If you work in the financial industry, you are used to working long hours. Particularly in investment banking, working long hours seems a badge of honour, though I always wonder if working long hours creates that much more output. Hard for me to say since I don’t work in investment banking, but there is at least a possibility to check the relationship between hours worked and output generated across countries using macroeconomics. The chart below shows the GDP per capita in 2020 for a set of high- and middle-income countries. GDP per capita is used here as the national income per person in different countries. I put this in contrast with the average number of hours worked per person in a year. I removed commodity-rich countries like Saudi Arabia or Norway because their GDP per capita is heavily distorted by the revenues from commodity exports (though I did leave Australia in the chart).
There is on final step missing: factoring in the cost of living. Switzerland is (from my German point of view) much more expensive than Germany and that may even out the higher GDP/capita and hours.
Jan 14, 2022·edited Jan 14, 2022Liked by Joachim Klement
I have been stuck in Brazil due to covid this week which resulted in me starting at 7am but being done by 3-3:30pm. I worked 10h less this week but got everything done. Pretty nice. Although not really something id like to tell my boss since I wouldn't want to be paid less 😂😅
You have great courage to draw attention to the virtue of die protestantische Arbeitsmoral. It is considered a vice, unfortunately, in much of American academia. I do admit, however, that my best days as a manager involved toning down my Prussian instincts!
There is on final step missing: factoring in the cost of living. Switzerland is (from my German point of view) much more expensive than Germany and that may even out the higher GDP/capita and hours.
I have been stuck in Brazil due to covid this week which resulted in me starting at 7am but being done by 3-3:30pm. I worked 10h less this week but got everything done. Pretty nice. Although not really something id like to tell my boss since I wouldn't want to be paid less 😂😅
You have great courage to draw attention to the virtue of die protestantische Arbeitsmoral. It is considered a vice, unfortunately, in much of American academia. I do admit, however, that my best days as a manager involved toning down my Prussian instincts!