The ranking of the 5 countries where you can enjoy both your personal life and your professional life

Have you ever felt like your professional life didn’t allow you to pay attention to your personal life? This might be more common than you think. And the vast majority of countries around the world have failed to find a balance that allows workers to enjoy their personal time and leisure and not think about work all day.

In this line, the BBC analysis a data series that includes reports from OECD and the Global Work-Life Balance Index 2023 from the company Remote and they came to the conclusion what are the five the countries who rank better, for having found this balance between working, but also living.

Would you like to move to one of them?

First on the list is New Zealand. Well, according to BBC analysis, Workers receive 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, 32 days of statutory annual leave and a statutory minimum sick pay rate of 80%.

And if that wasn’t enough, the minimum wage is relatively high, compared to the rest of the countries in the world.

According to Erin Parry, a Canadian worker who moved to the country after seeing the benefits it offered, said there is a “general culture that makes working more relaxed… “People’s main priorities are their family, their well-being, their leisure, their travel. »

“They really view their time as very valuable and valuable, and they believe that work is a means to an end, and that it’s not everything in your life.”

The dark side of this situation is that, according to the OECD, 14% of employees work more than 50 hours per week and, moreover, the country does not have work insurance in the event of unemployment.

Second place went to Spain because Its workers have 26 days of annual leave and, according to the OECD, compared to Italy and France, they devote a very significant part of their day to leisure and personal care.

Only 2.5% work “excessively” in paid employment.

However, according to European Union data, Spaniards work on average 37.8 hours per week (20 minutes more than the European average).

Additionally, they are known to take long lunch breaks which extend their work days until very late, but there is a tradition that on Fridays they have an “intensive day” and only work until 3 p.m. .

According to the OECD and Remote, In Denmark, only 1% of employees work more than 50 hours per week. On the other hand, the average spends 15.7 hours per day on personal time and leisure activities.

Furthermore, They tend to have flexible jobs, have different schedules, role models, and less physically demanding tasks. For example, it is normal that as part of their work schedule they can set aside an hour to go and exercise.

Also have 36 days of legal annual leave and workers receive 100% of their pay on days they are absent due to illness.

36 days of legal annual leave. These are the advantages that France offers its workers, apart from the fact that they can have an average of 16.2 hours per day for your personal time.

As seen in the films, the French enjoy their time and often relax, sitting in a cafe or outside, and not always accompanied, but enjoying their own company.

But the above varies greatly depending on the field of work. 8% of employees work more than 50 hours per week.

“I think the Italians invented the concept of work-life balance,” Andrés Uribe Orozco, a lawyer who now works in Rome after living in Colombia and the United States, told the BBC.

“People aren’t constantly running around like headless chickens trying to ‘work, work, work.’ »

According to the OECD, Employees who work full-time devote 69% of their day (16.5 hours) to their personal time and leisure activities. It is actually the country where workers have the most free time.

However, unemployment figures in Italy are quite high and average wages are lower than in other OECD countries.