Perhaps the most notorious habit of American workers is their tendency to work long hours.
A Gallup report from 2014 estimated that the average full-time worker in the United States works 47 hours a week, one of the highest figures in the world, and significantly higher than the rates in Western Europe.
For example, in Europe, the Working Time Directive gives employees in the European Union the right to work no more than 48 hours a week. In practice, employees in some countries, like Germany and Sweden, work closer to 35 hours a week, according to Cary Cooper, an American-born professor at Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom.
Craig Storti, author of "Communicating Across Cultures," said Europeans consider the typical American workload an ineffective use of time.
"Europeans see that as being inefficient," Storti told Business Insider. "They say, 'You should have finished that in the allotted time.'"