I wonder why some foreigners seem to be unable to grasp the simple concept of different climates...
I have a 1 hour lunch break, and nobody take 'siestas' in my city regularly.
Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
201–210 of 233 posts
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can assure you that working 4 hours, taking 3 off, then working 4 again, is most definitely a break.
Is working 8 hours, taking 16 off, then working 8 again, a break?
Yes. It's not normally called that, but it's a break. A 5-minute break is a break. A 3-month sabbatical is a break.
Rephrase the original comment for a brief rest when working: "if you make up that 5 minutes later, then it's not a break". It's a nonsensical comment.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#203Earlier 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…
> 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.
Melbourne has summers that are nearly as hot as Phoenix. AC isn't so prevalent here, yet the shops don't change their hours in summer.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#204Earlier 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.
35C is bad for physical labour, but it's certainly tolerable for things like retail.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why not 8-6 Monday-Thursday with a three day weekend? You're making the mistake that 40 hours is just 40 hours. Business work schedules are about being available during the week, not about working for a fixed amount of time.
Right, but what I'm saying is that if everyone agreed that "the week" is Monday - Thursday instead of Monday - Friday, things would be different.
that would also decrease the unemployment problem - I'm continually surprised this isn't part of the discussion. Like 40 hours is handed down on clay tablets.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#206Literally 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…
Spaniard here. I can confirm. Nobody takes 3-hour lunch breaks. 2 hours are common, but an hour and 30 minutes is more common.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#207I wonder how many of those important business decisions/discussions are made during the lunch breaks.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I remember back in the early 90s when I visited, Chennai certainly did have siesta periods. It wasn't everyone though, but enough that you couldn't be sure.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
>special summer grass adapted to the heat. My point is how much water does it take even for that. If what you were saying is true, I'd expect to see that grass growing all over Phoenix and it would be green rather than red.
It does consume water, but again we manage our water well. I think most people are under the mistaken impression that fresh water is in short supply. The problem is that our water supplies could easily be a free market while still being ecologically friendly. They could easily limited to reusable and naturally refreshed sources, and not drain rivers like the Colorado below safe levels. Market prices would ensure wate…
While that's a real problem it seems to me like agriculture is a better use of a scarce resource than lawns.
Re: Say Goodbye to Spain's Three-Hour Lunch Break
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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).
Your example seems contradictory of your point. Since starting school alter is documented to increase student performance (perhaps because it also increases teacher performance), why would you want to have lower performance? I also don't see why work shouldn't be pleasant except insofar as it's an unavoidable necessity for it to be otherwise. If you want people to work under less pleasant conditions, then the pay sho…
You have misinterpreted the example. Students perform better at 9, that is, when the school day corresponds with the solar day. It was moved to 8, as I said, to save money on buses. If it seems insane to you to compromise student achievement in order to save money on buses, please direct your concerns to the Republican Party of the United States, and not to me.
Pay cannot be raised to compensate for the unpleasantness of light coming through your window in the morning. I don't see why you chose to argue about that.