Bernard Meyer lives along with his spouse and two daughters in Lithuania.
Bernard Meyer
Bernard Meyer moved to Lithuania from the U.S. simply over a decade in the past — and says he is discovered one key life lesson dwelling within the nation: the right way to have higher work-life stability.
Lithuania, positioned in northeastern Europe, was named the world’s happiest nation for younger individuals within the 2024 World Happiness Report, and the nineteenth happiest nation general.
After rising up in Miami and going to school in Indiana, Meyer moved completely to Lithuania’s capital metropolis Vilnius in 2012 and nonetheless lives there along with his spouse and two daughters.
The 39-year-old, who’s a senior communications and artistic director at advertising and marketing automation platform Omnisend, stated he is observed a profound distinction between work tradition within the U.S. and Lithuania — the place individuals get pleasure from a extra “relaxed” and “slower tempo of life.”
“I believe the work-life stability is one thing that’s controllable inside every individual,” Meyer informed CNBC Make It in an interview.
“So at 5 or 6 p.m. when individuals flip off, they go away, they usually go chill on the bar in the event that they’re comparatively younger or even when they’ve children, they take the children they usually stroll across the metropolis.”
“There is a sense of really having fun with your life now whilst you’re nonetheless younger, whilst you’re nonetheless succesful, I believe that is one thing that they [Americans] can be taught simply to understand,” Meyer added.
‘Learn to have … extra of a life exterior work’
People are recognized for being work-obsessed which may end up in a tradition of overwork and burnout. Comparatively, Lithuania ranked because the 11th finest nation for work-life stability in 2021, based on the OECD.
“Personally, I am not in opposition to 25-year-olds or beneath 30s who’re spending 12 hours a day at work, as a result of it is a interval when you are able to do that. However when you get previous that stage, it is best to learn to have a bit extra of a life exterior work,” Meyer stated.
“When you’ve got household, a very powerful factor might be your loved ones since you’re working at a spot the place in 5 to 10 years, whenever you’re gone, nobody goes to care that you just had been even there, however your loved ones does,” he added.
Nature — and holidays — are essential
One motive individuals in Vilnius get pleasure from switching off after work is the abundance of “inexperienced areas” within the metropolis, Meyer famous, and in addition how walkable it’s.
After work, “persons are relaxed … they’re within the streets just like the Previous City, they usually’re simply strolling, or on the scooters, or simply sitting at a restaurant,” he stated.
“Right here, they grew up in an setting the place nature is essential,” he added. “They grew up appreciating nature so that they have a metropolis now that may be very nature-focused. Meaning they’ve this cultural, important need to be with nature, they usually discover it right here in order that makes them comfortable.”
One other key distinction he has observed between Lithuania and the U.S. is how individuals really feel about taking holidays.
“I bear in mind once I was within the U.S., I by no means had a trip and I by no means knew anybody who took trip willingly,” Meyer stated.
Nonetheless, he now discourages his group at Omnisend from engaged on the weekends or on holidays.
“One factor I inform them, which I believe may be very European, is that we do not work within the emergency division within the hospital. There’s fires however there’s all the time fires, it doesn’t suggest it’s a must to hand over your trip,” he stated.
