PPB August 2019

Taking Care Of Business A mericans spend so much of their time working that it’s no wonder NBC’s TV series The Office, which portrays the daily lives of office employees in a humorous “mockumentary” style, became so popular. But the amount of time Americans spend at work is no laughing matter. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “American Time Use Survey” reports that Americans with full-time jobs spend an average of 8.89 hours at work on an average workday. More startling is this fact: the average person spends 13 years and two months at work in a lifetime, but only three years and seven weeks on vacation, says an article in HuffPost Australia. Those long work hours are characteristic of the American workforce. According to the International Labour Organization, Americans work 137 more hours annually than Japanese workers, equivalent to 17 eight-hour workdays; 260 more hours annually than British workers, equivalent to 32.5 eight- hour workdays; and 499 more hours annually than French workers, equivalent to 62.4 eight-hour workdays, or an extra two months of work. Desk And Of f i ce Pr oduc t s by Brittany Glenn Americans spend a lot of time at the office, which makes desk and office products an ideal choice for marketers. 28 | AUGUST 2019 | GROW