Why young people just want to escape Greece

Greeks are considered to be the most stressed people in the EU. #Greece is the EU country with the highest weekly working hours. And it was only in July 2024 that the 6-day week was introduced instead of the 4-day week. Lots of glaring facts - but what's behind them? And how do young Greeks feel about it?

We met Kris. In this video, she tells us how she worked herself into the ground at the age of 24, what role the 2009 financial crisis has played and what that means for her and many other young Greeks.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - 01:22 Part 1: Kris and her many jobs
01:23 - 03:11 Part 2: Kris' current life & growing up in times of crisis
03:12 - 05:23 Part 3: What working in the hospitality industry has done to Kris
05:24 - 06:38 Part 4: Kris' life after quitting
06:39 - 09:35 Part 5: Kris' and girlfriend Niki's struggle & what that means
09:36 - 10:38 Part 6: What does Kris want for the future?

CREDITS:
Report: Nele Schmidt
Camera: Neven Hillebrands
Edit: Matthias Wolff
Comissioning Editor: Lukas Hansen
Voice: Madelaine Pitt

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[thanasisk]

I am Greek. I lived abroad for 20 years, came back. I feel sorry for Niki and her friend. There are two societies in Greece. A small society of the privileged, who have income without dependence to a private employer (e.g., those that have real estate, getting income from rents, those who have "connections" and are employed in predominantly public sector positions where they make money without significant effort and have lots of spare time) - for them life is far, far better than the average European, as you can literally work part time (or not at all), and still enjoy relatively cheap services, amazing weather, etc.. Then there is a much larger society that Niki belongs to which is the one that depends on an employer to make a living. Life for this society is hell, especially now that inflation has made everything much more expensive. This society gets taken advantage of, by the people belonging to the first group: low wages, no prospects of advancement, a lot of working hours. If you are Greek and belong to the second category leave; don't look back. Go abroad, make some money, then consider coming back later in life. If you are Greek and in the first category, then you are lucky, you will hardly find a better place, at least in Europe.

[Okolaa]

My family migrated to Greece in 1991 this kind of hardship was always there for us. I grew up in this country, and I can say with confidence that nothing has changed for better. What I see here is corruption, zero compassion for its people and zero organisational skills in management of this beautiful place.
Thank you so much for this video. This needs exposure !
Keep it up

[plonss]

The idiocy of the modern world. The people of the country many visitors come to for relaxation, are themselves the most stressed of the EU :(

[philipbagdasarian]

For people that think it's ok or a paradise. I used to work at hotels as a cook and i was working 7/7 days for at least 12~16 hours per day

[imaginethat]

The Greek people are so kind and hopeful no matter what they have to deal with.

[descendantofgreeksandroman]

I understand this video is made to inform young "modern people" about the situation in greece, based on the inderests of young "modern people". I would like to give you an historically based information about the situation in greece. Half of the g.d. income of greece (about 100bn) is collected as taxes from the half of the population of greece to be given as a reassured life long steady income to the other half of the population. That has as a result the "little paradice" of the one half to become the real hell of the private economy of the other half. There is no financial air to "breath" a serious private economy. So everything is based on light service jobs that offer cheap service products that have cheap salaries for the people. That is happening in greece for 50 year now. And is going to happen continuously until the end of the days. Whoever does not know that, does not know anything about the greeks and their way of life. Naturaly young "moder people", even the greek speaking ones, have no clue about that situation. Modernity is an enemy of the history (i.e. the knowlegde).

[Grk]

I may have missed what this young woman studied, but I think it wasn’t mentioned. One thing that Greece gets wrong is the insistence that everyone gets a university degree, no matter what that degree is in, without any applicability in the local job market, while certain skills are always in short supply and very well paid. Had she pursued a technology degree with programming, as she is doing now on the side, she would have been able to get a higher-paying job or even nowadays a remote job and stay in Greece. A degree ie in Sociology does not mean much in Greece’s employment market. I see a lot of friend having spent years and €€ to study something and then struggle, only to then do something completely different.

[lorrainevlambert]

It would be fine to do the study work in the day and have an evening job to supplement income, this is the norm for all students. Also in Greece, there is a complete lack of cleaning staff for Airbnb work or home cleaning, you can easily make 60 euros for an hour and a half to clean a small airbnb room. x 2 daily of those would be 2400 Euros a month. I'm living in Greece for 30 years...

[iosifd]

Living abroad as a Romanian, been the best choice of my life . I feel greek young people, in Romania is the same only public sector of working gets benefits, corruption, relations, and ties to any kind of political parties . Romania became a living hell, people keep leaving, and employers ask themselves why they cannot find people for work, meanwhile exploiting employees to the last drop

[leonatsiara]

If you have the opportunity to go abroad, it’s worth trying. You experiencing something different, and your view on life broadens. You gain knowledge, wisdom, see different cultures, different people, different way of life, struggle, more opportunities….. If you want to go back to Greece, you will go back as a different person, and you will see things you couldn’t see before.. Maybe you will find a place which suits you better, or maybe not.. Life is an adventure😊❤

[CarmelaAntolini]

Go girls, go! Don't lose any more time and quality of life.

[GreenStrHooligan]

Just leave the country now. If you speak english and habe a basic bachelor degree you can build in 6 months a much better life in countries like germany, netherlands, switzerland etc.

[peterbedford]

Escape to where? At least you had nice weather and family. The grass ain't greener

[Criminalchannel]

Here in Germany in most companies you can choose how many days and hours you want to work (between 3- 5 days) if you have a cheap rent you would survive with 3 weekly work days . Thats how I live. But life here is hard anyway specially the social one.

[ΨωλήΚαντάρι]

This is what we call "φασέα" in Greek. You find them in Navarinou and Thiseio!

[karmaandkerosene_music]

She worked with a 3 HOUR LUNCH and she couldn't take it. Then find out she's had about 10 different jobs and didn't stick with any of them because they expected her to work. Keep on complaining.

[tamaramadelin]

OK, Greece, but France is a disaster!! My kids are going crazy there and everyone seems on edge!

[dashong]

So Yanis Varoufakis is right. Greece is still screwed.

[manolios]

The thing that is not being discussed in this video is that, yeah while all these are true about wages and stuff,
there is something that they do not tell.
In Greece incompetence, lack of extra or any useful skills, lack of thirst to work extra for capitalism and corpos, and bad employees are not treated the same
as in other Western developed countries.
There are no assessments in public workers. Everyone is doing their stuff, with bad tempo and care, and go home paid those low wages they mention.
The same is starting to become true in many jobs in private sector.
So, wrapping all these, here in Greece we are never gonna advance further in tech and attitude, everything will crumble from time to time cursing governments,
but never ourselves, but we will remain in a relatively peaceful state of mind that a german, dutch, swiss, french, would never have.
We live with our incompetence, we know what is currently happening here, but we do not care, if we grab a cup of coffee and go out in the sun.
This is a recipe for failure sometime in the future, but it is what it is.

[Kujokouklos]

Kriss just get a scooter and sign up for WOLT. I was saved by that move and I am 55 and live in Athens. Forget about leaving. The most you hear about living abroad is a lie. Rent alone is a nightmare. You have not to pay rent, your GF works, what you need is to be the master of yourself. Just get a used scooter and do delivery.