Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is working 8 hours, taking 16 off, then working 8 again, a break?
If you live for the weekend!
Touché
Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
181–190 of 233 posts
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Shops manage to be open in the Middle East, Africa and Asia where it gets much warmer than Spain and in many places with much less favorable conditions. I've been to the south of Spain it's hot but 35c isn't unbearable in the middle of the day.
Yes, in India, shops don't close in the middle of the day. But business is very slow during those few hours.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try to go out with 45 degrees, with direct sunlight, etc. Some people will even faint within minutes. Because remember you don't get teleported to the shop, you have to walk.
It was 48 degrees in Phoenix a couple weeks ago. We all walked around outside successfully without fainting.
Phoenix is not even in the same conversation as Spanish cities when it comes to walking. Madrid, Barcelona and others you walk everywhere to do anything.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It gets dark at 6pm in the winter and 10pm in the summer I dont think its natural anywhere in the world. What time is sunrise during winter?
Check out any place towards the northern end of the US at the west edge of its time zone. (e.g Kalispell, MT). Exactly the same.
But thats a small region - not an entire country. I can't imagine waking up at 8:00 am while its dark.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
That's not terribly relevant these days, though.
For the same reasons you mention it makes 2pm in the afternoon the worst time to be on break and out of your air conditioned office or workplace.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#186>What remained is a highly distinctive national timetable not found in any other European country, where it has often been read as a peculiarly exotic form of madness
First, of all, there's nothing "mad" about it. As if the 9-5 (or 9-8) schedule religiously held everywhere, and first created for factory workers, is "rational".
>After starting work between 8 and 9 a.m., hungry workers hold out for a lunch break scheduled as late as 1:30 or 2:30. As if in compensation for this long wait
Nothing particularly strange about this either. In lots of counties people eat lunch later, or much later, than 12:00, and dinner much later than 7-8. Usually it has to do with hotter climates (which Spain, Greece, Mexico, Argentina, Middle Eastern countries, etc qualify for) and longer, sunnier, days.
>Most stores and many businesses close down until the late afternoon, before a final burst of office hours between 5:30 and 8 (or sometimes 4 to 7). Spaniards then head home at an hour when most people in other countries are cleaning up their dinner dishes, rarely getting food on the table any earlier than 10 p.m. This pushes bedtime past midnight for many.*
And that's a problem because?
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#187Literally 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…
>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.
Is that because nobody likes to, or because pressures for employers and economic conformity forces them? That this is "becoming less and less common" (implying it was indeed common) speaks to the latter.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#188Earlier 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.
>Small shops manage to operate in, say, Arizona during those hours.
With full on blaring air-conditioning and everybody driving around gus-guzzlers to go 1km further down.
That's not how Spanish cities are built, or the culture they enjoy.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try to go out with 45 degrees, with direct sunlight, etc. Some people will even faint within minutes. Because remember you don't get teleported to the shop, you have to walk.
have spent much time in 110+ degree weather - you just have to hydrate.
What's the humidity there though? In much of the Southern US, we get temps well above 100 with very high levels of humidity. Even with hydration it is dangerous.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#190Literally 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…
> 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. Is that because nobody likes to, or because pressures for employers and economic conformity forces them? That this is "becoming less and less common" (implying it was indeed common) speaks to the latter.
Nobody wants to. In fact, doing no lunch break is considered a privilege. Nobody wants to work from 9AM to 8PM, even if you have three break hours at lunch. That's time you lose for being with family, friends...