When I travel in Europe, I buy the International Herald Tribune a few times a week. I like the emphasis on international news and culture. You can find many IHT articles online on the New York Times website.
On my Christmas trip to France, I read this article Working (part-time) in the 21st Century, which provided some very interesting insight into the Netherlands.
The Netherlands has a highly-developed economy, with a Gross Domestic Product that is one of the top 20 in the world. Leading companies in clude Royal Dutch Shell, Phillips, KPMG and Heineken International.
The Netherlands seems to have a culture that focuses on family and happiness more than material factors and career advancement. According to the article, "75% of Dutch women work part time (compared to 41 percent in other European Union countries and 23 percent in the USA), and 23% of Dutch men have reduced hours, compared to 10 percent in the EU and the USA." Do these statistics surprise you?
Check out the article for more on this aspect of the Netherlands' culture. And watch the video that goes with the article:
8 comments:
After reading the article and watching the video, I would really want to move and work in the Netherlands. In Hong Kong, many people need to work overtime. (I was only an HR part time in a company, Du Pont Apollo, but I had worked overtime too!) Seldom do people in HK have work-life balance. This is also one of the reasons why HK has extremely low birth rate of only 7.49 number of live births per 1 000 population in 2011, while USA has 13.83. Many families thought they wouldn't have time to take care their kid. So it's better not to have one.
Besides, I think working part-time is really a good way to retain and attract workers. Everyone wants a job with flexible timetable and spend more precious moments with his/her loved ones. Perhaps, we are all again back to the questions of "Work to live?" or "Live to work?"
I really like the idea of more flexible work schedules that recognize the balance between personal life and work, and from a personal standpoint I think it's an ideal setup. However, from the standpoint of a business, I wonder how efficient this system is. Good communication within an office can help, but if coworkers cannot simply pop by each other's offices, completing tasks may become much more difficult and time-consuming. Furthermore, by hiring more part-time workers, it may be much harder to know whos is handling what assignments; it's much easier to know, "Jane takes care of those duties," rather than, "if John is here on Friday, he does it, but during the rest of the week Mary is responsible for that." With technology and enhanced communication, I think this system could become more mainstream, but for now I worry that business is too fast-paced to fully implement it.
I really enjoyed the idea of the part time worker. There are many benefits to working part time. I feel that full time work can cut into personal and family time, which is very important for many cultures. Increased happiness throughout workers can ultimately lead to increased productivity. I really feel like it is important to keep up with the pace of business which inherently gets faster and faster, but it is important to keep and respect the values of your employees. Like Lauren said above me, it would be very hard to implement, but everything has to sart somewhere.
I think this is great for families with young children. I've always felt parents spending time with their children as much as possible is very important. While it is more common for women to do this or not work at all, I think it is great that fathers are starting to do this as well in The Netherlands. Work is good and necessary to raise a family, but I feel children turn out better when they are able to spend time with their parents. Although it would be great to incorporate this into the American culture, I don't ever see this happening. Americans are too concerned with climbing the corporate ladder to even consider going part time.
I read an article the other day urging people who would like to get ahead with their careers to hold off on having kids. The Netherlands seems to have an attitude that encourages citizens to have it all. This comes down entirely to culture and if the United States were willing to restructure the work week, it could alleviate some of the major problems here in the United States. It might help lower the divorce rate, suicide rate, depression diagnoses, and things beyond those surface statistics. By allowing employees to have a work-life balance, they can give more are work and have a happier home life. I definitely think the Netherlands has got it right this time.
-Tricia Bruce
I think the idea of working part-time or just a 4 day work week is great for so many reasons. I wish this trend would catch on by the time I begin my career and have a family. Right now I'm in school and working. This semester has been great because I don't have class on Wednesday. This can sort of compare to having a 4 day work week I would say. I think it is great. It gives me more time to do things at my apartment and makes the rest of the week less stressful. I think that if Americans would take on this life style it could benefit our society in many different ways. It seems to me that Americans have become very career obsessed society where many other more important aspects of life are getting less attention than they should.
if an employer is willing to negotiate on the work week, and employees are are more productive because of higher satisfaction, then the situation is beneficial. but the article says this may come with sacrifice such as lower salary and potential promotion.
The United States is so rigid when it comes to jobs, advancing your education, making money, being successful, etc. I feel like I spend my entire life stressed out. Living in a country like the Netherlands would be a great experience for me. I could chill out and just enjoy life without so many expectations, especially my parents breathing down my back! Part-time sounds like a great idea. Make money, but enjoy life and take time off to travel, be with your family, etc. "Live life to the fullest" is a saying that I rarely abide by... When is this ever going to change?
The statistics do surprise me, but in a delightful way.
Post a Comment