A possible cause of the UK's low productivity?

I've not posted for quite a while and part of the reason for that is that I've been away on holiday. This year, I went on a very special holiday at that: Ecuador. Not that I wanted to see Ecuador per se. No, what I really wanted to see was the Amazon Rainforest, before it disappeared. (Let's hope that eventuality never comes to pass!)

So, I saved up over the years and when I wanted to go, I couldn't. The bloody virus stymied [hindern] that idea and I ended up going two years later than planned.

Anyway, I travelled with a UK company and there were 15 of us in the group: 11 women and 4 men. One man and one woman were a married couple originally from India; one man was the father of five who had brought one son and one daughter with him; then there was one English man and the rest were all single women (including me).

It was the third time I had travelled with Exodus Travels and I cannot praise them enough. The holidays I've had (Syria & Jordan in 2009, Mongolia and the Naadam Games in 2015 and now Ecuador in 2023) have been excellent, the organisation superb and the guides well informed. I cannot fault them. I'm even saving up for one more trip with the company. 

However, one thing that annoyed me on this trip were all the toilet stops we had to make. I think we had to stop every hour or so. It was SO frustrating. These women seemed to have no ability to stay away from a toilet for any length of time. I've never come across people like that - not on the previous trips with Exodus and not on my day-long walks with my walking group.

Imagine 40 women on a day-long walk having to disappear behind a tree every hour. There are so many walking groups in this area of Germany, the area would smell to high heaven!

Basically, all these toilet stops made us consistently late. Take the last full day, for example. Instead of having lunch at 1:30, we had lunch at 4:30 p.m. instead, much to the annoyance of one of of the two local guides with us. And this meant that we didn't get to arrive in the last town of the tour in daylight, so we didn't get to see it in all its glory. 

Now, if these women (one in her 20s, the rest in their 40s, 50s and early 60s) have such weak bladders, maybe this is why UK productivity is so low compared with the rest of Europe - even lower than the productivity of the French, with their 35-hour week. They are 17% more productive than the British.

It's no wonder, I suppose. If you spend 10 minutes every hour running to the toilet and then another 5 minutes getting back on the bus.. I mean... getting back to your desk, then your toilet breaks take up two hours of an 8-hour working day. Add to that tea and coffee breaks, chats with colleagues, cakes on people's birthdays, lunch breaks and 'meetings' in which nothing really ever gets decided or done, then there's not much time left to work before you're putting your coat on and wishing your colleagues a good evening.