The picturesque Kingdom of Bhutan, nestled between China and India, is widely known for its unique approach to economic development — prioritizing its Gross National Happiness over GDP.
In practice, though, many Bhutanese workers have little time left for the pursuit of happiness. The tiny country tops the ranking for the average number of hours worked in a week.
According to the International Labour Organization, Bhutanese employees work an average of 54.4 hours a week, far exceeding the 38-hour average in the US.
Bhutan also has the world’s largest share of employed people working more than 48 hours a week, the data said — the level the World Bank considers overwork.
That covers 61% of Bhutan’s workforce, the ILO said, compared to 13% in the US.
Long hours, little rest
It might come as a surprise — the small Buddhist kingdom is often viewed as a tranquil paradise of mountains and temples.
Bhutanese workers challenged that impression, telling Business Insider that they feel compelled to spend most of their waking hours on the job.
According to the World Bank’s report on Bhutan’s labor market, published earlier this year, overwork is particularly prevalent in the country’s private sector, especially in family businesses, construction, transportation, and hospitality.
A couple of hours into working overtime, 22-year-old Ten Choezim joined a video call from the kitchen of the hotel where she works in Thimphu, the capital.
Choezim and other workers in this article gave their real names but asked that their workplaces not be identified for fear of retaliation.
She told Business Insider that working beyond her contracted 12-hour shift is normal for her. She often hits 16-hour days and regularly clocks in a 112-hour week, she said.
Once, she said, she worked a 16-hour shift pattern for three weeks without a day off.
“I had aches, back pain, my legs were sore,” she said. “Mentally, I couldn’t speak well.”
Though she often feels exhausted by her work, Choezim saw few alternatives.
“After some time, I got used to it,” she said, noting that she wouldn’t be able to afford to live there if she worked any less or left her job.
Many Bhutanese are leaving the country
Although Choezim said she enjoys living in Bhutan, her intense workload has made her consider leaving for better pay and working conditions.
“Our country is peaceful and all, but when it comes to work, it is heavy,” she said.
Her sisters have already joined the exodus of young Bhutanese, moving to Australia. She said she feels obliged to remain to care for their parents.
In his State of the Nation address in July, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay said that about 64,000 people — around 9% of the country’s population — have migrated, mainly to Australia.
He described it as an “unprecedented existential crisis” that could hinder the country’s development.
Kalyani Honrao, an Asia analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Business Insider that Bhutan is caught in a vicious cycle.
She said the mass departure of skilled workers created to a “brain drain,” leaving employers unable to fill skilled vacancies.
As a result, she said, the burden on those who remain increases, leading to them doing the “heavy lifting.”
Meanwhile, according to Honrao, there is a huge supply of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, which makes workers easily replaceable. “People try to do their best to stay employed and accept overwork as normal,” she said.
‘It’s just enough to sustain me and my family’
According to the World Bank, the main reason given for overwork in Bhutan is that the job requires it. The second biggest reason is that workers need more money.
For Namgyal Dorji Wangchuk, 43, both apply.
He told BI he works up to 90 hours a week, including unpaid overtime, as a sales and marketing professional at a hotel.
To supplement his income, he occasionally takes extra hours as a freelance consultant.
His hotel job requires him to work six days a week, often with late-night shifts. It brings in about $361 a month.
“It is just enough to sustain me and my family,” he said. It covers rent, bills, and some costs associated with raising two teen daughters. He said he has little, if anything, left to save.
As a parent, he said, balancing his demanding work schedule with family life is a constant challenge.
Most days, he’s home too late to see his children before they fall asleep. “So, just once a week I get a good time with my family,” he said. “Otherwise, mostly, I am mostly working.”
The long hours often leave him feeling exhausted and irritable, but he said they are necessary to provide for his kids.
The reality of working in Bhutan
Bhutan’s innovative Gross National Happiness index, introduced in the 1970s and enshrined as a national goal in the constitution, aims to take a holistic view of development.
It values the population’s well-being and happiness alongside, or even above, traditional economic indicators.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País this month, Prime Minister Tobgay said the framework takes into account measures like how the population uses their time, which he said is crucial to “find out whether it’s balanced, if you’re sleeping enough, how you manage work-life balance, etc.”
Meanwhile, Bhutanese employment laws aim to codify these occupational standards by establishing an eight-hour workday, mandating rest breaks, and entitling workers to overtime pay at a rate equal to or higher than their regular wages.
But Honrao of the Economist Intelligence Unit said these labor laws are rarely enforced, and semi-skilled and unskilled workers tend to put up with violations for fear of losing their jobs.
Bhutan’s Department of Labour did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Business Insider.
‘A job is a job’
Bikash Sharma, 46, is a supervisor at a company that exports construction materials near the Bhutan-India border.
He told BI he usually works 12-hour days, six days a week, but is only paid for an eight-hour day.
“It’s not fair enough, but what to do?” he said. “A job is a job, and you can’t just get another job very easily.”
He added: “It’s very difficult, but we have to feed ourselves and our family.”
Sharma said that sometimes he is so exhausted from work that he just wants to “run away somewhere and hide.”
However, despite these fantasies of escaping, he has no intention of leaving Bhutan.
He said the kingdom’s low crime rates, absence of war, tranquility, and the comfort of being with his family surpass other considerations.
Instead, Sharma is trying to embrace Bhutan’s guiding philosophy — finding greater value in sources of joy other than the size of his bank balance.
“We are not very rich, ” he said, but “we are happy.”
He added, “I do wish my standard of living were just a little bit better.”
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