[RD] Daily Graphs and Charts

[warpus]

That part would just surprise me mainly because it's only recently that homosexuality has really found a sort of near-mainstream acceptance in the U.S... and it's still pretty far from full acceptance. Homosexuals are still looked down upon in many parts of the country, while heterosexual women seem to have it much better in terms of people accepting their life choices. (generally speaking) .. I would love to see more in-depth analysis of data like this, instead of just the presenting of straight up averages, which can be deceiving and in this case appear to be.

And now for something completely different:

% of workers working more than 50 hours a week



I would have expected the U.S. to be higher on this list, to be honest. Canada sitting near 4%, surrounded by non-Anglo Saxon western countries also surprises me. We're lower than Germany? Colour me surprised..

 

[Mise]

France is most interesting IMO, considering they have a 35 hour legal work week there. I know it's not a strict limit, but I would have expected them to be right down the bottom instead of at 8% in the top third-ish.

 

[Arwon]

When we work overtime it gets recorded and paid I guess. How was this measured. You'd get very different results surveying people vs collecting payroll data.

 

[classical_hero]

Not if you have a salaried position.

 

[warpus]

Indeed, it also seems like there would/might be differences on a country vs country basis, due to cultural differences:

It's worth noting that most (all?) of these are based on independent 'micro-censuses' from each country. So the hours worked aren't measured, people are asked, with no central control over who is asked, how many, what they are asked, and how they are asked.
This makes it especially tricky to compare between countries, where different cultures will affect how people report their work, or even what people class as work.

 

[Mise]

edit: x-post @Arwon: True, good point.

 

[Kyriakos]

That part would just surprise me mainly because it's only recently that homosexuality has really found a sort of near-mainstream acceptance in the U.S... and it's still pretty far from full acceptance. Homosexuals are still looked down upon in many parts of the country, while heterosexual women seem to have it much better in terms of people accepting their life choices. (generally speaking) .. I would love to see more in-depth analysis of data like this, instead of just the presenting of straight up averages, which can be deceiving and in this case appear to be.

And now for something completely different:

% of workers working more than 50 hours a week



I would have expected the U.S. to be higher on this list, to be honest. Canada sitting near 4%, surrounded by non-Anglo Saxon western countries also surprises me. We're lower than Germany? Colour me surprised..

Lol, aren't germans supposedly all about umlaut work? :\

 

[warpus]

The stereotype is that they are efficient and go on long vacations. Super long vacations.

 

[Gigaz]

Is that a matter of culture-dependent understanding of "working more than 50 hours a week?"

I'd say that someone qualifies if he works 50 hours one week and has vacations every second week.

 

[Cutlass]

I also wonder if it counts everything. There are many positions which are salary where the workload isn't defined by hours, but rather by completing tasks. There are many people who bring part of their work home with them. And there are many people who are 'on call', and expected to answer the phone or emails when not at work, no matter how much of their time it takes up.

 

[Samez]

Just as hint:
It's illegal to work more than 50h/week for employees in Germany.
Maximum daily worktime is 10h. If you work more than 8h a day your average working time has to be maximum 8h/day over a timespan of half a year.
Minimum legal payed vacation is IIRC 20 days a year, average is probably something like 28.
This is the theory for employed workers.

 

[CavLancer]

I've worked with salaried low level 'managers' at stores who are paid a flat amount so the employers push them to work 70 to 80 hours a week. They do it because that's the route to advancement. I'm guessing that such folks are listed as full time 40 hour employees.

I hold the record for overtime at a print shop in Jersey. 41 hours and 50 minutes of overtime on top of a 37.5 regular work week. The week before was 35 hours OT and the week after 35 as well. The busiest time in a very busy place.

 

[The_J]

Just as hint:
It's illegal to work more than 50h/week for employees in Germany.
Maximum daily worktime is 10h.

-> which can make it up to 70 per week .
And not that always someone cares. During my civil service I once racked up 130 hours in 2 weeks. There was just no choice.
And you also have the company founders/independent workers; and the graph also doesn't mean that they reported time is the official time.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Theory and practice in Germany are quite different. I've semi-regularly pulled 12-hour shifts on my old job and worked 16+ hours straight more than once. You can't have such an export oriented economy without screwing people over.

 

[warpus]

I am not allowed to work overtime here and they only ever pay me for 37.5 hours a week. As soon as my boss asks me to work overtime, I just take off the amount of time worked on some other day. This almost never happens, because.. well.. I'm going to end up with 37.5 hours a week no matter what happens, so it doesn't matter to him whether I work a bit longer on Tuesday or work the same amount of time every day of the week.

I would hate to work at a place where the employees are taken advantage of and are working for dozens of hours that they're not paid for .. at all. I can't imagine being in such a situation. Call me spoiled, but employee rights are important to me - this should be the very most bottom standard - if you work, you get paid. Our workplace does not allow overtime because there is no money for it in our budgets.. So.. Nobody works overtime except for I suppose certain people who have no choice, who have custom contracts drawn up for logistical reasons. (I'm sure they exist)

 

[Heretic_Cata]

So that's what it's like in the civilized world.
Over here, in communism, i think i'm the only one in my group of friends who did NOT have their salary cut or delayed for a month or three. Even someone who works for a state institution had his salary delayed for a month because the wrong party got elected.
And whoever doesn't like it is told they can leave, as there are hundreds of other people looking for jobs.
And paid overtime ? You must be joking.

 

[CavLancer]

Has it gotten any better since communism got flushed?

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Sorta, i guess. We're still in the transition period IMHO.
At the last election, the Romanian diaspora saved us from a humiliating election where the communists would continue what they are doing. The ruling communists at the time made it so that voting abroad was extremely difficult, with 8+ hours of waiting in line to cast your vote. And despite this, the diaspora stood in line for hours and rioted and complained just to cast their vote. The European Union was outraged when they heard what happened and demanded better voting conditions for the Romanians working abroad. In the country, the citizens from the cities voted against communism but they could never hope to match the number of votes from the peasants, senior citizens and the impoverished counties. In this time, the communist party ran a smear campaign against all Romanians working abroad, calling them traitors and against the opposition candidate who is a LUTHERAN (so a traitor to the state religion).
In the second row of election, the diaspora had slightly better conditions to vote (there were no longer european cities with 10.000+ romanians with a single voting booth). The communists lost.
Now we have a president who is NOT ethnically Romanian (he is a Saxon) and is NOT orthodox (here the religion defines being a Romanian in the eyes of many). He seems like a nice, humble, hard working man.
This was a disastrous blow to the communists who only preach balkan-style ultranationalism (see Greece, Serbia, Albania etc). Now, they do not control the whole governing apparatus of the country. They still have the very important position of prime-minister tho, but not for long.

As for work conditions, it depends, i guess. The EU did impose some more humane working conditions and rights, however without hard proof and vague orders the common worker has little hope against corporations. And even if someone does take legal action, the Hague is their only hope as our judicial system is the most corrupt in the EU and our laws can be interpreted in any way possible. Very few can afford the energy and time to be in trials that last more than 10 years just to fight a very complex corrupt system.
Slowly but surely things are changing tho. The old guard is dying, and people who have seen how things work in the west come back with new ideas. Someday they might not even be in the minority.

P.S. I know i seem to be painting a picture of the "west" as a bastion of justice and order. But trust me when i say this, with all it's flaws and corruption, it is FAR better than anything here.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Then again Romania is not really in the Balkans, but in the Balkans of the Balkans

 

[CavLancer]

Sorta, i guess. We're still in the transition period IMHO.
At the last election, the Romanian diaspora saved us from a humiliating election where the communists would continue what they are doing. The ruling communists at the time made it so that voting abroad was extremely difficult, with 8+ hours of waiting in line to cast your vote. And despite this, the diaspora stood in line for hours and rioted and complained just to cast their vote. The European Union was outraged when they heard what happened and demanded better voting conditions for the Romanians working abroad. In the country, the citizens from the cities voted against communism but they could never hope to match the number of votes from the peasants, senior citizens and the impoverished counties. In this time, the communist party ran a smear campaign against all Romanians working abroad, calling them traitors and against the opposition candidate who is a LUTHERAN (so a traitor to the state religion).
In the second row of election, the diaspora had slightly better conditions to vote (there were no longer european cities with 10.000+ romanians with a single voting booth). The communists lost.
Now we have a president who is NOT ethnically Romanian (he is a Saxon) and is NOT orthodox (here the religion defines being a Romanian in the eyes of many). He seems like a nice, humble, hard working man.
This was a disastrous blow to the communists who only preach balkan-style ultranationalism (see Greece, Serbia, Albania etc). Now, they do not control the whole governing apparatus of the country. They still have the very important position of prime-minister tho, but not for long.

As for work conditions, it depends, i guess. The EU did impose some more humane working conditions and rights, however without hard proof and vague orders the common worker has little hope against corporations. And even if someone does take legal action, the Hague is their only hope as our judicial system is the most corrupt in the EU and our laws can be interpreted in any way possible. Very few can afford the energy and time to be in trials that last more than 10 years just to fight a very complex corrupt system.
Slowly but surely things are changing tho. The old guard is dying, and people who have seen how things work in the west come back with new ideas. Someday they might not even be in the minority.

P.S. I know i seem to be painting a picture of the "west" as a bastion of justice and order. But trust me when i say this, with all it's flaws and corruption, it is FAR better than anything here.

Oh my friend, I do trust you, I know it is far better. Time will heal the wounds of communism. Those ideas are archaic, and will vanish with the generations. The problem of the future is the rich people and the corporations that make the people think once again that communism is some sort of solution. However these corporations can sometimes deliver work, and that's a good thing. So the future is bright...freedom is a very good thing. Your problem is Rumania's proximity to Russia, they might get a lot closer soon if NATO does what its best at: Nothing.

A joke that Ronald Reagan told...

Two guys talking. One from the US and the other from the Soviet Union. The American says "I like America because if I choose to I can walk into the president's office, pound on his desk and tell him I don't like the way he's running his country."

The Russian replies, "I can do the same! I can walk into the office of our Soviet president, pound on his desk and say "I don't like the way the American president is running his country."

Reagan was pretty cool.

Good luck!