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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

#111

Post by magic_beans »

readhn wrote: post #14

In the startup arena im in (USA) folks often work 8-9am till 7-8pm with half hour to hour MAX lunches. No one complains, people just burnout and move on in 1-2-3 years. No one gets overtime. It would be nice to have an open discussion with HR or whoever but its a sensitive topic, in this culture you are not "allowed" to tell how much you actually work... I guess its a "dirty little secret" but 9-5 does not exist anym…

10am - 4:30pm/5pm is pretty well-accepted among the devs where I work (unless you have a lot of projects going on), with working from home on Friday as part of the culture.

Bigger companies aren't as "cool", but the pay is pretty good and the work life balance is unbeatable.

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

#112

Post by vkou »

bpodgursky wrote: post #100
treehau5 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the free fall has seemed to have slowed, and bottomed out. It's just a different cultural value -- not every culture values the green dollar as much as America or the UK or likewise. Is it the best for your GDP? Probably not, but it's honorable. "Cash is King" is not something you hear many Greeks say about one another

Spending borrowed money like candy and calling repayment oppression isn't a cultural value I care about protecting.

Bankruptcy exists for a reason. If all debt were risk free, lenders would have no right to charge interest for it.

Lenders who issue loans to organizations who won't ever be able to pay them off aren't a group I care very much for protecting, either. They were sophisticated investors who knew the risks. Greece is a sovereign state, and its first obligation its to its people.

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

#113

Post by franciscop »

magic_beans wrote: post #107
franciscop wrote: post #36

I am sorry but this is totally backwards. As a Valencian Spaniard I want to set the record straight. First, siesta is not dead. However, it is considered mostly a holiday luxury or reserved for small shops. It is normal in the extremely hot summer, after lunch we stop for 1h or so. While I do not do siesta, I would say about half+ of the people I know do it (holiday times). I would also say it is highly coupled with…

That almuerzo looks like enough for breakfast AND lunch!

Well if it's your only/main meal from 7am to 3pm (8h) it's normal that it's that size (;

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

#114

Post by asendra »

franciscop wrote: post #36

I am sorry but this is totally backwards. As a Valencian Spaniard I want to set the record straight. First, siesta is not dead. However, it is considered mostly a holiday luxury or reserved for small shops. It is normal in the extremely hot summer, after lunch we stop for 1h or so. While I do not do siesta, I would say about half+ of the people I know do it (holiday times). I would also say it is highly coupled with…

Lol, you randomly inserted a picture from one of the most famous locals here in Valencia, famous for It's enormous "bocadillos" (and good food obviously!)

BTW, that's the half-size "bocadillo" there ;)

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

#115

Post by wavefunction »

tfvghbv wrote: post #96
natzar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

smaller shops and commerce takes around 3 ¿? In spain no one have more than 1hour for lunch.. The only ones that could fit in that description are cookers or restaurants staff, working in 2 parts. (12:00 - 16:00) and (20:00 - 23:00). Im from spain btw.

> Im from spain btw. I can tell. Your command of English grammar and vocabulary is atrocious, man.

Downvoted for hostility.

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

#116

Post by eloff »

davidw wrote: post #78
mrkrabo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spaniard; can confirm. 3 hour breaks are simply mandatory for small shops. In the south of the country during summer there is literally no way you can go out until... 19 or so if you don't want to die. So if shops closed then, there would be no business.

Small shops manage to operate in, say, Arizona during those hours. That said, I think Spain's hours are a more natural adaptation to the climate than Arizona's.

Arizona is in the car-centric USA. You walk straight from your car with AC into a shop with AC via the shortest path possible.

Spain, like most Europe is a lot more pedestrian/cyclist friendly and I'd imagine that traffic drops off a lot during the heat of the day.

I live in Canada which isn't anything near as hot as Arizona or Spain and I walk/cycle everywhere and I specifically avoid going anywhere from 11am-2pm in July/August if I can help it. sample-size=1, your mileage may vary.

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

#117

Post by logronoide »

Spaniard here; this is absolutely not true. 3 hour lunch breaks it's a myth. May be shops in small towns and villages.

One hour break for lunch is the norm. May be two, but it's not very common.

There is an exception here: in summertime, a lot of companies reduce the working hours from 8 to 7 hours. They start at 8am and leave at 3pm. The sum of these hours must be distributed along the rest of the days of the year. So you work 7 hours in summer, and 8 and half the rest of the year. This summertime schedule comes from the days when Air conditioning systems did not exist, and literally working in Spain in the afternoon is impossible.

It's really funny to read about Spanish topics from a poorly informed journalist...

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

#118

Post by icebraining »

treehau5 wrote: post #49
icebraining wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greece has one of the longest working journeys of the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gdp-and-beyond/quality-of-l...

Kind of a pointless chart to me at this point since the data is from 2011 on - massive austerity and joblessness is skewing this data -- the people who do have jobs are working longer just to make the same pay, and the country has 22.5% unemployment, and hovers around 50% youth unemployment. I would be interested in viewing the charts pre-crisis - 2009 and earlier.

Here are the numbers for 2008/9. Greece is still in the top: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMA...

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

#120

Post by scythe »

mcjiggerlog wrote: post #11

Literally nobody here takes 3 hour lunch breaks. A lot of offices have 2 hours, yeah, but this is becoming less and less common regardless. Small shops do close for 3 hours in the middle of the day, but they are open till about 9pm which is a lot more useful than being open in the middle of the day. It also should be noted that there are actually 5 meals in a spaniard's day. There's a mid-morning and late-afternoon s…

>useless light early in the morning

That light wakes people up and increases their energy levels. It's not always pleasant, but work isn't supposed to be. For example, in the US, pushing school start times back from 8 to 9 results in an increase in student performance (it was originally 9 and then moved to 8 to save money on buses).

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