[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/07\/16\/french-vs-american-work-cultures\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/07\/16\/french-vs-american-work-cultures\/","headline":"A tale of two work cultures: French vs American outlooks and realities","name":"A tale of two work cultures: French vs American outlooks and realities","description":"When it comes to work, America could learn a great deal from the way the French approach it.","datePublished":"2024-07-16","dateModified":"2025-03-07","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/erin-mcclure\/#Person","name":"Erin McClure","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/erin-mcclure\/","identifier":571,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/350198e015c327a46efaef374889a289fdd9d6a767e86f4cdfe9b2fc117bbdb4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/350198e015c327a46efaef374889a289fdd9d6a767e86f4cdfe9b2fc117bbdb4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/french-vs-american-work-culture-FTR-2.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/french-vs-american-work-culture-FTR-2.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/07\/16\/french-vs-american-work-cultures\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/employee-engagement\/","name":"Employee Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Employee_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q14937678"]},"Employee Experience & Engagement","Real Talk: Mental Health, Well-Being, and Laughter",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/hxm-human-experience-management-solution\/human-resources\/","name":"The Future of Human Resources","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Human_resources"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/thought-leadership\/","name":"Thought Leadership","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thought_leader"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/thought-leadership-2\/","name":"Thought Leadership","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thought_leader"]}],"wordCount":1392,"keywords":["Employee Experience","Employee Mental Health","Future of Work","Workplace Culture"],"articleBody":"With Paris playing host to this year’s Summer Olympic Games, all eyes are on the French. The U.S. and France have had a fraught and complicated relationship for centuries, but we Americans can’t deny France’s hold on sophistication and aspiration. Fashion, cuisine, champagne, wine, perfume\u2026 if it’s French, it’s synonymous with luxury.But how exactly are the French paying for all this opulence? Especially given what else they’re famous for \u2013 an early retirement age and (mythical) 35-hour workweek?American and French work cultures are practically polar opposites. Americans, known for being workaholics (although perhaps not because they want to be, but rather because they have to be in order to survive), tend to think the French are lucky, lazy, and apathetic towards work when the truth is they do care. A LOT. That’s why they’re quick to rally around and strike on behalf of mistreated employees. They know racial discrimination is bad for business, and they’re working to increase access to skilled jobs and the overall employment rate for women and other marginalized groups.The fact is, France is one of the “wealthiest economic powerhouses on Earth,” thanks in part to a diversified economy of tourism, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals. They’re No. 7 in the world for GDP and one of the top-performing countries in the world since the pandemic.All this reveals an unavoidable truth: when it comes to how we work, Americans could benefit greatly if the government adopted a perspective or two from the French. Here are a few work culture lessons:Set \u2013 and keep \u2013 boundariesLunch is a verbVacations are reveredGenerous retirementsWork to live, not live to work1. Work cultures: Minding boundaries like a (French) bossIn 2017, France made workers everywhere do a spit-take by enacting a law to protect workers from after-hours communication. Known as The Right to Disconnect, the law is intended to protect employees from being overworked and prevent burnout (which, in case you haven’t heard, is quite costly for businesses). Enterprises with 50 or more employees must define when “office hours” begin and where they end so that bosses don’t overstep.In other words, not only is it forbidden for your boss to contact you in the middle of the night or over the weekend, it’s actually illegal.Contrary to popular belief, the French are notorious workaholics, but they still scratch their heads over Americans’ inability to “unplug” from work during after-hours. For Americans, an ever-present pull to be faster, stronger, and better is baked into our work culture. That may be why work-life balance can feel like more of an elusive ideal than a standard of living.2. French lunch culture (cries in American, “what’s that”)?It’s not exactly groundbreaking news that the French, known for haute cuisine and Michelin stars, take lunch breaks seriously. Just how seriously? They tend to frown upon eating at your desk, and lunches can last for hours.Employees’ work meals are subsidized, and companies must either have a cafeteria available for employees to use or provide meal vouchers (“ticket restos”). Widely accepted by restaurants and some grocery stores, the vouchers are generally good for $9 each. Some restaurants will offer prix fixe meals for the exact cost of the vouchers.Care to wash your meal down with a glass of wine? Pas de probl\u00e8me! It’s socially acceptable to imbibe during a French workday.3. Vive la vacances!If going on strike is almost a French national pastime, then vacation is a close second. All of France is entitled to five weeks of paid vacation time to spend whenever and however they choose each year. They also get time off for national holidays.Findings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Better Life Index for Work-Life Balance reveal that the U.S. could improve quite a bit in this area. While France is second only to Italy in time spent on leisure activities, the U.S. ranked significantly lower.Since long work hours can impair personal health, jeopardize safety, and increase stress, leisure time is necessary to stay healthy. The OECD findings acknowledge that government and business leaders should play a more prominent role by encouraging a supportive and flexible work culture in America.While lots of companies offer generous PTO policies and say they want employees to take care of themselves, why is it so hard for employees to take time off? While well-meaning policies offer part of a solution, American workers are conditioned to view long periods off (i.e., more than two weeks) as overly indulgent.      Break the cycle of professional burnout: Meet the Chief Wellbeing Officer                \u201cWe lock up our homes, we lock up our cars... but when it comes to boundaries for our personal well-being, we just give it away. You know: just come in, take it, and rob me.\u201d The chief wellbeing officer is a new, much-needed role to tackle the growing challenge of professional burnout.      4. Retirement benefitsWhen President Emmanuel Macron told French workers that they\u2019d need to clock in for two more years before retiring (they still have one of the earliest retirement ages in the developed world), protesters took to the streets.In France, retirement is more than just a stage of life. Introduced at the end of World War II, the country’s pension program was intended to heal a fractured country through financial interdependence.Disagreements in the country around the retirement age persist, but France has a very generous pension system and only 4.4% of retirees live below the poverty line, compared to 51% in the U.S. and an average of 62% across all other OECD countries.5. Work to live, not live to workThe adage about working to live is at the core of French work culture. They center their lives around their families and personal lives, and work is just a means to that end.Unlike most Americans, the French don’t see their career as their identity, and they will rarely talk about what they do for work when they’re out at a party or social event. If you ask, you may offend someone. That’s not to say the French don’t value ambition or hard work\u2013 they just don’t think it’s their most engaging quality.For Americans, it’s a little more complicated. Work is non-negotiable because it\u2019s tied to our health insurance, and then as a result, becomes our identity. Interestingly, the wealthier and more educated a country is, the fewer hours they work … America might have some rethinking to do:This content is hosted by a third party ( www.tiktok.com ).To view the content, either update your cookie preferences or view it in a new browser window.Cookie PreferencesNew WindowWork cultures and self discoveryNot having a job feels equally as defining, as I learned this past spring from losing mine. It felt like a referendum on my value as a human being because someone I used to work with in an office had deemed me \u201cunnecessary.\u201dWhat immediately became apparent to me was how much of my life I had been sacrificing to keep that job. My mental health, family, and marriage all suffered, and I shrugged it off with \u201cCan\u2019t always have it all!\u201dSince entering the workforce 20 years ago, this is the longest I\u2019ve been without full time employment. But instead of spiraling emotionally, something else happened. I started to enjoy my life again. I revisited my local library and checked out a stack of (French) books. I caught up with neighbors and friends over coffee in the spring sunshine. I rediscovered my creative ambition and finished writing a book. I literally stopped to smell the flowers in my garden.No country\u2019s workforce and work culture is perfect, and no one is more aware of this truth than the French. Demonstrations against “Macron et les patrons” (Macron and the bosses) continue and the country has an uphill battle to fight against discrimination in the workplace.However, it’s worth noting that nearly 75% of French workers have consistently expressed satisfaction with their work, compared to 51% of American workers who say they\u2019re satisfied with their job. Food for thought, n\u2019est-ce pas?  Support work-life balance with a modern employee experience.Get started HERE.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2024","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"07","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/\/07\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"16","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/\/07\/\/16\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"A tale of two work cultures: French vs American outlooks and realities","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2024\/07\/16\/french-vs-american-work-cultures\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]