You Work too much, apparently.

Nina's dad likes to say that a task will fill the time allowed to it. That is if you put a time limit on your doing the dishes -say 10 mins.- you will get it done in that amount of time. You won't get them done if you plot for 30 seconds, but it will take less time than an untimed chore: where you half do the dishes/half watch tv, listen to the radio, 'ooops, forgot to get the mail,' 'hey, who scored?' Say what now about some dishes?

I was thinking about how hilarious our work week/year really is. In North America (well, Northern and Central-North America), pompous business people pride themselves on pumping in long hours. 9 to 5? Please. Here in the South, it's long been practise to start early to avoid the heat. But, when the Mexicans adopted the Spanish Siesta, and went back to work in the early evening, we just barrel on through like morons. The common work week here in Texas is now 8 to 5. Surprised? if you are, you should know Nina gets at school at by 7:15/30, for classes that start at 7:45. Getting in "early" to work means 7.
So, with all this in mind, I nearly burst out laughing at this article today that said:

The average Canadian worked 1,751 hours in 2004. That's about 300 hours — or 43 seven-hour days — more than the Dutch, Germans, French or Danes.
Yet based on total economic output, adjusted by population and purchasing power, Canada's gross domestic product is very similar to that of many European countries, and below some.
The Irish, for example, work 6 per cent fewer hours, on average, yet the economic output per person beats ours by 14 per cent.

Ouch.
And the worst part is we're basically just fucking ourselves (as anyone who's studied organizational communication will tell you), because individuals don't understand how to conduct a basic meeting in a timely fashion. We're completely wasting our time, when we should be enjoying our leisures: to LOOK productive.
Some other cool things:

"Schonning, a Swede, said as a father of two children, he also gets as much as a year off, at 80 per cent pay, per youngster. Though the mother and father decide how to divvy up the time, dad must take at least two months off work per child." "Canadians could actually work fewer hours and it wouldn't make much of a dent in our GDP. And you'd have healthier workers."

"'Long working hours not only fail to promote efficiency, but may also increase the likelihood of people making mistakes,'"

"Economists have found that every significant step that was taken (historically) to reduce working time was accompanied by a sharp increase in productivity."

And, by the way, we're working hard for what? $2.6 million for pins, magnets: N.L. auditor says
(those fuckers).

So, I'm movin' to Europe. who's coming with?