Spain's Prime Minister set to drop siesta to shorten working day by two hours

[Gingersnap]

Spain's Prime Minister set to drop siesta to shorten working day by two hours

Matt Payton 11 hours ago

Pamplona Reuters
The Spanish Prime Minister has announced moves to cut the working day by two hours and bring an end to the siesta, in an attempt to bring the country into line with its European counterparts.

Mariano Rajoy, the head of the centre-right coalition government, wants to scrap the universally-observed three-hour midday break.

Mr Rajoy said: "I will find a consensus to make sure the working day ends at 6pm."

Spanish workers currently tend to start work at 10am, staying until 2pm when they have a siesta up to three hours before leaving at 8pm.

The siesta was founded historically on the basis of allowing the country's largely agricultural workers to avoid the searing midday heat, the Times reports.

Yet despite having more working hours than their German counterparts, Spanish workers' average productivity is far lower.

A 2013 Spanish parliamentary commission said: "We need more flexible working hours, to cut our lunch breaks, to streamline business meetings by setting time limits for them, and to practise and demand punctuality."

The report explained cutting the siesta would raise the quality of life, raise the low birth rates and reduce marriage breakdowns.

It is thought Mr Rajoy is backing this popular decision in an attempt to win votes in the upcoming general election in June.

He is also looking to return Spain back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as it is currently one hour ahead of London, the same as eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic.

This odd time arrangement dates back to 1942 when former dictator General Franco showed his support for Hitler's Nazi regime by adopting German Time.

I'm not sure how this will raise birthrates but whatever.

Independent

[william the wierd]

It might work.

[scott]

It might work.

It will work if it changes the work dynamic and indeed adds flexibility (including siestas for restaurants and retail). It won't work if it's imposed by the government and enforced through a bureaucratic committee.

[william the wierd]

It will work if it changes the work dynamic and indeed adds flexibility (including siestas for restaurants and retail). It won't work if it's imposed by the government and enforced through a bureaucratic committee.

Therefore the might. The Napoleonic Code used in Spain is a different legal universe:

A presumption of guilt.

Double jeopardy permitted.

no finality for decisions

Defendants can be put on the stand and be required to testify.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Therefore the might. The Napoleonic Code used in Spain is a different legal universe:

A presumption of guilt.

Double jeopardy permitted.

no finality for decisions

Defendants can be put on the stand and be required to testify.

Objection, relevance.

[Michele]

Personally, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy all had some type of afternoon "siestas" when we visited. It only bother us once when we had to wait for 2-hours for the bank in Sorrento to open...which only let in one person in at a time...escorted by an armed guard.

[Adam]

Personally, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy all had some type of afternoon "siestas" when we visited. It only bother us once when we had to wait for 2-hours for the bank in Sorrento to open...which only let in one person in at a time...escorted by an armed guard.

Those weren't siestas. They were strikes.

[Gingersnap]

Frankly, I was surprised it still existed - or ever did, really.

They always claim that the siesta is needed due to the 'searing' heat of summers. Well, southern Spain has an average temperature of 82 F in July. Compare that to Denver's average July temperature of 88 F. There are no siestas out here in agricultural/construction work.

For those who are interested in this kind of thing, you can almost predict which European countries have chronically terrible economies by looking at which countries maintained a Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox identity after the Reformation. It's not a perfect comparison but it's a good one - particularly if you ignore current boundaries and look at more traditional social/ethnic populations (which can cross modern border lines).

If both Protestant and Roman Catholic populations intermingle geographically, there is a bias toward Protestant views of work/school, time management, and economics. If Roman Catholic populations are relatively untroubled by the presence of Protestants, views about work/school, time management, and economics show a characteristic laxity.

This is the real source of the famous Northern/Southern economic divide in the EU.

[william the wierd]

Frankly, I was surprised it still existed - or ever did, really.

They always claim that the siesta is needed due to the 'searing' heat of summers. Well, southern Spain has an average temperature of 82 F in July. Compare that to Denver's average July temperature of 88 F. There are no siestas out here in agricultural/construction work.

For those who are interested in this kind of thing, you can almost predict which European countries have chronically terrible economies by looking at which countries maintained a Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox identity after the Reformation. It's not a perfect comparison but it's a good one - particularly if you ignore current boundaries and look at more traditional social/ethnic populations (which can cross modern border lines).

If both Protestant and Roman Catholic populations intermingle geographically, there is a bias toward Protestant views of work/school, time management, and economics. If Roman Catholic populations are relatively untroubled by the presence of Protestants, views about work/school, time management, and economics show a characteristic laxity.

This is the real source of the famous Northern/Southern economic divide in the EU.

Disagree on direction of causality. The Med and Eurasian steppe are the best invasion and disease pathways in the world so uniformity is needed for survival. The Orthodox church being even more exposed is even more conservative than Roman Catholicism as in there are no pews in most of their churches.

[Gingersnap]

Disagree on direction of causality. The Med and Eurasian steppe are the best invasion and disease pathways in the world so uniformity is needed for survival. The Orthodox church being even more exposed is even more conservative than Roman Catholicism as in there are no pews in most of their churches.

Many pre-Christian cultures populated those areas with no uniformity of culture as we know it and they survived well enough to come under the yoke of the Roman Empire thousands of years later.

Beyond that, you are mistaking the enormous culture differences between Roman Catholic cultures and Eastern (Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, etc.) churches and their cultures. The Greek Orthodox Church shares more culturally with populations that are all or mostly Roman Catholic.

All Europeans (Catholic or not) have always benefited from a close relationship to cattle and pigs in terms of disease resistance. Harsh winters coupled with mostly poor, sodden soil spurred a constant quest for technological solutions.

Put the two together and you get genetically diverse, hardy people, who spend a lot of time on engineering, metalsmithing, and materials science. A hard and timely dose of Reformation work ethic* didn't hurt.

*For those who fear cultural designations, don't worry - the same thing is called the Confucian work ethic in Asia and goes by other names in other places. The basic idea: God, gods, or correct values want you to work hard, be thrifty, and postpone impulsive sexual pleasures is cross-cultural but very much not a significant force in all or most cultures.

[Lady Marva]

Put the two together and you get genetically diverse, hardy people, who spend a lot of time on engineering, metalsmithing, and materials science. A hard and timely dose of Reformation work ethic* didn't hurt.

*For those who fear cultural designations, don't worry - the same thing is called the Confucian work ethic in Asia and goes by other names in other places. The basic idea: God, gods, or correct values want you to work hard, be thrifty, and postpone impulsive sexual pleasures is cross-cultural but very much not a significant force in all or most cultures.

NOT a significant force????????????
Some esplainin' peese.

[Gingersnap]

NOT a significant force????????????
Some esplainin' peese.

There are thousands of cultures currently alive today but we often think there are just a dozen or so. Most cultures (in numbers terms, not in impact terms) are substance/barely over subsistence economically and depend on low tech agriculture AND most of them exist in balmy climates where food production coupled with fishing and wild harvesting is a pretty doable way of life.

It's very possible to continue traditional methods where production and efficiency are not prioritized and where women are seen more as child-bearers than as integral parts of non-home work. Or more efficient home work.

In some areas women do most of the agricultural work but it's so easy (slash and burn economies) that it is not considered work. So the people focus more on sex and relationships than they do on economic or technological efforts.

This is also true in some sectors of well developed economies with high tech. Some groups stay outside of the work hard, be thrifty, delay sex mindset because their needs are taken care of by the greater society.

[Lady Marva]

There are thousands of cultures currently alive today but we often think there are just a dozen or so. Most cultures (in numbers terms, not in impact terms) are substance/barely over subsistence economically and depend on low tech agriculture AND most of them exist in balmy climates where food production coupled with fishing and wild harvesting is a pretty doable way of life.

It's very possible to continue traditional methods where production and efficiency are not prioritized and where women are seen more as child-bearers than as integral parts of non-home work. Or more efficient home work.

In some areas women do most of the agricultural work but it's so easy (slash and burn economies) that it is not considered work. So the people focus more on sex and relationships than they do on economic or technological efforts.

This is also true in some sectors of well developed economies with high tech. Some groups stay outside of the work hard, be thrifty, delay sex mindset because their needs are taken care of by the greater society.

Ok, can see all of that. Thanks.
Yeah. Definitely there are "entitlement" groups.