That's just scary. It definitely shows how much culture can change/warp our ideas about existence. Although that few days off probably is a significant factor in heightened Japanese suicide rates.
In other words, quite a bit of those long work hours are absolutely useless.
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/count...
1) Labour productivity is measured as the _average_ output per worker, i.e. total output divided by total number of workers. It does not measure the _marginal_ output of an additional worker (i.e. the derivative of output with respect to number of workers).
2) Labour is not the only factor of production. There is also land, financial capital, technology, etc.
3) Haircuts in Norway cost more than haircuts in South Korea. Is a South Korean barber less productive than a Norwegian one?
1. Median household income (which should mostly be wages and not land, financial capital, technology).
2. Divided by purchasing power parity (to normalize for different prices in the country).
3. Divided by average hours worked per week for households with median income.
This is however assuming that if an employee gets paid X (in purchasing power parity) for their work, then their generated value is some linear constant of X. I don't know how to compensate for the scenario where this is false.
Here it is in the last 2 years falling compared to USD and EUR.
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=NOK&to=USD&view=2Y http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=NOK&to=EUR&view=2Y
I.e. I hear 12 days off and I shrug. I hear 18 hour workdays and never seeing your family and my jaw drops.
I think if I worked 20h weeks, 0 days off would be okay. You never get THAT burned out over a week that the weekend can't cure you.
But if I worked 80 hour weeks, I would need 30 days off per year to stay long term sane.
I definitely felt that dread in the past though, but don't think that is how it has to be. There are great roles out there!
On the bright side, I'm a shift worker, so I get to take holidays whenever I want, no questions asked. It's bundled in with my PTO, except it doesn't roll over if I don't use it. As a result, your first seven days of PTO are "holidays."