From some Spanish chick SOTI about her country’s lifestyle:
‘Everything slows down in the afternoon heat. Between 2pm and 5pm, shops close, streets empty, and we like to rest up.
‘Embrace our slower afternoons and you’ll have more energy to enjoy dinner the Spanish way; late, leisurely, and alfresco at 10pm.’
I have to say that when I went to Chile — where they have the same outlook — I grew to love that way of doing things. Granted, it’s not the best business practice, and you can mock it all you want, but it sure as hell is more restful. I loved that when we Americanos went out for dinner at 7pm, we found most restaurants still closed or at best staffed only with people cleaning the place. Two hours later and there’d be a queue of hungry Chileans with their families waiting for a table. Then after the meal — which would end at about 10.30pm — the streets were filled with people strolling about the streets, or going home. Bedtime, I would guess, was no earlier than 11pm, maybe later.
Small wonder that their workday only begins after 9am.
One of the worst aspects of our Murkin work ethic is that nonsense about eating lunch at your desk. Apart from being a filthy habit — sauces and crumbs scattered all over the place — it denies the necessity of taking a break from work. When I was working for Big Corporations, I never had a lunch break of less than an hour, unless there was a deadline looming in which case I just didn’t eat at all and worked through lunchtime. But those situations were few and far between, because I planned my workload efficiently to account for a long lunch. I might have worked late — sometimes past midnight — but only during crunch times.
Over Here? Don’t ask. Work, work work, even for a shitty wage, and annual vacations that are totally inadequate for allowing people to take a proper break from the grind. Ten working days / two weeks? What a load of crock. Whenever I hear about some asshole saying proudly that he hasn’t taken a break from work for ten years, I want to kick his ass.
And we wonder why some people burn out.
I don’t want to hear that our relentless work ethic is what makes our economy the powerhouse that it is. What causes that is not the number of hours we work, but how efficiently we work. (Europeans and Latin Americans are the worst: they work less time and only at about 60% of our efficiency, so it’s small wonder their economies lag behind ours.) There must be a happy medium somewhere between Euro sloth and American drive, and we should try to find it.
To quote the best summary ever: Nobody ever lay on his deathbed wishing he’d spent more time at the office.
I had 33 jobs by the time I was 30 (started working at 15 (1970) at McDonald’s) and found that when I was an employee life was miserable. I was always “working for the weekend” and always looking for a better job.
I’ve been a self employed architect since 1986 and my “work” is 98% enjoyable. Not bearable. Enjoyable. And my time is my own to spend as I see fit. I don’t ask permission for time off, nor do I beg to take a “vacation”. I just do whatever I want and most of the time I want to design buildings and make good money.
You can design your life, or you can let life design you.
Your choice.
I can’t see that working here at all. It takes me 30-45 minutes to get to work due to traffic. If you gave me a 3 hr break in the middle of the day, I’d waste half that time driving home and then driving back. Plus burn up another $20+ in gas. For basically a 1 hr nap where I probably wouldn’t even fall asleep. Or else I’d have to take a nap in my office. Fuck that, I’d rather work straight thru, leave work at 4 pm and have the rest of the evening off at home.
I can see where that would work for some cultures, some jobs, some communities. I just can’t imagine it here in the USA. I will say that I do enjoy a 30 minute nap right after lunch on my days off, but a 3 hr siesta? Nope, still not seeing that being feasible in a first world country.
My job isn’t particularly demanding (librarian) and largely consists of waiting for student to ask for help with their research (or printing their papers, or connecting to the WiFi, etc).
Aside from that, I could get everything I actually need to do *done* in under four hours. Having eight (actually nine due to a bit of scheduling weirdness) just means I don’t have any time pressure and hence actually get *less* done than I should. I *need* deadlines. Too easy to put off boring tasks indefinitely otherwise.
I’m 56, wife is 53. We’ve both gone part time. I kept seeing my colleagues working 50-60hrs a week, building up massive nesteggs, then retiring and having so many health issues they can’t enjoy all that money. Screw that. I’ve got 60ish acres in the piney woods that i want to enjoy now, not when I suffer more health problems than i have now.
I had the good fortune to be stationed in Sicily in the early 90’s. I was still a Navy PA then (Physician’s Assistant). Our hospital was staffed with about 80% host nation nationals, the rest military active duty and a few DoD civilians. Navy personnel turned to at 0600 for morning report and colors at 0700; Italian nationals arrived promptly at 1000, turned on their computers, then went down to the galley to have pastries, fruit and coffee until 1100. They worked until 1400, disappeared until 1800 and then re-assembled in the galley to have antipasti and more coffee, juices and a little wine. They’d “work” until 2000, then head home.
I lived with a Sicilian couple who were both employed at the hospital. She was an orthopedic surgeon and he was a IT supervisor. They had a massive 18th century villa with guest homes, all of which were under a state of constant repair. They had about a dozen hectares of wine grapes, blood oranges, olives, tomatoes and a small orchard with at least 10 different fruits, and an herb garden. We had dinner promptly at 2200, usually just a pasta course with fish and some wine, bread, nuts and fruit and dessert cheese. At around 2300, we’d start the promenade, a long walk around the neighbor’s homes, checking the condition of their crops, getting basket of tomatoes, a bottle of olive oil, some fresh wine, and always ending the visit with a large glass of homemade Amara d’Arancia Rossa. In bed by midnight, but only on the workdays. Weekends and (the many) holidays, we’d drive into Catania and bar hop til 4 am.
I went back to visit them in 2002 and again in 2019. They are retired now, but still live in the same house, with the same routines and yes, the house remains under constant renovation for the 3rd consecutive century.
Good times.
Jealous.
Australia has a more, um, balanced approach to work / life. I worked top end corporate for 20 years are rarely had to work weekends except for usual spikes. Here in NZ it’s a noticeably more relaxed pace. Not Spanish, you can still get stuff done, but slower.
Shows up in the $$, you can earn 50% more in Aus than NZ.