I think it's interesting that Americans wrote words with negative connotations, while the French usually wrote words with positive or neutral connotations.  Americans mentioned "hard", "boring" and "tiring" quite often, and also mentioned "research" frequently, as well.  I think that the attitude the United States takes towards work is more harsh and intense.  We like to overwork ourselves, while it seems to me that the French have a more laidback approach to work and value living well in addition to career success.  Since we, MIT students, were the ones who responded on behalf of Americans, that probably increased the occurence of "research" in the American responses since MIT is a research institute. 

Hillary Jenny

09.29.09

I noticed that the Americans had a very negative view of "work".  We thought of it as "stressful", "tiring", and "tedious."  This might be due to the long hours that Americans work and the feeling that work isn't really something we choose to do, it's something we have to do.

The French, however, seemed to have a very positive view of work.  They used words like "innovation" and "passionant" to describe work.  What aspects of work do the French think create this positive connotation of "work"?

The French seem to consider work to be a part of active living. They describe their work as 'passionnant' , 'motivant' and 'agreable', which indicates that they enjoy working, and enjoy the challenges that they face at work.

However, the Americans have quite the opposite opinion of work, they associate it with words like 'boring' , 'tedious' , 'grueling' and 'fatigue'. This shows that the Americans think of work as obligatory and a necessity, they do not enjoy their work as much as the French do, but instead think of it as difficult and tiring. This, perhaps is due to the fact that work-conditions in the USA are much harsher than those in France.

One similarity between the French and the Americans regarding work is that, they both seem to consider 'money' to be an important benefit from it, they use the word several times in association with work.

The predominant theme from both French and Americans was money, which implies necessity... though the American responses took the negative connotations one step further.

This is certainly an interesting topic for undergraduates though... as most have yet to work full time for more than a summer (while studying can be "work" one's studies is not exactly "employment"). I think the Americans fear work more than anything.

Je remarque que les Francais et les Américains ne voient pas le travail de la meme manière. Pourquoi?

One good reason is because we are studying at MIT and we usually overdo it working. For example, now it's 4.50am and I just finished my homework for tomorrow. (It's not like that every day, but still)

Additionally, according to the American Dream the more you work the more the benefits that you get. Therefore, they work nonstop in order to get benefits that they won't have the time to enjoy, because they will be working more... It's good that you have a positive idea of work. Probably, you found a better equilibrium between living and working.

Il est vrai que beaucoup d'américains, voient dans le travail, beaucoup d'aspects négatifs, alors que les français sont plus optimistes sur le sujet.

Mais peut-on vraiment expliquer ce phénomène? Personnellement, je pense qu'il s'agit plutôt d'une différence de culture, de mode de vie. Comme le dit Michalis, je pense que le rêve américain vous pousse à travailler toujours plus, afin de conserver cette vision de l'amérique. Le travail peut donc vous paraître pesant, ce qui expliquerais les termes "boring", "tiring" ou encore "stressful".

I'm curious as to what the difference is between 'argent' and 'salarie'.   When Americans seem to think about work, they think 'Money', but the French put what I understand to be 'salary' and not 'money'.  Is there a high importance on salaries in France?

Guillaume,

I would agree with Michalis, the USA has a culture that promotes "working for your bread". I feel that any benefits that you get in the USA, is by working for it. For example, I heard that education in France is free or highly subsidized, but in the USA, education is a privilege that people have to pay for. In fact, I think that for parents, the most expensive aspect in raising a child in the USA is to pay for their education. In order to get simple benefits like education, Americans mostly overwork themselves and leave very less time for leisure. This perhaps makes the Americans frustrated with their work.

I think that the intense work-culture in the USA is promoted by the fact that the country is a capitalist. Mostly businesses run the economy, and since their aim is to earn profits, they expect  their employees to put in all the effort to make this happen. People in the USA work 40 hours a week. But since France is a country with socialist ideals, I would assume that the work environment there is more to motivate the employees and keep them happy, and not as much to earn profits for the business, is this true? The French also have a much shorter work-week, isn't it?

Pour répondre à tes questions natasha, il est vrai qu'en france avant la durée de travail était de 39h par semaine et que cette durée est passée à 35h. Bien évidemment, comme le dit notre cher président, on peut "travailler plus pour gagner plus". Mais dans des secteurs comme le secteur hospitalier, les travailleurs attendent toujours le paiement de leurs heures supplémentaires de plusieurs années !

De plus, le fait de la gratuité des études en france donne une toute autre vision du travail.

Il existe encore une autre vision du travail qui n'a pas été évoquée dans nos réponses et ça me rassure ! En effet, dans nos banlieues, "grace" au système francais, les gens qui ne travaillent pas ont énormément d'aides financières, trop certainement ! Il n'est pas rare de rencontrer des familles où aucun des parents ne travaillent, et ils ne cherchent à travailler car avec toutes les aides qu'ils ont, ils gagnents parfois plus que dans une famille où les deux parents travaillent. Lorsque j'étais à l'école maternelle ou primaire, j'avais des amis qui étaient dans ce genre de situation : les parents ne travaillent pas, les enfants mangent GRAUITEMENT à l'école le midi, chaque enfant de la famille à sa propre télé dans sa chambre, ils ont toutes les dernières consoles, tous les derniers jeux vidéos, des supers voitures ..... Et moi mes parents travaillaient dur pour que l'on mange, qu'on ait deux télés en tout dans la maison et une console de jeux !!!!! Il est vrai que les aides financières dans le système francais c'est quelque chose de positif par rapport au système américain, mais cela entraine un changement de certaine mentalité qui est très nocif pour la société.

Ce que dit Alice est vrai, parfois pour certaines familles travailler rapporte moins d'argent que de ne pas travailler et percevoir des allocations (chômage, pour les enfants...). Car lorsqu'on travaille, cela engendre des frais supplémentaires comme payer une nourrice pour les enfants, l'essence pour la voiture ... Certains pensent que le système français assiste trop les gens. Mais d'un coté il est important d'aider ceux qui sont vraiment dans la pauvreté.

Est-ce qu'aux Etats-Unis percevez-vous quand même des aides de l'Etat ? Que pensez-vous de notre système ?

En effet la France la durée légale du travail est de 35heures par semaine, bien que cela est été un peu modifié avec Sarkozy.

Mais aux Etats Unis , la durée du travail par semaine est bien plus longue, sans vraiment avoir de limites. Comment les Amércains vivent t'ils ce systéme ?

Dorine,

In the United States, there isn't as much government assistance for the poor as there seems to be in France.  Its enough that some people can live on it without working, but they would never manage to own the newest things like Alice mentioned.  I think that most Americans agree with the idea of supporting the poor, but not if the poor aren't doing something to help themselves too.  They would never stand for a system that allowed people to live a life of ease on government support.

Julien,

I think a lot of Americans don't really feel like they have a choice about working long hours, especially if money is tight.  They will just do whatever it takes to support their families.  Also, many people are more willing to work over 40 hours a week because if they get paid an hourly wage, than they will get 1.5 times as much for the extra time that they work.

Natasha,

Je ne pensais pas que la scolarité aux Etats-Unis était si restreinte au niveau de son accès et de son prix. Nous pouvons donc nous estimer heureux de ne pas payer (ou de payer peu) nos études!!

Cependant, il ne faut pas oublier que les meilleures écoles francaises sont payantes (et très chères), cela limite donc leur accès.

Michalis,

Tu as dit que tu venais à peine de finir tes devoirs à 04h50 du matin!!! Je serai vraiment curieux de connaître les horaires de travail dans une journée "type" d'un étudiant du MIT !!

Guillame,

It's funny that you should comment on the typical hours of an MIT student.  Usually, students have between 2 and 5 hours a class a day, most often between 9 AM and 4 PM.  In the afternoons, students go to lab, sports, study or participate in group activities.  Later, we study all night.  Although we all haveour own schedules, the workload here is so heavy and demanding that we often stay up quite late.  I remember two weeks ago I finished my Thermodynamics homework around 5 AM, was able to talk to a friend from Dubai on my walk home since it was already afternoon for him, and then got back to my dorm to do my French homework until around 7 or 8 AM. 

This year is much better, however.  Last year, my friends and I had three assignments (problem sets) due every Friday, so as a rule we usually saw the sun rise every Friday morning while we were finishing.  Lately, I have been trying to keep better hours and sleep much more (go from an average of 5-6 hours a night to at least 7) because not doing so is very taxing and inneficient. 

All that said, I know people who sleep 8 hours every night.  I wish I knew how they did it. 

Jacqueline