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What The Average Workday Looks Like Around The World

Weird History | November 4, 2025



Often, the typical workday doesn’t resemble anything we imagined during our school years or witnessed on TV and in film. The daily grind can become mundane; hard work doesn’t always get noticed or rewarded; lunches turn into quick bites of sandwiches while we work from our desks; and long commutes have us drained by the end of the day. Then, embarrassing mistakes and awkward interactions with coworkers leave us wishing we could have stayed home.

Do people around the world experience the same discomforts? These familiar yet less-than-desirable experiences led us to wonder what it’s like to hold a job in other locales.

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#work #workday #weirdhistory

Written by Weird History

Comments

This post currently has 34 comments.

  1. @rossi1606

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    I was working in Kuwait and it was definitely different having the Thursday as a Friday. Especially when you have to work over there and still report back to the US. So that means it would be Tuesday before we actually got an answer from the US on our part.

  2. @some_dude1234

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    That thing about Finland work hours, is just not true. In my every work place, the thing has always been full 8 hours minus two 12 minute coffee breaks, and lunchtime, you dont get paid for 1/2 hour or 1 hour. So to be precise, work time is 7 hours and 36 minutes

  3. @belenconapellido2677

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    I love your videos, guys. ^^
    But I've been living in Spain for more than 20 years and I have never heard of hours at work to take a nap. They do like to take naps ("siestas") but on their days off.

  4. @besticudcumupwith202

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    …as a Canadian who's never not worked less than 12 hour shifts, I call bullshit.
    I've NEVER seen a job that DIDN'T involve 12 hour shifts. Most times with a 1-2 hour commute each way.
    Then put in extra shifts sometimes.
    That's 60-72 hours/wk (no ot pay) plus 10-20 hrs drive time (unpaid).
    40 hr/wk job? 😂

    Don't know where he gets his info, but it's definitely not from Canadians.

  5. @davidsalvador6031

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    Most things regarding Spain where I live have changed the last decades. Finishing hour is either 5PM or 9PM depending on the job type and there's rarely if ever permission or time for a siesta, and lunchtime is also rarely more than 1hr long wherever and whatever your work or job is

  6. @andyjaeger45

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    The part for Germany is only mostly true for office workers….in construction work, welding or mechanic work we mostly have a little luch pack or we sometimes go to a "Imbiss" wich is like a diner but smaller where Burgers, Döner, Currywurst and sometimes normal meals are on the menu. And for the overtime part….it's only true oftentimes for cashiers or office workers but for construction workers, welders or people who work in restaurants like cooks and waiters we sometimes have no other choice but to do overtime it's expected that you do this. For example if you are a construction worker and have to build something it's always on a very tight schedule so its more often than not that you have to work 10 hours a day to get it done in time. So it's very dependent on the branch of work you do in Germany but overall it's like that.

  7. @truckerrespect7797

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    8:30 to 5:30 with a 30min lunch 😂😂😂
    I’m a local class A truck driver hauling trash for the good people of Maine. Because there are so many wasteful people in this day and age I start my day at 2:30 am usually and work until around 5 to 6. Saturdays I work around 5 to 7 hours. So when you think working 8 or 9 hours a day isn’t fair, remember you can kiss my donkey

  8. @munchcat

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    I still remember our state was just a few months away from inacting paid paternity leave when I gave birth. Employees had been paying into it that entire year, yet we got none of it x.x That entire year, he did everything he could to save up the 2 weeks of PTO so he could use it after I gave birth.

    On top of that, my employer moved me from a full time site to a part time site. Allowed me to keep the insurance, but despite working at the full time site for years and begging them for more hours, I wound up being paid for maternity leave at the rate of the part time site.

    On top of all THAT, I had complications during childbirth, and was barely out of the hospital by the time my partner had to go back to work. By then I had held and helped our newborn for a grand total of many 2 hours? And my partner STILL couldn't get anymore time off.

    If it wasn't for my ma and sister-in-law both flying from out of state to help, I don't know what we would have done. And thank goodness for FMLA. It let me survive while on the mend, and gave time for my partner to find a job that paid better with better benefits.

  9. @flatplant

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    I guess that Canada thing is just an average.. maybe taking into account unpaid lunch breaks. Personally I've never met anyone here who works less than 8 hours a day, not uncommon for people to work more than than honestly.

  10. @ScarletCandlelight

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    Wow I sadly work way more for way less then Japan. My dad's side if from Japan he had a strict house and we speak Japanese. Maybe I should go there. Everyone tells me it's disabled friendly, their is care available for my conditions, they are open minded there, the work load isn't as bad as what I go though here and the laws are not bad. Ya some spots here or there not the best but I feel if I lived there with someone I knew I would feel fine there.

  11. @nvkeerthana760

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    It should be noted that these stats are true only for formal jobs. Atleast in India, most of the jobs are in the informal sector, and they don't get the benefit of paid leaves.

  12. @jumanahsalama394

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    We have 5 working days in Saudi Arabia and the 5 prayers a day break is not accurate; 1 prayer is in the AM before work and usually only two prayers fall within working hours and it's considered within your 1hr break entitlement (that you may spread out however you like). Most working hours are 8am to 5pm and most women drive nowadays or use drivers / taxies, I know you'd prefer to spice the video up without this information. Finally, most Saudies work and are now heading towards Saudiziation which means decreasing the number of expat workers and replacing them with Saudi workers so portraying the video as if only expats work and a few saudi men is really silly

  13. @T-Thurb08

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    Working in the mechanical trades service industry in the US is so busy and short on labor, it’s becoming a very toxic work environment. The work just piles up and employers expect it to get done meaning not one field tech just works 40hrs. And if you don’t voluntarily work insane OT regularly, it affects your pay raises.
    This is non union, definitely see myself going union here soon to actually have workers rights.

  14. @TheOneAndOnlyTeknocat

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    Not sure where you get your info about Canada, but all my life living and working in Canada I have never heard of anyone working less than a 7.5 hours in a day usually. There are exceptions of course. But even a 7.5 hour day is with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break on top of that usually. Labour standards in most provinces specify that 8 hours per day or 44 hours per week is the maximum people can work before being paid overtime. So that means they can have you work up to 4 hours of the weekend for regular wage. Unionised positions can have different rules, of course, where hours are often less and/or there are more breaks. If you have an 8 hour work day your lunch break is still outside of that, so your day is often 9 hours long between starting work and ending your day.

  15. @TrueFireForest94

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    Like I say for year. The US is a failed state. It's a joke the the richest Country in the world treates their imploees like this and all the wealth is accumulated on a few ones.
    Yeah the so called land of the free, where you are free to treat people like slaves, and that idiots even think it is just that they don't get there basic needs covered. Such a joke of a country.

  16. @SkyBlue-qn8me

    November 4, 2025 at 5:30 pm

    I would never work in Japan. There's no way I'm going to be forced to be with co-workers after hours after working a full day with them and not get paid for it.

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