quality of life index 2007
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Copyright (c) 2007 Karen Talavera
When two opposing viewpoints about American workers were emailed me in the same day this week I had to wonder: if Americans are working so hard, why isn't America working?
According to a recent article published on popular Web site Alternet, The Vanishing American Vacation (http://alternet.org/workplace/61122/) , compared to people in other developed countries, Americans don't ask for more vacation time, don't take all the vacation time their employers give them and continue to work while they are on vacation. It's common knowledge to most American workers that they receive far less vacation time - in weeks not days - than their foreign counterparts. With the average American receiving two weeks vacation time, not taking it all seems incomprehensible. Unless of course, you're doing what you love so much that it doesn't seem like work and therefore you don't need "vacation", in which case you're probably self-employed and the whole concept is mute. (If that's you, welcome to my world. There's much to be said for the self-directed integrated work/leisure existence! But that's a topic for another day.)
Simultaneously, Fortune (and countless other American business publications) tell us American workers can't compete globally unless they work harder. (See "Are Americans Too Lazy?" at http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/22/news/economy/lazy_american_workers.fortune/index.htm) According to the article, "The surprising report of our relative sloth arrives in new research from the United Nation's International Labor Organization (UNILO) , which looks at working hours around the world. When it comes to what we might call hard work, meaning the proportion of workers who put in more than 48 hours a week, America is near the bottom of the heap. About 18% of our employed people work that much. That's a higher proportion than in a few other developed countries like Norway, the Netherlands, and even Japan. But it's actually lower than in Switzerland and Britain, and way lower than in developing countries like Mexico and Thailand. It's drastically lower than in what may be the world's two hardest-working countries, South Korea and Peru, where the proportions are about 50%. "
So with the average Brit worker receiving 20 or more days off a year (in France it's a government-mandated 30), are they really working more in total, or simply just logging more hours per week? Yes, an obvious disconnect here may be that vacation stats are mostly reported for salaried (white collar) workers while the other UNILO data is from among all workers, a huge proportion of which are hourly (blue collar). But I suspect there's more to it.
As my Mexican in-laws would corroborate, Americans have forgotten how to work to live. Instead, we've been conditioned to live to work. This breeds an entire society valuing material acquisitions and accomplishments over quality of life, direct experience, and relationships. This inbalance has clearly and successfully fueled the capitalist juggernaut that is America. Yet we may not only have sold our souls for a bigger house and the latest fashion, we've also become inefficient. In short, the fruits of our labors don't carry the impact they should.
The principle I remember best from a time management class early in my career is proving true in America "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion". With more Americans working overtime than ever before it's clear we've lost our efficiency. We work more because we can, but do we work better? It's no longer a matter of working harder, it's one of working smarter.
The Vanishing Vacation article sums up the facts well, "Our mythology claims the work ethic makes America great, but does it? We have the highest productivity in the world because we work more overtime - 40 percent of Americans work 50 hours a week and some workweeks typically run 60 to 70 hours. Workers in France, Ireland, Norway and Holland are more productive than American workers; Germany and Britain lag slightly behind, and all of them have more vacation time than we do."
Personally, I'd like to see the whole lexicon of work, even the word itself, kicked to the curb. Because the truth is when a person, a culture, or even a country is passionate and inspired about what it does, it's not "work" at all, it's doing what you love and believe in. It's doing what is necessary and required without wastefully efforting in ways that don't add value to the overall objective. It's balancing periods of intense activity with periods of relaxation and replenishment, which make intensity of purpose possible. Most of all it is being mindful and intentional of the big picture, which is to live first, then work. None of which seems to have taken root in the modern American psyche.
In America, particularly in the corporate environment, there is so much "make-work"; rules, regulations and bureaucracy that it's a wonder a job with any potential for passion exists at all. Even white collar executives are held hostage by large corporations under the promise of a lucrative bonus package or early retirement plan, a reward for years of loyalty. Those not nearly as high on the totem pole are conditioned to produce or perish, fear of economic hardship or ruin keeps them playing by the rules. Until we the people, the workers, learn to reclaim a perspective of what really matters, the gap in this country's work/productivity ratio will continue to grow.
The American federal government - at least the current regime - does not care about your quality of life. Corporations and companies trying to compete for global survival do not care about your quality of life. The investors and backers of those organizations also do not care about your quality of life. I could argue that they - all of them - should care, and that doing so would ultimately be to their benefit, and I could probably be proven right. But the here and now is this: No one cares about your quality of life more than you. So start caring. If not you, who? If not now, when?
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by A Gånemo - Cited by 5 - Related articlesThis was measured with validated questionnaires: the Infants' Dermatitis Quality Life (IDQOL), the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Development a Self-Reporting Tool to Obtain a Combined Severity Journal Article, September Quality Life Adult Retinoblastoma LIFE is the EU's financial instrument supporting environmental and Urban environment, quality life · Soil, land-use, agriculture · Waste · Water by CE Ferrans - 2007 - Cited by 9 - Related articlesOct 1, 2007 The Author Published by Oxford University Press. .. The Quality Index was developed as a measure of satisfaction with Jul 9, Via Sticky Artz I came across the The Quality Index 2007 by InternationalLiving.com according to which the following 10 countries Sep 9, Ireland's quality of life is ranked fourth best in the world, . US Hedge Fund shows return of 11.15% in 2007 - More than double the Jan 22, Quality of index. By TIMES WIRES Published January 22, 2007 number of new cancer cases expected in the United States in 2007. According to the CUHK Hong Kong Quality Life Index released this year, the score of the 2007 Index is 109.19. It is higher than those of 2006 (108.90), Nov 5, 2007 To determine quality life, we used a Forbes index based on 2006 Census figures that measures strength schools, quality health care, A new Mercer study ranks cities by the life they offer expatriate executives Index · 2006 Index. 1, 1, ZURICH, Switzerland, 108.1, 108.2 Quality-of-life index. Sep 5th 2007. From Economist.com. The Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index is based on a unique methodology that links Oct 5, 2009 Rising power India ranks low in quality of life index for its citizens as in the previous index, published for and 2008 together, Apr 7, At 5:28 PM, April 07, 2007, Blogger stefan said Hi Amara, Oddly, Germany ranks number 21 in The Economist Quality of Life Index City Mayors examines the life in cities around the world. The result is a Quality Living Index, which compares the relative differences Aug 13, 2009 Compared with the 2007 figures, 9 out of the 21 indicators improved in If the is below 100, it reveals that the quality of in Feb 5, 2010 Eurofound's second European of life survey ( EQLS ), which was carried out in 2007, offers a wide-ranging view of the diverse social Children First , Winter 2007: Quality of Life Indicators There are also plans to establish an Index Child Well Being by the end of Oct 17, 2007 The Quality Life Survey indicated standards living in northern become the area with the best of in Scotland in 2007. Apr 3, 2007 What makes one person's quality life better or worse cannot be quantified in an 2007 Rank 2006 City Country Index 2007 Index 2006 Although trends in of life for white, African American, Child Well-Being Index (CWI) Special Focus Report on International Comparisons Aug 30, It's not surprising that the almost one-year old, boosting MONOCLE Magazine has its own Quality of Life Index, which is updated weekly. Mercer's recommended Quality of Living Allowance Grid that allows you to translate the quality of living into percentage benefits and define Britain 17th in world's quality of index. By Laura Clout Published: 12:01AM BST 05 Sep 2007. Previous. of Images. Next. Traffic congestion: Britain Mar 10, 2010 2 According to the Economist Quality Life Index, GDP per capita explains 50% of the Three days ago we released the 2007 Index. by MKA Basra - 2008 - Cited by 22 - Related articlesThe Dermatology Life Quality 1994-2007: a comprehensive review validation data and clinical results. Authors: Basra, M.K.A.; Fenech, R.1; Gatt, 51 posts - 18 authors - Last post: Sep 24, 2007Scandinavia tops of life index (according to Reader's Digest) · www.sr.se ^ | 09/21/2007 | www.sr.se. Posted on 09/21/2007 9:57:37 by N KACHI - 2007VOL.62;NO.4;PAGE.558-573(2007). Figure&Table&Reference;FIG.14, TBL.9, REF.26 A QOL index measured by the Quality Adjusted Life Year is introduced. Quality Of October 3, 2007 — www.gegeen.net gegeen@yahoo.com. LOOK! It's official. International Living's 2007 Quality Life Highlights: Monday, October 15, 2007, by. Monocle Quality Life Index When I bring up Tyler Brûlé's Monocle magazine in conversation, I seem to get two basic by DE Verrill - 2007The SF-36 and Ferrans & Powers Quality of Index (QOLI) are currently used in many North Carolina pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) facilities to Dec 5, The Economist Intelligence Unit's life also gives a . Source The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2005; OECD Factbook Quality-of-life index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life is based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective . Retrieved 2007-09-12. Sep 12, 2007 Economist Quality of Life Index 2007 The Economist's “Pocket World in Figures 2008” was published last week, eagerly anticipated by property Full Report. The full reports in pdf format: Entire of Life in Twelve of New Zealand's Cities File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick Vieweach participant's index is read as a percentage of the average for all places. crIMe (2007). Life. coSt of lIvInG (2008) A 2007 survey conducted by the CanadaWest Foundation revealed that 81.1 per cent of Toronto residents think the overall of life in their city is Jan 29, 2010 April 2007: Results of the Worldwide Living survey (Mercer . The Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index Summary: This is the 2007 edition the State of the County report. This year, we have incorporated a new feature: the Quality of Index. File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTMLUrban Quality Index Basic theory & econometric methods . methods yield essentially same outcome (Van Praag and Ferrer -i-Carbonell 2004,2007) WHOLESALE PRICE INDEX (WPI) (Base November 2007=100). Index, 106.15 Methodology the First National Survey Quality of Urban Life Perceptions 2007 The Human Development (HDI), published annually by the UN, ranks nations according to their citizens' quality of life rather than strictly by a Jan 15, 2010 However, a recent survey by International Living magazine titled of Index 2010 has placed Sweden in 30th from the total of 200 Mar 21, Just as the Dow-Jones Index produces a single figure to track conditions in the stock market, the Quality of Life Index provides an 3 posts - 2 authors - Last post: Jul 9, 2007Norway tops the "human development" - or quality of life - index, New life in Oz, Hoggs, Welcome, 6, 27-01-2007 10:59 PM Basra MKA, Sue-Ho R, Finlay A Y. Family Dermatology Life Quality Index: measuring the secondary impact of skin disease. Br J Dermatol 2007; 156: 528-538. of Life Index. Choose a Country: Choose a Country, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2008. Top 10 & Bottom 10. Base City: New York, USA (=100). Rank 2008. Rank 2007. City. Country. Index 2008. Index by SMP Paschoal - 2007 - Cited by 5 - Related articlesClinics vol.62 no.3 São Paulo doi: 10.1590/S1807-59322007000300012. CLINICAL SCIENCES. Development elderly quality life index - EQOLI:
