Europeans Aren't Lazy, They Just Have Priorities
Productivity and “Vacation Mania”
The French have a saying, “If working hard makes you rich, donkeys would be covered in gold.”
French laziness was a recurring punchline in Emily in Paris, a pristine fish-out-of-water story that’s as airbrushed as a Vogue cover shot. It was a “wind-down” watch for many people at the height of the pandemic’s demands on our attention. I’d be dishonest if I said I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoy leafing through glossies as I wait to get my hair cut.
For those who didn’t catch the show last year, the plot is simple. The 22-year-old marketing executive arrives at a Parisian luxury marketing firm her Chicago-based company has taken over.
She can’t speak French, and she’s constantly exasperated by her colleague's old world ways and laziness. All the beret and bread clichés aside, it’s the take-down of French working culture really riled up the French in the ensuing controversy around the show.¹
The stereotype of European laziness isn’t new by any means at all. I inhabit the “Old World”, a moniker which in itself feels like a mild insult. To some, this supposed laziness is really an outward symptom of decadence. Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, wrote that the EU is mired in an “indefinite pessimism”.
