Maintaining a best work-life balance is often seen and understood as key to a healthy lifestyle and mental health.To find out which nations or countries have the best work-life balance, we’ve reviewed the 2023 Global Life-Work Balance Index by human resources tech company Remote.

Its report looked at factors such as paid annual leave, sick pay and maternity leave. It looks at how many hours employees work and how much time they spend on recreation and self-care.Here are the conditions for the top five countries, with New Zealand at the top.

New Zealand

New Zealand tops the ranking in this regard.There is paid maternity leave of 26 weeks (about six and a half months). While the minimum wage here is higher than in other countries, employees get 32 days of annual leave a year and at least 80 percent of their salary is paid during sick leave.

Erin Perry, who lives in New Zealand, says that the overall culture rather than any particular policy dictates where it’s easy and comfortable tobest work-life balance. Erin works in an advertising agency and is from Canada.

I did not know that such benefits can be found in employment.When he visited New Zealand in 2015, he felt that his past was from a different perspective. And then she moved there permanently in the same year. They say that to a large extent this country has fulfilled their expectations.

However, it is also true that New Zealand is not perfect in every way. OECD data shows that 14 percent of employees there best work-life balance more than 50 hours per week. That is ten percent higher than the average working hours in OECD countries.

And they spend slightly less time on personal care than the OECD average. In countries covered by them, 14.9 hours per day are spent on personal care (such as eating and sleeping) and leisure (including spending time with family and friends, pursuing hobbies and watching television).

According to Perry, there are some government aids that are offered in other rich countries but not here. For example, workers’ compensation insurance is not provided by New Zealand in the event of unemployment, while childcare costs are high and rising.

In addition, there may be defects in the habit of working in a complacent manner. Perry said: ‘If you’re trying to do something and you have an urgent need, it’s too bad for you. Don’t even talk about the month of December because nothing really happens during that time. People don’t even respond to emails.

But Perry says New Zealand’s culture is hard to beat when it comes to work-life balance. He said that people’s main priorities are their family, their health, entertainment, travel. They really value their time and believe that work is just a means of living and not your whole life.

Spain

Spain ranks second in the index of remoteness. There is 26 days statutory annual leave. Meanwhile, workers in Spain spend more hours of their day on leisure and personal care than in neighboring Italy and France, according to OECD data. While only 2.5 percent of employees have to best work-life balance overtime.

This comes as no surprise to travel writer Isabel Kliger as she has lived in Sweden, the UK, Ireland and more before arriving in Barcelona in 2010.

But this is not the case in Spain. “You meet people here and they don’t immediately ask you what you do,” she explains. Maybe if you went straight to someone for a drink after work, they might say ‘I had a bad day’ and then within 10 minutes they’d be talking about something else. are.’

Yet you can hear people in Spain say they best work-life balance very long hours, she says. Some of this is because working hours have changed. Earlier, the working day was traditionally around 08:30 to 13:30 but you would have a break for a couple of hours and you would be finished by 7 to 8 in the evening.

But Qilaule’s behavior has been declining for years. As a result some workers are unable to take an afternoon break but still stay late at the office. To counter this change, in 2016 the then Prime Minister of Spain made headlines by announcing that he wanted to see the working day end at 18:00.

Yet recent EU figures show that Spaniards work an average of 37.8 hours a week, 20 minutes more than the European average. In companies that still have a long lunch break, there is a common Friday tradition called Jornada Intensiva, which means you work until three and take the rest of the day off.”Ultimately there is a culture that has its priorities in order,” Kliger says.

Denmark

Few people understand the benefits of Denmark’s work-life balance more than Helen Russell. She wrote a book on living in Denmark for a year and has now lived there for more than a decade.

He said that I worked as a journalist in London for 12 years. I worked longer hours. It was a busy day. With commuting in London, there was often little ‘life’ left in terms of best work-life balance. We took it for granted. And then we moved here.’

She says that, among many other things, she noticed that there was a clear line between ‘work’ and ‘life’. He said that ‘work starts at 08:00 and people usually turn off their computers at 16:00.’ , so everyone, even those without children, finish their work.

He said that the time between 16:00 and 19:00 every day is dedicated to the family and the family is together. You might answer some emails after the kids are in bed, but otherwise you’re kind of done for the day.’

This means that even people without children are allowed to allocate their free time and hobbies with the same priority that parents give to their children. You can definitely include in your diary ‘I must go to the gym’ or ‘I must go to the badminton club.

This preference for work-life balance is what the OECD and Remote Rankings jointly found. Only one percent of Danish employees work more than 50 hours a week, much lower than Italy (three percent) or other countries’ averages (10 percent). They devote 15.7 hours per day to personal and leisure time, which is higher than the OECD average.

France

According to OECD data, people in France have 16.2 hours per day for personal and leisure time, second only to Italy. The country ranked third overall on Remote’s list for best work-life balance. In particular, it leads in terms of statutory annual leave (36).

Sarah Macko, a Canadian entrepreneur and freelancer who moved to Paris in 2021, says that in fact, even in a busy city like Paris, locals prioritize time away from best work-life balance.

According to him, ‘French culture promotes a sense of relaxation and comfort.’ . There is a preference not only to drink coffee with friends or colleagues, but also to drink coffee comfortably alone.

However, he says it also depends on the industry and role you are working in. Micho did an internship in the fashion industry where his working hours were from 10:00 to 19:00 and many other people would be going home at that time. In fact, 8 percent of employees in France work more than 50 hours a week, below the OECD average of 10, but still higher than many other developed countries.

France’s prioritization of arts and culture funding, along with its emphasis on a culture of work-life balance, makes a difference, Miko says. He said: ‘It also helps balance your busy work life. On metro you see ads for expo etc. It gives you more of a sense of having a life outside of your job.’

Also there is flexibility in working hours. Indeed the country’s flex-job scheme, in which workers can request different working hours, patterns or even less physically demanding tasks. This practice was started in the year 1998.

The country also offers 36 days of statutory annual leave, the most among wealthy nations, and requires workers to be paid 100 percent of their wages for sick days.

Italy

‘Al dulce fer niente’ is a famous Italian phrase which means ‘the joy of doing nothing’. I experienced while living in Rome, Italy that this is not just to say, but in reality. Andre Uribe-Orozco, who now works in Rome after living in Colombia and the United States, agreed with me, saying, ‘I think the Italians invented the concept of best work-life balance.Don’t just live in the tune of ‘work, work, work.

OECD data shows this. Full-time employees spend 69 percent of their day, or 16.5 hours, on personal care and entertainment. This is 1.5 hours more than the OECD average.

It is the country where people have the most leisure time, according to the OECD. In Italy, only three percent work more than 50 hours a week, compared to an average of ten percent in these countries.

“People think Italians don’t work,” says Uribe Orozco. Not so, but Italians best work-life balance a lot. They are very productive. They do what they have to do, and they do it quickly so they can enjoy their coffee longer.

Of course, there are also many drawbacks. For example, it has higher unemployment and lower average salaries than OECD countries. Italy also fares high on the remote’s work-life balance list. It ranks 22nd in aspects such as overall happiness index and LBBTQ Plus inclusion in Remote’s index.

A lack of a bustling culture can affect day-to-day performance. When I was in Italy it took me at least an hour to go to the post office, and any bureaucracy to renew permits etc. took at least half an hour, so I counted that as leisure time. But started taking and I started to enjoy the Italian saying ‘the pleasure of doing nothing’ and the use of these times came to me that I learned to enjoy these kind of occasional things.