French Stereotypes, Truth or Myths? (5 of 7)

Laziness:

Wikipedia: The perception that French workers are prone to strikes and take a lot of time off has established a stereotype of the French being workshy.

“Idleness is the mother of all vices.” – Russian proverb

Another famous cliché… Looking at sheer numbers (same stats I used for my previous article *here), we can clearly see that this stereotype does not have much to stand on:

Among the most productive countries in the world, France ranks:

-         5th in terms of weekly working hours

-         5th in terms of annual paid leave

-         5th for productivity as well

Not only France is quite average in terms of time spent at work, but it is quite productive. Lazy you said?

Now, the stereotype is not all wrong because there’s one thing we excel at: Strike**!

We are the world champs: Yay us!

One got to wonder though, why does strike = laziness in the common psyche? The fact is, originally, striking always was a militant statement to fight for basic rights and better working conditions. I don’t think that many coal miners in the 19th century had the time or the luxury to be lazy, and knowing that they were not paid when striking, the consequences of protesting were dire (have a read of Germinal by Emile Zola, you’ll have a taste of what it was like).

Of course, some will argue that nowadays, French people go on strike for everything and anything – maybe, but most are probably fighting for what they believe is right and that is not laziness.

As a bonus, let’s have a look at what this lazy country contributed to the world ***(a very tiny sample actually):

-         The stethoscope invented by French physician René Laennec in 1816; imagine ER or Grey’s Anatomy without those?

-         Mayonnaise: what would be dip our fries in otherwise????

-         Braille reading systems for visually impaired people (louis Braille, 1824)

-         The Hair dryer originated in France (Alexandre Godefroy, 1888): no French, no blow-dry…

-         Pasteurization, the process that revolutionized food (louis Pasteur, 1864). Funny that lots of cheeses are still made with unpasteurized milk in France, simply because it tastes better ??

-         The Metric System (Academy of Sciences of Paris, 1700s), only 3 countries resist it still, even England uses a mix between metric and imperial now.

-         The Jet Engine (Rene Lorin, 1913), thanks Rene for modern Air Travel!

-         The Lumière Brothers invented cinema in 1895, probably never imagined how huge it was to become.

-         The discovery of radioactivity – 1896 by Henri Becquerel

-         Acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) was first prepared by the French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853, the first cure for headaches…

-         Camera phone (Philippe Kahn 1997), thanks for the selfies!... or not ??

-         Even in sports: modern era Olympics (if you ever wonder why all the announcements are in French on top of the local tongue), the Football world Cup (the “real” football – not the American nor the Aussie versions) and the Tour de France for instance… That being said we’re not so good at winning those, that could be another cliché if it wasn’t so true ??.

“English invent sports, French invent competitions and Germans win.” Unknown

-         And just for the pleasure of potentially start some controversy, Airplanes: Clément Ader’s Eole was the first manned airplane to take off under its own power in 1890, over a decade before the Wright brothers (1903) who in the end are the ones everybody remembers…

-         The first formalized national air force – 1909: L'Armée de l'Air, which coincidently offers me a perfect transition to the next cliché…

Sources:

*https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/productivity-happiness-other-statistics-jean-capdevielle

**https://www.statista.com/chart/20167/the-countries-which-go-on-strike-the-most/

***https://interestingengineering.com/45-of-the-greatest-french-inventions-of-all-time