Les 35 Heures

If you were working in France some time ago, this was the best thing for you as an employee : Les 35 heures!

The working hour was reduced from thirty-nine to thirty-five hours in France sometime in 2000.

This didn't mean all workers suddenly stopped an hour early every day. Companies negotiated with their employees and introduced policies to work it out. Some firms settled on 5 seven-hour working days, others gave a half-day off per week, or a day off every fortnight. For example, some people will leave office earlier everyday, some will work half day on a certain day and others will get additional off-day once every two weeks.

Try to phone an office in France on Friday afternoon, and you'll get the feeling of the thirty-five working hours in France :)

It seems the thirty-five working hours really work in France. Even the new law introduced by the government of Nicolas Sarkozy to revert to thirty-nine working hours is being met with resistance ... from employers.