Here is the info: http://www.businessinsider.com/are-t...e-world-2009-8

"France has $36,500 GDP/Capita and works 1,453 hours per year. This equates to a GDP/Capita/Hour of $25.10. Americans, on the other hand, have $44,150 GDP/Capita but work 1,792 hours per year. Thus Americans only achieve $24.60 of GDP/Capita/Hour.
This puts the French Labor Alpha at about $0.50 GDP/Capita/Hour over the US. It may sound small at first, but add that up across millions of people, and a few decades. Now you've built a lesson for the rest of the world to learn."

So Americans waste time in the office while French work smart?

Discuss.

The French work harder, live in a nicer country and have better food.
That must hurt

Is this in anyway connected to the smelly socks?

I think it is more likely that the first hours worked are just more effective than the last hours worked, making the conclusion that french are more effective invalid.

Not at all. In average, they are.

Next step is to make statistics which count who is most productive between 9 to 10 AM. Oh wait .. the Swiss would fail terribly because of the coffee break.

Wrong, they'll be in the queue for lunch....

Hours worked stats are BS. Every country thinks they work harder, longer, smarter than everyone else. Except maybe the far east, like Korea, japan, this is bs.

Anyway, how does ch compare?

I've worked with a number of French people; overall they worked circles around the Swiss I worked with. With less griping. And you could go out for a beer after work with them without scheduling it.

Probably the most shocking news all day

Being a nation that is cuisine-smart, it must surely be the case that the French are cooking the books.

I suspect the French declared they only worked a 35 hr week, whilst actually working twice that.Furthermore was the study done anonymously in other words what they make and what they declare being possibly variable?

Well, can't argue whether or not they're very productive but they sure do socialize a lot on the job which can mean waiting in some long lines while they gab on with their colleagues and customers alike. Sheesh!!

Sometimes I miss that good ol' German-style "What do you want? Get it and get out!" attitude

In Switzerland it is even More efficient, they just cut to the "get out" bit whilst looking bored in an ironic way

Now you know how UBS lost 2 Billion USD.... they have morons running these stats...

Could a mod please move this to the appropriate category?

(Jokes and Funnies if you need it spelling out)

I'm really good at that! Maybe I should apply for the red passport.

Get a grip, chaps. This is UBS research. Had me going there for a minute...

I've worked in France, in London and now in Zurich and I can tell you, the french work very hard in the office.
I'm not talking about the govt workers of course, even if they do the job, but the private companies that make the country run. People work long hours and compared to London, people don't take as many breaks.
Some friends from school work at Renault, EDF or Total and all say that it's intense.
so not a surprise for me.

For many young graduates in France work is just a continuation of their hard work in studies: intense and much more competitive, selective than in other countries! Of course you also got the opposite, but the French students I studied/worked with abroad have usually had a very rigorous curriculum and are competitive indeed. And besides, lazy people are more productive (in the time they really work) than people who don't value their free time, hence the very low labour productivity of the Chinese.
But there are different concepts of productivity, in this article it's work for money (i.e. how much work done within an hours time for how much money), if the French earned less they'd be more productive. If you measure work for time (i.e. how much work done within an hour of work regardless of money) the results would be more positive for high wage countries like Switzerland.

The French are competitive indeed. The work atmosphere is hierarchical so there's less of the "team" aspect. Part of my work in Germany was to facilitate understanding between both German and French business cultures and the Germans are more into team-playing and sharing info (like Americans) and couldn't understand why the French couldn't make independent decisions but instead always had to report to someone - and also were selective about sharing info. A little off topic but.....

....anyways, my husband is French and when he gets a project, he stresses but always finishes way ahead of time and is super-focused at work. As an American, I almost feel competitive with him but he definitely paid his dues BIG TIME in his studies which were outrageously more rigorous than mine.