As the drama around the European crisis continues, Greece is still struggling, Other Western European Countries are fretting and Germany continues to be a beacon of hope. You may be asking, “Does that mean Germany works the hardest?” Or saying, “That’s typical German efficiency”. Well we have come across an article which the Guardian published in December 2011 which may change your view about hard work keeping you of out the red.

You may, or may not be happy to find the UK near the top end of the list, where apparently the inhabitants of the British isles work the 3^rd longest hours per week in full time employment out of the 28 Countries studied, and an average of 42.7 hours. Whereas joint top of the list is Greece and Austria a full hour longer than the UK.

Sitting Comfortably in 7^th place one place behind Ireland is Germany, .7 hours less working per week than the UK. At the bottom of the list is Denmark with an average working week lasting 39.1 hours.

Now you may be asking, what quality of work does those hours at work produce? In the same article there is a chart outlining the productivity measured in units per hour. Top of that list by a long shot is Luxemburg with a productivity rating of 189.2

Behind them is the Nederland’s on 136.5, Germany is 6^th but it’s quite close between 6^th and 2^nd.

The UK has fallen to a mid table ranking with 107.2 (Still above the EU average) and Greece is the other side of that average with 76.3

It then goes on to break down the data and explain some possible reasons why the information is as it is and also gives a graph about the average working hours per sector in the EU.

Go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/08/europe-working-hours to see where the country you’re interested in ranks