Paris: More French people than ever are saying they can’t be bothered to work, or even go out of the house, the media reported.
The study from the French Institute of Public Opinion (Ifop) claimed that France is stuck in a ‘laziness epidemic’ after Covid 19, with 37 per cent of people saying they are less motivated to work than before, Daily Mail reported.
The level of Gallic apathy has shot up in large part due to working from home, with Covid-era policies causing a labour shortage in hospitality, teaching and nursing, Daily Mail reported.
France’s furlough scheme, one of the most generous in Europe, saw far more people take up furlough than in the UK — in a sign that new habits sometimes die harder than old ones.
The policies caused a ‘exhaustion and laziness epidemic when a part of the French want to slow down’, claimed the study, according to The Daily Telegraph.
More than thirty years ago in 1990, around 60 per cent of French people said work was very important to them.
But now, that figure has sank to 21 per cent, with approximately 41 of French people saying leisure time is very important.
In an unsurprising twist, leftwing supporters of Jean-Luc Melenchon are more than twice as likely to say they do not want to work compared with more conservative voters, such as those who lean politically towards Emmanuel Macron.
But it was Macron’s furlough scheme, described as one of the most generous in Europe, at which the study pointed the finger, Daily Mail reported.
France paid 100 per cent of the wages for furloughed workers on minimum wage during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the UK paying 80 per cent across the board.
The French deserve a ‘right to idleness’. That was one of the claims made by Sandrine Rousseau, a Green MP, this September, when speaking at the Fete de l’Huma, a leftwing festival in Paris, Daily Mail reported.
She said working hard was ‘essentially a right-wing value’, and said taking breaks was far healthier than the alternative.
IANS