Less Work, More Life.

• Author: de Graaf, John
• Position: Viewpoint essay

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A few years ago, after finding my way through an incredible jumble of bicycles outside her building, I met with a University of Amsterdam professor who studies work-life balance. She recounted a conversation she'd just had with the manager of the Dutch division of an American company who had come to Holland from the United States two years earlier:

Professor : Do you notice a difference between the approach to work time and free time here compared to the United States?

Manager : Yes, it dawned on me my second week on the job. It was a Friday evening, eight o'clock, and we had an important shipment to get out on Monday. I called my assistant at home, and told her to call some of the workers to get some things done on the weekend in preparation.

Professor : What did she say?

Manager : She said she didn't work on weekends, and didn't expect to be called at home when she wasn't working.

Professor : And what did you say?

Manager : I said, "Well, excuse me, but I'm the new manager here, and we're a company that competes in the global economy, and we have an important shipment to get out, and we appreciate employees who are team players." She said, "OK, I can do what you ask of me, but under Dutch law, you have to pay me double time for unscheduled, overtime, weekend work. And if I call these people, they'll just get mad at me for interrupting their family time. Don't worry, we'll come in Monday, work hard, and get the job done."

Professor : What did you say then?

Manager : I said, "Oh, forget it!" I hung up the phone in frustration and stewed all weekend.

Professor : And then what happened?

Manager : They came in Monday and got the job done. They work very hard when they're working so everything was fine. And that's how it's been ever since. I've gotten to like it that way because now even I have a life.

L ess work, more life. It's a trade-off that a lot of American workers might appreciate.

Pollsters find time stress a constant complaint among Americans. Until the current recession, Americans were working some of the longest hours in the industrial world.

Conservatives say this is all voluntary: Americans just like to work a lot. But Gallup's daily survey finds them 20 percent happier on weekends than on workdays--what a surprise! And when Americans rank the pleasure their daily activities bring, working ends up second from the bottom (socializing after work is second from the top!), more pleasurable only than that mother...