and unwind as an hour for lunch. This lack of unwinding means that the UK worker doesn't get the same chance to 'disconnect' from their work, which could in turn affect productivity.
During the lunch hour American's tend to go out of the office to a restaurant or takeaway. This allows greater socializing with colleagues in a more informal environment. UK workers tend to sit at their desks or the canteen with sandwiches. This could be because of the time allowed for lunch or maybe because in America the number of options and the price of eating out is so much cheaper.
Looking at the figures, America's GDP per capita is $43,500 compared to the UK's of $31,400 (source CIA World Factbook) I wonder if the work ethic has anything to do with it. (Maybe its a direct effect of incentivized employee payment through commission and tips).
On a side note, the US Courts have just had a landmark patent case challenging the meaning of 'obviousness' in a ruling against Teleflex's patent for being to obvious. Maybe the system will now reform! (see Bloomberg coverage here).
Labels: internship, kansas city, Netchemia
posted by wal5hy at 5:55 PM
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