Face it guys, you're only famous for it among yourselves and in self-congratulatory articles in American magazines. It's propaganda. It's your version of the Soviet "worker hero", you want to see yourself as a nation of Stakhanovites and feel self-sacrificing and virtuous. Which is not saying that a lot of people don't work extraordinarily hard, but there are obviously lots who don't as well, otherwise it would be more than 5 minutes a day above the OECD average.

Well, there may be Americans who feel as you suggest, Baldrick, but most of the people I know who talk about how little time off they get are complaining about it, not congratulating themselves. 

Productivity is actually LOWERED when you overwork your workforce.  People need a reasonable amount of time off to perform at their best, not to mention to have fulfilling lives and functional families. 

Can't speak for anyone else, but I certainly wouldn't characterize European countries that have stronger worker protections and mandate holidays for their employees as lazy.  I view them as more enlightened than we are. 

Avoiding all the nonsense in this thread, yes Easter killed me. From Thursday to Monday very little sales. Yesterday picked up a little along with today, hoping things slowly get back on track.