Tthe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) makes a stud y of this sort of thing, ranking countries on quality of life -- the “Better Life Index” -- based on a number of factors, including work-life balance, safety, health, longevity, and more. Based on that series of data as well as other information, here are some countries that have better work-life balance--either overall, or in individual categories--than we do. And yes, though the Scandinavian countries basically kick everyone else’s ass in this category, for instance Denmark: Overall champ. This little Scandinavian country comes out on top of nearly all these sorts of rankings. Less than 2% of its workforce work those extra-long hours, and it is closest to gender parity of any country. Each day, Danes are able to spend about two-thirds of their hours sleeping, eating, taking care of themselves and chilling out--not bad at all. In fact, it's also number one in global happiness by some measures.but here are a few others:
Canada: Not perfect, but better than the US.
It's not light years ahead of us, but it's still ahead. One thing that puts our neighbors to the north over the top in the head-to-head race, besides the requisite jokes about ice hockey and maple syrup? The men do a lot of the household work--although there’s still disparity between men and women:
Men in Canada spend 146 minutes per day cooking, cleaning or caring, higher than the OECD average of 131 minutes but considerably less than Canadian women who spend 248 minutes per day on average on domestic work .
But the primary thing that puts Canada ahead of the US? Only about 4% of its workforce works “very long hours” compared to 11% here in the States. Canadians also benefit from a mandated paid vacation policy in every province , although it varies from place to place.
Brazil: Vacation heaven .
Brazil may not outrank the US overall because so many of its workers work long hours, but get a load of their vacation policy. The outward view of Brazilians is that they like to have a good time whether it’s dancing or at the beach or just barbecuing with the fam, so it’s no wonder that according to this CNBC piece,they have a ”minimum of 30 days for vacation and 11 days for public holidays.” How lovely does that sound?
Sweden: World leader in paternity leave. Actually, in Sweden there’s a total of 13 months of leave that has to be split by two parents. Even the conservative party, which thinks the leave shouldn’t be mandated by gender is in favor of expanding parental leave.
France: Lavishing love on moms. France’s great parental policies belie the fact that gender equality is still not the norm here. But what they do have makes life a lot easier for new parents: subsidized daycare, easy-to-afford healthcare, and lengthy periods of paid and unpaid--but with job guaranteees--parental leave and home nurse visits.
No other place is perfect, but as I learned through my research, each of these countries has something unique to offer its citizens.
Here in America, this issue is on the radar in a way it hasn't been before, evidenced by the fact that companies continue to pioneer interesting vacation solutions to prevent burnout and their ideas are getting play in the national media ( check out this place, which tailors its schedule to the seasons ).
No comments:
Post a Comment