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Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

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Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#41

Post by mjn »

jdimov wrote: post #12
w1ntermute wrote: post #8

This isn't a Spanish problem, it's a Southern European problem. You cannot be lazy and expect to lead a good life - the math just won't add up.

Bullshit. There is exactly zero statistical correlation between the amount of work you do and the quality of life you lead. Furthermore, it is extremely hypocritical to make comments like yours.

In Europe the correlation is rather in the other direction. Greeks work the most hours/year on average, and Belgians work the fewest [edit: oops, actually Dutch [1]].

Here in prosperous Denmark, the official workweek is 37 hours, not 40, and the limit is taken seriously. When we do joint projects with Southern Europeans, they seem to regularly be working weekends and evenings, and get paid less than us for it.

[1] http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ANHRS

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#42

Post by Oletros »

mjn wrote: post #41
jdimov wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. There is exactly zero statistical correlation between the amount of work you do and the quality of life you lead. Furthermore, it is extremely hypocritical to make comments like yours.

In Europe the correlation is rather in the other direction. Greeks work the most hours/year on average, and Belgians work the fewest [edit: oops, actually Dutch [1]]. Here in prosperous Denmark, the official workweek is 37 hours, not 40, and the limit is taken seriously. When we do joint projects with Southern Europeans, they seem to regularly be working weekends and evenings, and get paid less than us for it. [1] ht…

And we can start talking about the real worked hours and not the official ones

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#43

Post by picrow »

I'm living amongst a few Spaniards at the moment. And they are literally the laziest people I have ever met.

They DO, in fact, sleep whenever they get the chance. 12+ hours a day at least once a week. They have a poisonous victimised mentality second only to the Greeks.

The economy they have is the economy they deserve; and this goes for all Mediterraneans.

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#44

Post by olmo »

I'm Spanish and I've software company. Here is my schedule:

9-14 morning work

14-15 lunch

15-18 evening work

18-20 (aprox) partners-only work

Dunno in construction or other sectors, in consultancy we work more hours and I've never seen anybody taking siesta on labor days. Some people make siesta when 2 of the following 3 things are true: Summer + Old people + Sunday.

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#45

Post by adrinavarro »

Dewie wrote: post #31
adnam wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few places do this anymore, it's more common in the south which is insanely hot at mid day

In my experience it is quite normal in Madrid, which does get blazingly hot in the summer but is pretty okay the rest of the year.

Depends on what you're looking at. If it's public-facing, then, yes, but only because demand at those times is very low.

Otherwise, for office work, lunch breaks are short. European style.

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#46

Post by gotrecruit »

ashray wrote: post #22

This I found a bit condescending: This extra-long workday has given us some fun Spanish cultural quirks, like the 9 p.m. dinner hour and the two-hour lunch break. I know that folks in the US, Germany and some other countries eat at or around 6pm but I also know that folks in most of Latin America, India, Thailand, etc. eat at 8-9pm or so. So why is this considered a 'cultural quirk' ? A little culturally insensitive…

what's so condescending about the work "quirk"? as far as i'm concerned, the word has never been known to be used in a derogatory manner.

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#47

Post by astine »

sker wrote: post #39
ashray wrote: post #22

This I found a bit condescending: This extra-long workday has given us some fun Spanish cultural quirks, like the 9 p.m. dinner hour and the two-hour lunch break. I know that folks in the US, Germany and some other countries eat at or around 6pm but I also know that folks in most of Latin America, India, Thailand, etc. eat at 8-9pm or so. So why is this considered a 'cultural quirk' ? A little culturally insensitive…

> I also know that folks in most of Latin America, India, Thailand, etc. eat at 8-9pm or so I can only speak for Mexico, but the reason for this is that dinner is not the most important/bigger meal of the day, lunch is. Mexico: medium breakfast, big lunch, small dinner. USA: small breakfast, medium lunch, big dinner. Over here people will just have a sandwich or two for dinner, that's why it doesn't matter if it happ…

Lunch as the primary meal of the day is a staple of Mediterranean cultures. Italy, Spain, Greece, et. al., all have large lunches and small dinners. Latin America is also in many ways a Mediterranean culture so many Latin and Hispanic countries share in that trait.

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#48

Post by michas »

codex wrote: post #38

In this age of software and asynchronous communication, there is little reason to have so few time zones, or to have one 1d timezones rather than 2d. It would be nice if local time continuously skewed a few seconds each day (sometime around three a.m. perhaps) such that sunrise was always at seven a.m. Most (non-cave-dwelling) humans evolved to rise with the sun.

Timezones were introduced exactly to prevent the very thing that you propose: need to adjust clocks a few seconds each day. It was just too annoying.

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#49

Post by [deleted] »

opminion wrote: post #15
juusto wrote: post #2

Hogwash. What about the higher productivity of Scandinavians? They shift back and forth on "time-zones" due to the constant change of amount of light because of the very hash winter. Sometimes with as few as 3 hours of light, not sun, but still maintain the same level of productivity. Currently, Spanish primetime stretches until after midnight <- Well what about making less time for primetime? Or less siestas?

The so called (in English) "siesta", which in Spanish would be just "the lunch break", is a compulsory long break in many professions. Many would rather close shop at 5 or 6 than at 9pm, but everyone has to do it at once or it won't work. The solution most would expect to succeed is a legal one: I know of a dev shop that could easily switch to a 9-5 schedule, as many banks and civil servants have already, but it has…

[deleted]

Re: Spaniards are less productive, constantly tired: Spain is in the wrong time zone

#50

Post by workhere-io »

juusto wrote: post #2

Hogwash. What about the higher productivity of Scandinavians? They shift back and forth on "time-zones" due to the constant change of amount of light because of the very hash winter. Sometimes with as few as 3 hours of light, not sun, but still maintain the same level of productivity. Currently, Spanish primetime stretches until after midnight <- Well what about making less time for primetime? Or less siestas?

What about the higher productivity of Scandinavians? They shift back and forth on "time-zones"

What? We have summer time (DST) and regular time - just like most other European countries. If you're talking about Scandinavia's location relative to its time zone, most of Scandinavia is within its "natural" time zone [1].

And your "very hard winter" and "as few as 3 hours of light" comments mostly apply to the very Northern (and sparsely populated) parts of Norway and Sweden. The Danish climate is more like the UK's.

The distance from the northernmost part of Scandinavia to the southernmost part is like the distance from Minnesota to Texas, so obviously the climate varies a lot.

1) http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/images/world_t...

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