Both sides agree that it is hard. hard.

Salut,
je pense aussi que le travail est quelque chose de difficile et qui
peut paraitre ennuyeux par rapport à notre vie étudiante forte en
activités, en découverte et en divertissement, mais on retrouve aussi
dans nos réponses communes une idée de valorisation du travail
(challenge,rewarding, fierté, accomplissement,...). La force des mots à
connotations négatives (boring,long hours,ennui,fatigue,...) que l' on
retrouve dans les deux séries de réponse, montre que nous aimerions
rester étudiants et peut-être aussi que nous appréhendons la vie
professionnelle. Dans vos réponses, je trouve plus de relations
directes avec le monde de l'entrepris. Ce qui me fait penser que vous
êtes plus sensibilisés au monde professionnel durant vos étudesm est-ce
vrai? Combien vous reste-t-il de temps avant de travailler?

Gilles

Américains
et Français s'accordent pour dire que le travail est plutôt pénible,
dur et ennuyeux, même s'il peut aussi être une source d'épanouissement,
et qu'il est également nécéssaire. Beaucoup le relient d'ailleurs à
l'argent. Toutefois, les Americains lui associent plus souvent la
notion de temps (late at night, long hours). Par conséquent, je me dis
que vous vous sentez peut-être aliénés par votre travail, vous qui
justement attachez une grande importance à votre liberté personnelle.
Avez-vous l'impression que le travail d'un individu le contraint à des
sacrifices trop importants, du point de vue de la famille ou des amis
par exemple ?

This
is the comparison that I found most interesting. In America, we think
that we are the hardest workers in the world. (Some Americans who have
been exposed to the Asian culture might put Asians first and Americans
second.) Most educated Americans would not think that it is out of line
for a boss to ask his employee to log 60 hours per week. (I say
educated because I believe that such a work ethic resides mostly in the
fraction of the population that has completed university.) America was
founded on the principle that one has to work for success, and many
Americans use brute strength to achieve success. My father, for
example, goes to work at 4 a.m. and usually does not return home until
11 p.m. He is very tired at the end of the week and usually spends his
weekends sleeping so that he can get up and go back to work the
following Monday. He flinches when my mother asks him to take 5 days
off for Christmas because he knows his project is going to need him
then.

In all of the French movies that I have watched and in the
French classes that I have taken, the same crazy work ethic does not
seem to exist in the French culture. I have always been led to believe
that the French value their families and their personal lives as well
as their success in work. Therefore, they work 35 hour weeks and take
most of August as holiday. Yet, les eleves associate "fatigue" with
"travail" while MIT students do not. Why? Is it that my perceptions of
the French businessworld are really wrong? Do students like yourselves
work way over 35 hours a week when you get out of school? Or are the
jobs in France so terribly boring when compared to the excited French
life that 7 hours a day is tiring?

I
think a big difference is how we define a good job. In my opinion,
americans more often associate a successful career with a bigger house
in the suburbs, an SUV and mutual funds. In contrast, at least in
Greece, a good job is one that allows someone to take long vacations
and provides enough money for a comfortable but not luxurious life.
That aside, isn't it true that the 35-hour week is practically bankrupt
in France? Isn't it hard to maintain such a work ethic, when people in
other countries like India and China are willing to work 60 or 80 hours
for half the salary?

It
is easy to see that both sides find work to be difficult, but I got the
impression that the French saw work as more interesting than a burden
while the Americans mainly saw work as a burden. Why is this? What
would you say is the work ethic of the French?

I
wonder if our responses to this prompt have more to do with the schools
we got to than the cultures we live in. At MIT, there is a very strong
culture of work. People boast about how little they've slept and how
much work they have left to do. I know the majority of my conversations
with my classmates consist of a comparision of our homework loads and
worries about our next assignments. This, however, is not the norm for
American college students. Can the same be said of the École?

I
agree with Jenna: Students at MIT seem to value hard work a little too
much! Sure, one needs to work to be successful but often times people
forget how much more important it is to have a successful personal life
outside of work. I have personally found that this truly the case at
MIT for a large proportion of the student body. Whatever happened to
the good old 'work hard, play hard'? I hope that students at l'ecole
have a better sense of how to balance their lives!

Salut,
en réponse à Jenna et Katja, je voudrais dire que les choses sont très
différentes à l'Ecole Polytechnique. Ici il est plutôt facile de
valider les cours sans trop travailler (je parle de validation car,
pour l'essentiel des élèves, il est juste important de passer d'une
année à l'autre) car la sélection a été faite lors du concours d'entrée
à l'Ecole. Nous pouvons donc profiter au maximum des activités offertes
sur le campus (sport, associations, fêtes, ...) tout en gardant un
niveau correct en cours. Notre vie sur le campus est assez idéale sur
ce point.

"work
hare , play hard"? Je ne suis pas d'accord avec cette perception. Quand
nous travaillons beaucoup, nous reposerons d'abord, et le temps qui
nous laisse à jouer devenira très peu. Le plus important, c'est trouver
le plaisir dans le travail. Comme ça, quand on travaille, on joue en
même temps.

60
à 80 heure pour moitie de salaire? Tu as trop exagéré. Nous somme pas
encore si cons. Nous travaillons beaucoup pour survire dans la société
remplie de concurrence.

Pour
ma part je pense que nous voyons différemment l'adéquation entre
travail et loisir. Je ne sais pas pour vous mais il est clair que
lorsque je réfléchis à mon futur métier, j'essaye de trouver un
compromis satisfaisant entre boulot et loisir. Il nous faudra
travailler dur pour réussir mais je sais que je vais éviter certains
métiers car ils demandent trop de travail! Attention, le travail ne me
fait pas peur, mais n'ayant qu'une seule vie, je me vois mal la gacher
en bossant toute la journée sans profiter de mes amis et de ma famille.
Comment envisagez vous ce rapport entre travail et loisir pour vous
plus tard?

In
response to Gilles, I think that for most Americans, the ideal
relationship between work and free-time would be one like the French
have (or that I have gathered that you have). They would like to go to
work for 35 or 40 hours a week and come home to have fun with their
family or their friends. They would like to be able to play golf during
the week and watch all of their children's soccer games.

However, in America, many believe that hard work leads to
success. And, since Americans place such a high priority on succeeding,
most Americans are willing to give up most things for a higher position
or salary at their job.

Most students at MIT had to work very hard to get here. And
most have to work pretty hard to stay here. All-nighters (when one
stays up all night to finish homework) are pretty common here, and a
lot of students put the development of their hobbies on hold because
they simply don't have time for them. Because we are already so used to
this kind of lifestyle, I would dare to say that most MIT students will
work 60-80 hours a week to achieve success. They will work hard, and
they will benefit greatly from their hard work, whether it be personal
satisfaction at a job well done, a high position in a company, or a
salary that will make their family more than comfortable. They will
marry and have children, but their spouses will say "I do" with the
knowledge that many days he or she might eat alone because his/her
partner is still at work at supper time.

As for me, I plan to be a doctor and work in developing
countries, mostly with Medecins sans Frontieres. You can imagine that
the more time a doctor spends treating people the more people she is
able to help. I imagine that I will work very long hours because my
passion is to help people, to help the most people that I can. My work
will hopefully turn into my hobby, and my family will hopefully
understand and support me.