Clearly, workers in France live on an entirely different planet from American workers:
PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Their new president wants to get the French to work harder to compete in global markets, but some traditions are likely to endure -- including long holidays, a kiss for colleagues in the morning, and a decent lunch.
Going out for a proper lunch is characteristic of French culture and on an average weekday, just a few steps from the Louvre museum, the streets swell with hungry workers seeking empty spots at crowded cafes.
"It's quite typical," says Gerome Jeusselim, a waiter at Cafe Pistache. "I don't think things will ever change."
Newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy may not agree. With unemployment hovering above 8 percent and the economy barely growing 2 percent, at issue is whether France can keep up its lifestyle and be competitive.
"France is really going downhill," said Jeremy Salomon, a Frenchman working as a project manager at optical manufacturer GrandOptical in the southwest suburbs of Paris.
"If there is no change, France will be at the end of the queue in terms of productivity."
Conservative Sarkozy has promised to tackle this problem, with reforms aimed at restoring the values of hard work and rewarding people who "get up early". He wants to make the 35-hour work week a minimum, not maximum, requirement, allowing people to work more.
"Sarkozy wants to make it possible for people who work overtime to be paid for it," Salomon said. "I think he wants to try to change the French mentality in terms of work ethic."
While Americans focus on productivity, Salomon said the French waste time with meetings. He joked that another big time-drain was the tradition of greeting everyone in the morning by kissing them twice on cheek: "That's like 20 minutes gone by."
While cheek-kissing is not an American work custom, morning chats and refilling coffee cups are. Obviously, everyone can be more productive. By the same token, there's something to be said for working at a liveable pace.
The problem in France isn't the work ethic per se. It's the laws and regulations that make it difficult for companies to fire workers who are not productive. If the free market is left to work without interference, it can easily find a reasonable balance between work and play that benefits both employers and workers.
For France, thanks to excessive regulation, it's been one long holiday -- almost literally:
Salomon is not paid overtime, even though he usually works from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with an hour for lunch. Instead, he gets extra vacation -- which adds up to so many days off it is hard to find time to work.
"We get 48 days off, not including national holidays," he said. "So much vacation time makes it hectic to work."
There are only about 250 work days in a year after 10 holidays are taken into account. A worker who is absent 48 days is missing 19% of the available work days in a year. No wonder the French are struggling.
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