The working time for office, factories and others have different working time,which also vary from country to country. For example, Europeans have less working time than Asians. We know that hardwork bring success for any nation but everyone have a limit for their working ability. No can can work beyond their own flashpoint. In my personal opinion country with long average working time is not benefited that much in economy.
Despite of just working each person has some basic need, that included sound sleep,eating and some leisure time also. Without fulfilling basic requirement no one can work efficiently for a long period time. So the most of the time will be wastage for them and also for the nation. We human can give concentration and hand a work skillfully for a certain period of time which will be also best for a nations betterment. We all have a threshold level that we can not break even if we want to.The nation that give extra pressure for working will gain only negative result. Ultimately they will not gain that much success that they want.
Here is also one things that different continental’s persons have different ability for their weather differences. So, some of the nation’s people can work more time efficiently than others. For those types people long average time will be economically advantageous. As example, Northern countries are more successful than southern ones, because cold weather made people tougher than warm weather.
For working time a nation mainly should focus one their people’s ability for doing work.They should choose a certain amount of time that their people can tolerate.
To conclude, I think that saying is not rational because no human being can work for a long period of time in a skilled way. Everyone has their own carrying capacity and after that they can not give much effort to any kinds of works or activities.