The average work week in Greece, the poster child of the PIIGS countries (explained forthwith), is longer than ours, and it’s about to get longer.

During the period 2009–2014, there was a European debt crisis that particularly ravaged the economies of Southern European nations: Portugal, Italy, Ireland (not southern), Greece, and Spain.  Essentially, lenders demanded higher rates for their excessive sovereign debt.  With unwieldly deficit levels, the PIIGS struggled to finance their budget deficits due to paltry economic growth. 

Greece, in particular, not only instigated fear of financial contagion, but was perceived to be riddled with corruption.  The Greeks’ economic plight took flight due to unsustainable spending sprees, but workforce laziness and unproductivity also contributed.  Indeed, Angela Merkel, and Germans in general, complained of Greek laziness while insisting they embark upon an austerity program.

But now it turns out they work harder than us, or at least longer than us, generally speaking.  Per the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, average annual hours worked per worker in Greece in 2023 was 1,897.  In the United States, it was 1,799.  (If the 2023 OECD data table doesn’t render properly, the data, through 2022, can also be viewed here.)

Americans were once known as work martyrs, but it seems that under Biden’s socialistic malaise, Greek workers are now outworking us.  And the data represent a period before Greece recently implemented a 6-day work week.  The fact that workers and Greek trade unions are up in arms  suggests that Greece’s pro-business government is doing the right thing.  They’ll be widening the gap even more now.

There are noteworthy pockets of vibrancy in our private sector, especially in industries building A.I. doohickeys, and the computing resources and networking infrastructure to support them.  However, Biden’s malaise seems to have cascaded through the ranks of unproductive government workers.

While many government workers are essential (we’re grateful for them), others are “pigs” who have burrowed themselves into mud-filled wallows in the administrative state.  Now that SCOTUS, in the decision overturning Chevron, has curtailed federal agencies’ agency, they’d better get their bloated beings back to the office.  They’d better strive for a newfound, Greek-like work ethic, as envisioned by their ruling conservative party, which is led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Here’s why: per the GAO, federal agency headquarters were operating at less than 25% capacity.  That stark fact is a main reason for bipartisan legislation to get federal workers back into the office.  The goal is to discourage work from home and encourage more work from work.  

That shouldn’t be a novel concept.  After all, employees onsite can more easily and readily mentor, train, and be more productive and collaborative (though collaboration manifesting as liberal groupthink and bandwagon bias is a scary thought, I admit).  The facility underutilization is perplexing, given the bloated government payrolls — you’d think they’d be squished into office cubicles, like obedient little bureaucrats.

The Labor Department just released its jobs report for last month.  Once again, they drastically revised lower the jobs created in the previous month, an ongoing trend in their overestimations — they’ve revised almost all of their reports lower (after Biden claimed credit, of course).  But government job numbers keep inflating.  No wonder the Greeks are working, on average, more than us.

Per the Labor Department, government jobs last month were once again outsized contributors to the ephemeral job gains.  That’s problematic because those workers insist that telework is essential to “remaining a competitive employer.”  To repeat: We’ll need less of them, given the Chevron ruling, so that ought to allay any exaggerated concerns over recruitment and retention efforts — and alleviate the need to lure workers with overly generous telework perks.

Economically unstimulating social assistance jobs represented the largest increase in June, no doubt benefiting from the government-spending boom.  One doesn’t need to wonder why, as the illegal aliens consume precious American resources.  

Even in the private sector, our work ethic seems to be somewhat diminished.  Disruptive workplace phenomena, often masquerading as pleasant-sounding work-life balance initiatives, will not help us catch up to the Greeks.  These include innocuous-sounding things like quiet quitting (essentially, disengaged employees doing the bare minimum) and “bare minimum Mondays” (the name says it all!).

Eventually, A.I.-guided algos, bots, and autonomous robots may dislocate the workforce, perhaps allowing for even more leisure time.  In the meantime, given our debt levels and exaggerated job creation reports (except in non-productive sectors), it’s disconcerting to see an old PIIGS country like Greece outwork us.  

Then again, following a landslide election victory, they are led by the pro-business New Democracy party.   Now the Greeks have gumption.

By contrast, we are misled by the leftist new Democrat party. 

It is anti-business, and disproportionately influenced by Squad members who’ve mastered “lazy girl jobs.”  Socialist-cum-Progressive squad members like congresswomen AOC, Tlaib, Pressley, Omar, and Jayapal — lazy girls all — would rather influence via TikTok than work hard.  Pro-business programs and policies are all Greek to them.

Image via Picryl.