- These are important to your, you know, employees
to make sure that they actually have that work-life balance.
Germany, here we come.
- Guttentag
- Hey, I'm Emma. This is my co-host, Sam,
and today we're going to talk about the work-life balance.
And I know this might surprise you but
Americans are taking fewer vacations.
They're working longer hours.
Does this surprise you?
- Not at all.
I saw a statistic where it said
38% of American males are working 50 hours a week or more.
- Also, I see that Americans aren't using their PTO.
In fact, over half of Americans aren't.
This is paid time off. It's crazy.
You know what? I heard about France. I think I need to move,
cause they capped their work week at 35 hours a week.
Do you see how that would benefit you
and your work-life balance? 35 hours a week.
You work over 50 hours a week.
- I do. I would love to get more sleep.
And France also has about 11-13 national holidays.
Can you imagine just getting that off?
Not even touching your PTO?
- Also, I had a roommate that was from Germany,
and I learned - well, I learned a lot of things. (laughs)
- Hefferwisen
- Not enough German, but I did learn
they work 35 hours a week
and they have 24 holidays in a year.
- Germany here we come.
- Guttentag
- And Norway also works 35 hours a week,
and they were also ranked third best
when it comes to work-life balance.
Emma, did you know that they actually
have 48 weeks of paid paternal leave?
That's almost the whole year.
- Norway. Sounds like my kind of way.
- Babe, we're moving to Norway.
- Yeah, so here in the States, I know for single moms,
they actually still have to work 50 hours a week.
You know why that is?
- Yeah, because there's really no federal mandate
that says that you have to have paid sick time.
- Alright, Sam, so what can we learn from all of this?
- Good question, so, as a business owner, it's so important
to make sure you have the proper work-life balance,
and I can imagine it's hard
to not only even balance your life,
but even have enough balance for your employees.
- Yeah. Be sure to unplug. Get outside, and,
as I always promote, eat well-balanced meals,
get that exercise in, and that'll also help
with the work-life balance.
- Indeed.
- Alright, so one of my favorite tips to to give
about work-life balance is reach out for support.
That is definitely how I handle a stressful day at work,
is I rely on my friends. You know, go out, have a chat,
go for a walk, that's one of my favorite things to do.
I'm fortunate to live in sunny San Diego
where the weather allows walking every day.
Thank you San Diego.
So I go out, call up a friend,
like, "Hey, kind of had a rough day,
"let's go for a walk."
You get in nature, which another important thing, exercise.
This will increase your tolerance to handle stress.
And also be sure to catch up on those z's
another way to increase that tolerance
for the day to day activities and stresses,
and maybe fire alarms that head your way in the work force.
- (chuckles) And as an entrepreneur, it's important that you
do offer your employees paid time off,
and even bring up the conversation
about how important work-life balance is.
Even offer them one opportunity per month
as able to work remotely.
These are important to your employees,
to make sure that, you know, they actually have
that work-life balance.
- Yeah, and if you're looking at your calendar
and just looking at it stresses you out,
think about what you can do to prevent that.
Just say no.
You don't need to go to every activity
and take on every work task.
Just learn to balance it out. Divide and conquer.
- Yes, and another tip here,
don't contact your employees after work hours.
That's their time.
Respect it and they'll, of course, respect you.
- You hear that, boss?
That's a wrap. We just compared work-life balance
of other countries. Be sure to like this video,
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- Comment below and let us know,
what do you do for your work-life balance?
This is The Journey, see you next time.