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We often hear that the French like to work less than their European counterparts. They would be more in favor of the least effort than the Germans or the Italians. But the inhabitants of France are not as disengaged as we think, if a recent survey is to be believed.
For many employees, teleworking is synonymous with freedom. Going to a medical appointment or running a washing machine during work hours has never been easier. The counterpart is to start earlier or finish later, depending on everyone’s availability, to compensate for the lost minutes of work. Of course, some people take advantage of being remote to take long breaks during which they play online games.
But the French do not “geek” about their working hours any more than some of their European neighbors, according to a recent study by Solitaire.net*. The site studied the gaming habits during office hours of workers in four countries of the Old Continent, namely Germany, France, Italy and Poland. Over-the-Rhine stands out as the country with the highest number of gaming sessions recorded between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., with a total of 57,105. France comes in second place with 26,691 sessions during office hours, and Italy in third (21,302).
At first glance, these figures are not very telling. They become much more so when compared with the total population of each country. Thus, Germany remains the country where workers play Solitaire the most during the day, followed by Poland and France.
The lunch break, the privileged moment to “geeker”
When we analyze the gaming habits of each nationality in more detail, we see that there are several peaks of activity. During the morning, the number of Solitaire sessions gradually increases in all countries, except in France, where it explodes at 10:00 a.m. It’s a safe bet that employees in France take a break at this time, and take the opportunity to play a few games of Solitaire before getting back to their files. Unsurprisingly, lunch is the time of day most conducive to letting go – and therefore to online games – in all the countries studied.
After the lunch break, one would expect workers to refocus and not play any more Solitaire for the day. But that’s not the case. The number of recorded sessions increases continuously after 1:00 p.m. in all countries analyzed, which suggests a certain tendency towards procrastination.
Of course, these figures should be taken with a pinch of salt. Playing Solitaire is not necessarily a sign of laziness or disengagement. It is important to take breaks at work to regain attention and become more efficient. Those who sit behind their computer for long hours especially risk getting brain knots.
*This investigation was carried out using data from the Solitaire.net site collected in July 2024. They present the number of game sessions started on the site per hour, in several European countries, over a period of 28 days.