It’s no secret that American workplace culture differs greatly from the rest of the world. In the United States, employees tend to work 40 hours a week, take minimal paid leave, and seldom take breaks during the day. The American Dream has glorified a hustle mentality that prioritises working to live rather than living to work. Europeans, on the other hand, apply a more relaxed approach to their workplace culture. While many people have managed to resist American work habits, not every country has been successful in maintaining a work-life balance.
Last week, a Reddit thread on the popular forum r/australia went viral when user u/moviesoccerbeer asked the internet, “Why didn’t ‘live to work’ catch on in Australia like it did through the rest of the Anglosphere? Australia seems to have adopted the Mediterranean ‘work to live’ mentality when it comes to work ethic. Why is that?”
