Yeah, having worked with Americans I found they’re always “hard at work” and but actually no more productive. Presenteeism is a pet hate of mine. If I can get the job done in half the time, why do I need to stick around and pretend to work?
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It can cut the other way though. I found it a great place to get science done. I remember having a bright idea to fix a tech problem one morning, discussing it before 10:00 with my colleague and my boss, jumping into my colleague’s pick-up and spending half the day shopping for the parts we needed and then assembling the jig in the lab. We worked into the evening on it and the problem was solved before a late dinner. Even in my UK university sourcing the parts would have taken several days, and once I got into a government lab here the procurement process might have added another week to that. Readjusting to the slownesses when I got home was painful sometimes.
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I suspect science is a bit different to the corporate world. Different motivations.
In a recent survey it was found that 65% of Americans live from pay check to pay check . There is no resilience built in, So people come to work when they are sick and work ridiculous hours because of the culture of fear that pervades a lot of workplaces.
There is a huge ‘Live to Work’ culture in the US and far more of a ‘Work to Live’ culture ibn Europe
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I’m sure it is, but the culture did spread out at least as far as the service people we dealt with. The guys who shipped our fragile half-million dollar machine from San Diego to Houston were very ‘can do’ about it, as were the different guys we contracted in to lower it down an access well into our basement lab. When it turned out their forklift would have been useful at the bottom of the well, but it was too heavy for their crane, they were seriously proposing to disassemble the fork mechanism and take the safety cage off then drive what was left into one of the building’s elevators ! We talked them out of that.
True, but that’s the balance they choose, or at least have chosen in the ‘traditional’ past. They’re a democracy. They could do things differently if they wanted.
Well, they have just chosen “fuckery”. I guess we’re about to see how that works out.
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We elected Boris Johnson.
But only once.
So far.
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I didn’t.
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Me neither.
On that basis I think we have to conclude that democracy sucks. 
Which is ok, because Trump will try to end it. Dictatorships FTW.
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This is true, bit when the subject is broached amongst a lot of American employees they immediately think of the effect on the company rather than the benefit to themselves. The brainwashing goes deep!
Likewise the only party that might try and introduce legislation are the Democrats and they know how that will be viewed by the Reublicans and major donors Communism!!!
I can’t say I’ve broached it to ‘a lot’ of American employees, but the subject’s come up a few times in a few different places and the response has been as diverse as you might imagine. They don’t all think the same way any more than we do. It’s just that ‘on average’ their position is displaced from ours. You can call it brainwashing, but that’s unhelpful.Their position is no more brainwashed into them than ours is into us.
They take a pretty symmetric view of the employment contract. The employee commits to turning up at the workplace and doing what the boss asks them to for xx hours a week. Misfortune befalling them doesn’t excuse them from that . The employer commits to paying them yy dollars a month (and maybe other things - healthcare, pension, some paid holiday etc). Misfortune befalling the business doesn’t excuse them from that.
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Does for federal employees.
There are some exceptions, funnily enough the legislation that gives better rights to federal employees was pushed through by Trump
US employment culture really is fundamentally different to the UK - e.g. overemployment is still widespread, especially in anything in public service, as it mops-up the pool of people who would otherwise become homeless in a short time due to a lack of social welfare. That’s changing, and with it come the armies of homeless.
The British notion that short-order sackings are common in the US is wide of the mark, too. The US is intensely litigious, so anyone peremptorily sacked - no matter how richly deserved - goes straight to the specialist ambulance-chaser and drags their erstwhile employer through one or more extremely expensive court actions. When they talk about “sacked” they usually mean “paid a lot of money to fuck-off”. Again, I gather this is slowly changing.
I don’t think that is correct. To go to the courts you need for there to be a breach of contract.
There are very few employment rights.
Look up 'At-wil’l employment which is the default in nearly every state. It allows employers to terminate a contract with no notice for any reason that is not illegal.
The only illegal reasons are discriminatory not performance or business need reasons.
On the other side of the coin the employee can also leave with no notice.
Public sector employees have better protection as mentioned upthread
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Whilst they may view the arrangement in those terms, it’s abundantly clear that very few companies have any reservations at all about firing staff wholesale if the economics of it suits the board / stakeholders. They don’t even need to be in any financial jeopardy, just keen to make even more profit.
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