Law Seeks to end Spanish Siesta Time

[Haole Girl]

Shaking Spain Out of Its Siesta
Law Seeks to Put Nation on Same Schedule as Rest of E.U.

By John Ward Anderson and Jennifer Green
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 23, 2006; Page A12


Like countless other Spanish companies, hers forces employees to take an extended lunch break -- from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. -- and work until 8 p.m. or later, pushing her family's schedule deep into the night.

"I would love to go home earlier -- all the working mothers would -- but my company will not allow it," said Delgado, who works in the legal and accounting department of a large corporation that she asked not be identified, fearing repercussions.

But now the national government has launched a campaign to break Spaniards of their traditional midday meal and nap, arguing that the old-fashioned custom is bad for business, bad for families and out of step with Spain's image as an emerging European dynamo.





http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/22/AR2006042201123.html

[MGKrebs]

1. Well they're going to have to stop this too then:

OK! OK! Just kidding!

[JVS]

10. I'd like one of those beers!

[DUHandle]

28. Me too

in fact, I'll buy every even numbered round.

[SmokingJacket]

2. I used to love that schedule when I was in Italy...

It's hot and dull in the afternoons, so you take a nap, and stay awake in the cool night... but I certainly wouldn't want to work til 8pm...

[mitchtv]

11. Argentina was a bit much for me

any of the real restaurants were not open til well after 930pm

[NJ Democrats]

3. I wouldn't want to work to 8.

Maybe change it from 1:30-4:30 to 12-1.

[Johnyawl]

4. Out of step with modern realities

I've always joked that I'd like to have a two hour lunch, meal and a siesta, but three hours??!! That would require me to make two round trip commutes every day!

[DemoTex]

12. Johnyawl!

Good to see you here my friend! How are you all doing?

New DUers, this man is a classic. When I think of Johnyawl, as I often do, I think of USMC 3rd Tanks, Hue, 1968. I also think of Geni who was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

Here is a big hug from Mac for you both!

[Blue_Tires]

13. which river is that?

[DemoTex]

14. "Dead Lakes" on the Apalachicola in the panhandle of Florida.

"Dead Lakes is reported to have been formed when sand bars created by the current of the Apalachicola River blocked the Chipola River. The ensuing high water killed thousands of trees in the floodplain, giving the area its name."

http://funandsun.com/parks/DeadLakes/deadlakes.html


Dead Lakes

[Johnyawl]

45. Hey Mac!

I've been around, just don't have time to post much. How are you doing? I saw that you sold your NC home, are you in Florida now?

If you show Geni that picture of you in a kayak, she'll fall in love with you. :D She loves kayaking, and once took a kayak trip through the Everglades. I myself won't get in one, there's no room for my cooler of beer! (much less my beerbelly hehehe)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

27. Indeed.

I can't imagine what traffic would be like in large US cities if we did things this way.

[Robbien]

5. All worker bees the world over must give up their individuality

This is a globalized world now and the elite want their worker drones to be the same and interchangeable.

[Delphinus]

19. You got it! n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

23. This is supported by labour unions.

And not necessarily supported in the business community. It's not that simple.

[Marie26]

6. This isn't a worker-friendly law

Even though they're trying to spin it that way. In Spain, working mothers will use the break to prepare lunch for their children & run their errands for the day; and men will use it to relax w/friends or go home to see their families. W/o this break, people would be even more harried, stressed-out, & overworked - like, well, Americans.

[depakid]

9. Of course it's spun that way

Look at the source.

[Odin2005]

7. Why would a SOCIALIST government...

...enact a anti-worker law?

[Robbien]

8. The EU and the IMF are coming down hard on countries

which are not reducing their labor costs. That is why France had a hard time backing down on the student labor law. It is also why Prodi in Italy will have a tough road ahead.

:shrug:

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. How are the EU and IMF doing that?

The IMF doesn't have any influence on European economies that are doing alright. France's labour law was introduced by a right wing French government - it wasn't the EU.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

17. Because it isn't an anti-worker law. n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

37. Perhaps they are just a bunch of SINO's

Socialists in Name Only? :shrug:

[itcfish]

38. Socialist Do Not

Have the absolute Majority in the Parliment, It is a coaltion govt and the PP has a very strong say.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

40. I am having a really difficult time understanding...

...why making employees take a three hour lunch break is considered good socialist policy. What we're talking about here isn't the option of taking a long lunch, but the requirement that you do so. The end results of this *can* be quite bad. Imagine if you've got kids and you don't get to see them until 9:00 at night because you must take a three hour break in the middle of your work day. What the government has done is to create a "normal" working day for its employees. It's not unheard of, and in fact plenty of countries with governments far more socialist than Spain's have "normal" work days.

[shenmue]

15. I don't know why they don't like it

Sounds like it would be perfect.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. In some places it works.

Especially in the smaller towns where people live very close to where they work. However, consider a family in a larger city like Barcelona or Madrid, where both parents work far from their home. What do you do with your kids between the end of school and 9:00PM? When do you get to see them? It is a big problem in situations like this.

[shenmue]

24. Well then...

how did it last so long?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. I didn't say it was without its benefits.

I just said it works fine for some people and not for others.

[shenmue]

26. Okay

Very well :7

[Jamison]

16. Not a very nice law!

It's a part of their custom for cryin out loud! I think it's a good one too, it helps people de-stress a little & relax.

But NOOOOO, we can't have that in America where working 100+ hours a week with no days off is the cool thing to do!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

21. That's extreme and wrong.

Nobody is trying to make the Spainiards work 100 hours a week. This law doesn't even change the number of hours of work required. All it does is give employers the flexibility to not require that their workers take three hour lunch breaks.

[Marie26]

29. Have you ever been to Spain? nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

31. Yes.

And I also have friends who live and work there, both natives and people from the US.

[Marie26]

33. How do they generally

feel about it? When I was in Spain, I loved the easy-going work schedule most people had, w/siestas & long vacations - so different from the US. Especially in southern Spain, a lot of businesses don't have air conditioning & use the siestas to escape the mid-day heat. It seems like changing this custom would require some big changes in how businesses operate, & how families operate. I guess it's good to offer a "flex-time" option, but I can see this easily going from a voluntary to a mandatory change.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

35. It depends on the situation.

In rural areas or small towns it makes a lot of sense and is definitely a community-booster and a good thing. In large cities where people work far from home it's much more of a mixed bag. A lot of urbanites do not like having to wait until nearly 9:00 to see their families.

Spain's economy has also changed very dramatically in the last ten years. A lot more people work for large companies now. I think there's some pressure on that front to "modernise" the Spainish workday. Spainiards work very long hours compared to most parts of Europe, but they have relatively low productivity. The end result of this change will likely be fewer hours worked (or spent at work) but higher productivity.

My overall impression is that younger people support this change more than older people, but I think this largely reflects a strong desire for better European integration on the part of twenty-something urbanites.

[400Years]

30. You always take the neoliberal corporatist view of things

the article is bogus in its framing.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

32. Regardless of what you think of the article...

...I am siding with the socialist Spanish government and the trade unions. And I reject the suggestion that I "always side with" the neoliberal corporatists because I believe that unions can sometimes be on the wrong side of an issue.

[Flagg]

20. Looks like some people won't be happy until the world is a giant WAL MART

Vive le multi-culturalisme!

[underpants]

34. exactly

If anything corporate America ought to be adopting the siesta hell you can keep them in the cubes for 18 hours a day

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

36. If corporate America adopted the siesta...

...they'd just start keeping people around for 21 hours a day.

[Kathryn STone]

44. man I know tha's rite!

[Tracer]

39. I've stayed with friends in Madrid several times ...

... and the adults in the family never seemed to mind returning to work at 4pm, but I always thought it was disrupting for the little kids who had to go back to school at that time.


(I guess one gets used to it, but waiting until 10 or 11pm for dinner can be a stomach-grumbling pain)

[barb162]

42. Being there, I found it strange...especially the dinner bit at 10pm

[dysfunctional press]

41. what about the heat...?

isn't that why the custom originated?
I suppose that with air-conditioning, it makes it an obsolete practice for many- but there are still jobs where it could be a factor.

when we were in cozumel a while back- they were doing some heavy construction projects, i found the schedule odd- they'd work in the morning, knock off at lunch, then not come back until late afternoon/early evening...i know i wouldn't want to have to work outdoors all day in that type of climate.
also- the whole town was busy and active, even with children out playing until what for us would be late into the night.

[napi21]

43. This custom is not only in Spain folks.

Italy has the same thing, and people are so used to it, a hand full of business couldn't change if the did want to. All the shops, restaurants, and everything simply closes for 3 hours during the hottest part of the day. BTW, in Sicily, they all close for the entire month of August too! My son lives there, and he has always told me, don't ever plan on visiting suring August, nothing is open! It's vacation month!

Another thing. When I moved from Pa to SC in 1987, I was shocked that the banks all closed between 12 noon and 3:00PM. They repoened at 3 and lcosed at 6PM. That of course has changed in SC since then, but it sure was a surprise to a yankee!!!

[many a good man]

46. Siesta: victim of modernization

Traditionally lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Spain. Its a time when all family members come together at the table. Even now, many homes and businesses lack air conditioning and its a good opportunity to get out of the hot sun.

Economic development in Spain didn't really start until the dictatorship ended. Now Spain is rapidly becoming more prosperous-- with all its advantages and disadvantages: both parents work outside the house, more single-parent families, long commutes, etc. I think most people prefer the traditional schedule but modern life has made it impractical. Most would keep it if they could but don't want to be forced to keep it.

What I like best about the siesta is that makes you feel like you lived two days in one. It avoids the daily grind of get up, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, start over. And it gives you energy for doing what's important in life: spending time with family and friends.