Opinion: In Ireland, people work to live, but too many Americans live to work. What explains the differences in our cultures?
I am an American who lived and worked in Ireland for many years. I grew up in an Irish American neighbourhood, where "that will be grand" was a frequent expression and a cup of tea was a solution to many problems. When I came to Ireland, much was familiar, but there were many important differences between the Irish and Irish-Americans, or Americans in general.
In Ireland, people work to live, but too many Americans live to work. If you ask someone in Ireland to tell you about themselves, you will probably find out what county they are from, what sports they follow, and even their position on Ireland's most closely-fought controversy (Lyons vs Barry’s). Ask an American, and you will immediately find out what they do for a living.
Americans suffer from "workism", a condition in which even free time is tightly structured to support the working day. Americans take fewer vacations than Europeans, and they often fail to take the few paid days off their contracts allow. None of this is likely to be news; the workaholism of Americans (and Japanese) is well known. What is less well understood is why. What explains the differences in our cultures?
From The Atlantic, Work is the New God
First, it is useful to distinguish between work engagement and workaholism. Some people truly enjoy and are truly engaged in their work. They are doing things they find meaningful, interesting and fun. Cole Porter once said "work is more fun than fun", and there is every indication that he truly enjoyed and was absorbed by his work as a composer and performer. Workaholics do not necessarily enjoy their work (they sometimes hate it). They just can’t stop.
There are many explanations for American workaholism, ranging from deep cultural factors (belief in Capitalism, Protestant Work Ethic) to weak legal protections for workers (American law does not, for the most part, require employers to provide vacations, sick leave or paid holidays). But there is one explanation that can be effectively ruled out – i.e., that Americans work more out of economic need. Until recently, the rich and those employed in the highest-paying jobs worked the longest hours, and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk still revel in tales of how they sleep on the floor of their office, treating this as something to be admired rather than a character defect.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, Why do we work?
I think the most compelling explanation for American workaholism is that we are a country of immigrants, and often quite recent immigrants. Every nation in Europe has stories of the foundation of their nation and society, and while these often involve people coming from far and facing significant obstacles, these stories are also rooted in the dim past. By comparison, America was founded by large numbers of immigrants arriving relatively recently (in comparison to Europe), with many of them coming in a short window of time. The first great wave of American immigration came between 1820 and 1880 (the U.S. population grew from 9 to 50 million during these years). Those 60 to 100 years carved the character of the American nation.
Immigrants who came to the U.S. during this first great wave often came with little, and were fleeing desperate situations, and this situation forced immigrants to work very hard for often minimal rewards. Like many before and after them, the wave of Irish immigrants in the 1840s through 1870s often became more American than the Americans. Irish brigades fought with panache and bravery in the American Civil War, and the outstanding exemplar of American patriotism in the late 19th and early 29th Century was George M. Cohan, whose grandparents emigrated from County Cork, and whose life and work were celebrated in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy. Hard work was as central to the lives of Irish immigrants as it was to the Germans, Italians, Russians, etc. who came before and after them.
American actor and playwright George Cohan in "Little Johnny Jones" 1905. Photo: Getty Images
There is considerable evidence that both first and second-generation immigrants to virtually any country have a strong work ethic. This probably had a stronger influence on American culture than on some other countries because such a large proportion of Americans are within a generation of two of coming to the U.S. as immigrants. A strong work ethic is, however, both a blessing and a curse. It helps get things done, but it also makes it hard to turn off the need to work off. Disengaging from work is simply something that Americans have not mastered. To be fair, immigration is not the only path to workaholism; the Japanese are similar to Americans in their tendency to live for work rather than working for a living, even though immigration is virtually unknown in Japan.
One of the many sad trends in the second Trump Administration has been a concerted effort to drive immigrants (documented or undocumented) from the U.S. Ironically, the ham-handedness of the Trump immigration crackdown has probably contributed to growing support for immigration in the U.S. Although the steady stream of anti-immigrant rants from right-wing media might suggest that America’s long-standing image of itself as a nation of immigrants has faded, almost 80% of Americans believe that immigration benefits America. In the long run, immigration is likely to continue to fuel the productivity and economic welfare of the U.S., but it may also help to sustain what many believe is an unhealthy orientation toward work. If only we could take a break!
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
