I had to take a break from work as I felt exhausted after reading a list of the most hard-working nations prepared by an international organisation.

My work mostly revolves on sitting in a comfortable chair, sipping innumerable cups of herbal tea, surreptitiously snacking on peanut butter biscuits, ‘Facebooking’, and ‘researching’ material for various, useful things I write about.

I believe I am a hard-working person, though I come from a place that is known for its laid-back attitude to work and where the concept of time and deadlines is legendary and can drive most people crazy who are not used to such ‘chalta hai’ (anything goes) attitude.

Anyway, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) had this a of countries whose people are supposed to be diligent, industrious and a disciplined lot. These people work for really impressively long hours and spend 1,500 hours a year at the workplace.

Breaking down the figures I found that Mexicans top the list of nations whose people work the longest hours. Every week they work 42.85 hours, which works out as 8.57 hours a day.

Americans are supposed to work 40 hours a week, but many work much harder and actually clock in 50 hours a week. For some reason they also do not take the paid time off.

According to another study, the Japanese are real workaholics and Tokyo is thinking of making a law that forces workers to take vacations. The long work hours are leading to a low birth rate, psychological and physical issues. The Japanese have coined a word for it, ‘Karoshi, death from overwork.

Working longer hours

I am not sure if this news is correct, but it seems that France may ban workers from answering emails from their bosses after working hours for the sake of their mental health. Why I think this news is incorrect is because no boss uses email in this age of instant messaging.

According to the list, the Italians and Turks work harder than the Germans and the Swiss. The Japanese work longer hours than Canadians, the Irish and Icelanders.

The Germans seemed to be the happiest of the lot, barely putting in 26.37 hours per work week. Some businesses in Sweden, incidentally have moved to a six-hour week!

I am not sure if the OECD was only looking at working habits of its member countries, but I felt it was biased, as there was just one mention of an Asian country and nothing from the Arab world, where the populations are young and at their most productive.

The only one Asian country on the list was Korea, whose people clock in 40.85 per week or 8.17 hours a day. (The OECD by the way, is a 30-country member organisation that is committed to a democratic government and free market economy).

That’s a bit unfair because I know people who work really long hours in Dubai and the UAE and are really hard-working individuals. A journo told me he works from 11am to 11pm, that’s a record-breaking 12 hours a day. He seemed happy though that he does not see daylight and spends most of his working hours indoors as the weather turns nasty in summer and the temperature climbs.

Now I hear that the Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1997 and are between 18 years and 34 years of age) are going to change the workplace.

These guys have been brought up with technology and know they can work from any place and do not need to be tied to a desk. They want flexible hours and feel their contribution should be judged on productivity not on time spent at the office.

As a freelancer I feel I am much ahead of the Millennial work ethic.

Mahmood Saberi is a freelance journalist based in Dubai. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ mahmood_saberi.