Prof. Cary Cooper recently wrote an article for CNN which suggested that Americans could learn from Europe when it comes to work-life balance. While it’s an interesting piece, the online comments are most illuminating.
Two things strike me about this article. Firstly, American readers don’t like being compared to Europeans, especially when the dreaded word ‘socialism’ is mentioned. Secondly, there is a certain futility in making such high-level comparisons.
If we’re going to compare America and Europe on the work-life balance stakes, it’s useful to understand what we mean by Europe. Because recent research from Eurofound, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, indicates that the factors that have an impact on employees’ experience of work-life balance vary enormously across the continent.
These factors include:
- Provision of social welfare
- Attitudes to working mothers
- Proportion of women in the workforce
- Size of the public sector
- Gender-based division of labour in the home
- Reported average weekly working hours
- Perceived job security
Thus we see a very different attitude to working mothers in Greece and the Netherlands. So for example, there is much more provision of government funded childcare arrangements in Sweden than in Portugal.
Almost three times as many young working people in Italy still live with their parents than their counterparts in Sweden. Co-habiting couple in Finland share much more of the domestic chores than couples in Slovakia.
Differences exist also in terms of the factors that seem to drive dissatisfaction with work-life balance. In the Nordic and Benelux states, it appears to be a shortage of time to engage in social activities. In central and eastern Europe, it appears to be the result of fatigue from poor working conditions resulting from long working hours.
Instead of viewing Europe as a cohesive entity, the Eurofound report clusters states based on attitude to, and manifestations of, work-life balance. These are, from most to least positive:
- The Nordic countries ( Sweden, Denmark and Finland)
- Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) and France
- UK and Ireland
- Austria and Germany
- Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece)
- Former communist states
As with all aspects of society, there will also be a considerable amount of variance within these countries. However, it remains a useful reminder that when it comes to work-life balance anyway, there is no one “Europe”.
It also highlights the large role played by national culture in the work-life balance equation.
