Posted on 06/14/2012 6:05:07 AM PDT by EBH
The stereotype of the lazy Greek worker, putting in long hours but not producing much, and not declaring everything to the taxman, has dogged the country's efforts to get international sympathy.
And this cliché has permeated public opinion elsewhere. Greece is perceived as the least hard-working country in Europe by the British, the Germans, the Spanish, Poles and Czechs, according to a recent survey by Pew. Greeks who were surveyed pointed the finger at Italy as the laziest country.
Yet the picture is far from clear-cut. Greeks have less vacation time, and their retirement age is rising from the current average of 61 under the terms of the bailout.
The average Greek worker puts in 2,017 hours per year, more than any other European country. This is partly because there are more self-employed people, who tend to work longer hours, and fewer part-time employees to drag down the average.
There is also a problem with low productivity, particularly in the public sector, which employs around one-fifth of the population. Asked about the public sector, workers in the private sector mutter darkly about inefficiencies.
As the economic crisis deepens and the second Greek election in two months looms on Sunday, CNBC met plenty of Greeks who are belying the stereotype of laziness working without being paid.
Staff at the Henry Dunant Hospital in Athens are still working despite being owed five months pay. The hospital's new management team, parachuted in in February, has brought in a 15 percent pay cut - agreed with unions - but cannot even pay this until a tranche of financing comes through.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
The bitter fruit of communism on display!!!
That won’t last long..........
it makes sense that small business people and the self-employed would have to step it up triple-time to carry the burden of the bloated public sector
Fail-safe “auto-austerity.”
Workers on the bottom of an economic system don’t define ‘productivity’. If they did, every subsistence third world country would be considered ‘productive’.
Short and accurate, the Greeks have had a love affair with Communism for the entire Twentieth Century, and even flirting with Communism has serious and long term consequences focusing on utter poverty and massive deaths.
There is no proof yet that a society that allows Communism ever recovers to a point of human liberty.
Not to worry, the unions will save them..............
Workers on the bottom of an economic system don’t define ‘productivity’. If they did, every subsistence third world country would be considered ‘productive’.”
Spot on.
And rather politically incorrect....in other words, excellent post.
Reminds me of a sign an aircraft worker carried during the f’n jimmy carter years:
WILL BUILD AIRPLANES FOR FOOD
Wow. Five month without pay. It's amazing things aren't even worse there.
The Malaise!
Maybe jimmah carter, the ultimate DIMocRAT president, should go over to “help” them. He has experience with malaise (both in cresating it and in wallowing in it).
Who could have ever guessed?
During the current recession, how many gov’t workers have been let go in Greece? Answer that question and you will immediately get to the root of why Greece is a basket case.
What I want to know is if they are not being paid...
who is or how are they paying their bills?
that is the heart of the protesters. They are government workers. Government unions which have been broken as part of austerity.
The communists TRIED to take over post ww ii to 1951. They were beaten back militarily.
The fact any exist today was part of an agreement with Churchill.
There was the military junta, crony capitalists and socialists.
Remember greece is a tiny tiny one time zone ecconomy.
Are you all trying to tell me that when health care is FREE, the people delivering it DON’T GET PAID ?????
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