Countries with a long average working time are more economically successful than those countries which do not have a long working time. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Since the dawn of civilization, it is perceived that longer working hours contribute to better economic success. As a result countries believe that it is better to work longer hours. In this essay, I will argue why I completely disagree with this preconceived notion. Working for greater number of hours doesn't necessarily means increase in productivity. In fact, after working for long people often feel burnt-out and this consequently causes their productivity to deteriorate over an extended period of time. A recent study by the University of Frankfurt found that extended periods of working has no net gain for the country and sometimes it can even result in negative outcomes. Hence, it concluded that 7 Hours a day is an ideal time for a maximum outcome, anything greater than may not be beneficial. Thus, overall employee efficiency reduces after certain period of time. Working for shorter hours a day has some economic advantages too. Counties with fewer working hours tend to perform better as a consumer market. In other words, when people are not working they tend to spend their time shopping around. This increased economic activity tends to boost a nation’s GDP. A recent survey in Norway concluded that simply by reducing the working hours by 1 hour, a nation can boost its GDP figures by 5%. This is especially true in countries like Japan, for instance, where people tend to work more than 12 hours a day. This extreme work culture coincides with weak consumer demand in the country. To conclude, longer working hours leads to loss of productivity and lower GDP figures due to reduced consumer demand.