[GeorgeM]

The Economist, 24th Sept, gives comparative figures for average working hours per employed person.

NZ is the highest of the countries quoted, but is almost identical to the US, Australia, Spain and Japan on about 1,800 hours per annum.

The Dutch and Norwegians do the best at about 1,375.

Britain appears to be about 1,650.

The graph shows separate bars for 1990 and 2004. NZ has gone up very slightly since 1990. (The only other country to show an increase was Sweden which after the increase is still below 1,600).

UK working hours appear to have declined significantly in this period - in 1990 they were very slightly less than NZ.

[StevieD]

George I always thought that the kiwi mentality was in early, off home early, is this true??

[Avalon]

I wonder - is this contracted hours or hours actually worked? I ask because I know in the Uk a working week is often 37.5 hours on the contract but is often 50-60 hours in fact. Here its 40 hours on the contract - so it would look bad, but certainly for us, that is the actual hours worked - so its a lot better.

[GeorgeM]

George I always thought that the kiwi mentality was in early, off home early, is this true??
That's certainly the case where I work, and it suits me as I've always preferred it that way.

Means that I'm no longer the only one in the office at 8 o'clock in the morning, and also that I don't feel guilty leaving just before 5 to go and get a life outside work. There have been times when I've left at 5:20 and mine has been the only car left in the car park (out of an office of about 40)!