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Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

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Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

#3
Hardly surprising, and probably positive for many Spaniards, but it still makes me a little sad that every country is converging on a very similar way of working.

Globalisation makes it inevitable, of course, but does Monday-Friday, 9-5 really make sense? Why not 8-6 Monday-Thursday with a three day weekend? We developers are often lucky that we can dictate our own hours and experiment with this, but I'd be fascinated to see an entire nation adapt to it and see the effects.

Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

#4
This is also part of Mexican culture, sort of. In Mexico City, we would break for lunch around 13:00-14:00 and just take our sweet time, no pressure at all to go back into the office. The workday would end around 18:00-19:00. I think this has its pro and contra, you get a nice big break in the middle of the day, time to enjoy your meal, but also you end up staying in the office way too late. Commute times of one hour are not unusual in Mexico City either, so your whole day is basically gone on the job.

Note that eating schedules may also be different from the Anglosphere. It took me a while to get used to a light meal around noon and a heavy meal around 17:00, which seems more common in the US and Canada. In Mexico the big meal of the day is around 14:00 and you might have a lighter meal, almost a snack, around 21:00 before bed.

Going home for lunch to eat with your family is a bit of an old-fashioned custom in Mexico, but I hear some people still do it. None of my coworkers in the tech sector did, though. We were all mostly young too.

Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

#5
post #2

This makes sense. In the village I grew up at a lot of people walked home over lunch and came back to work two hours later. This was great but with commutes it doesn't make sense.

Yeah, the people I know living in Spanish villages are usually working 40-80 Kms from home. It's not just the time, but the waste of gas and pollution from making extra trips, it's just not feasible.

Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

#6
It depends on the type of work but in general it seems the most fun to have more flexibility.

In stead of starting at 6:00 one could start between 5:00 and 7:00. Then have a break between 11:00 and 13:00 for 30 min or 3 hours, whatever the fuck you want.

This is of course assuming we would allow people to enjoy life (An Utopian idea most people would fight against)

Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

#9
post #3

Hardly surprising, and probably positive for many Spaniards, but it still makes me a little sad that every country is converging on a very similar way of working. Globalisation makes it inevitable, of course, but does Monday-Friday, 9-5 really make sense? Why not 8-6 Monday-Thursday with a three day weekend? We developers are often lucky that we can dictate our own hours and experiment with this, but I'd be fascinate…

> Globalisation makes it inevitable, of course,

I would push back on this thinking that Globalization itself is inevitable. We have seen the reaction to this thinking in recent years -- you end up with Trumps, and Mays, and (almost) Le Pen's.

Greeks are a prime example -- despite the intense crisis and austerity measures, the country still values its lunch and coffee breaks, despite how much we here in the west criticize them for "being lazy"

Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break

#10
post #3

Hardly surprising, and probably positive for many Spaniards, but it still makes me a little sad that every country is converging on a very similar way of working. Globalisation makes it inevitable, of course, but does Monday-Friday, 9-5 really make sense? Why not 8-6 Monday-Thursday with a three day weekend? We developers are often lucky that we can dictate our own hours and experiment with this, but I'd be fascinate…

I'd be fascinated to see every individual choose their own system to adapt.
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