Hacker News Reader

Comment by alexpotato | Hacker News Reader

> Germans take a 1 hour lunch from 12-1pm. Spaniards have a later lunch, starting around 1pm, and going on until 4 or 5pm. This could possibly be due to the tradition of afternoon siesta.

NPR had a podcast episode (Planet Money maybe?) about how the EU was supposed to make it easier for firms to hire cross border and employees to move around. The idea was to be more like the United States.

Apparently, this didn't quite work out due to both language and cultural differences

Then, one of the guests says:

"Yes, there were some challenges. In fact, we ended up getting books with titles like: 'How to manage Spaniards if you are a German'"

View on HN

Solar noon in Madrid is at 2:13PM due to the absurd time zone that Spain's in. Having lunch at 1PM is early, not late.

A legacy of Franco and Hitler. (Franco wanted to be on Nazi Germany's time zone.)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24294157

Well this explains a lot of things that I always attributed to Spanish culture.

But why would you take your lunch break according to the sun, especially if you work in an office?

I'm not trying to play dumb, but sun rises at 6 in the summer in Germany - most people take their lunch break at 12. Sun rises at, I dunno, 8? in the winter - lunch break at 12. Nothing changes and people are usually awake for a while already.

I couldn't tell you when the majority of office workers starts. I would say 9, especially as it's also averaging out 8 and 10 - but I am not sure. Do people in offices (who are not in media agencies) more typically start at 10 or 11?

Sweden checking in: Wow, imagine sunrise at 6 in the summer. :)

Today's times here (Stockholm region) are: sunrise at 04.36, sundown at 20.54. The days are still getting longer of course, summer solstice is June 21st.

I once heard a Danish head of a university say that they wanted more Swedes to come over and work because Danish workers tend to question orders more than Swedes do.

I have no idea if this is true, just sounded funny to me.

What I have heard: Danes question orders. Swedes follow orders. Norwegians does not question orders, but does not follow them either unless they feel like it.

Don’t know if this is true.

I guess the joke should be 'there are no orders' not 'follow orders'.

When working for a Norwegian company, but with colleague in all of Scandinavia, we where introduced to the notion that as Danes we tend to be a bit pushing, impatient and just wanting to get on with the job. This would clash with the Norwegians who would want to do a lot of prep-work, upfront documentation and generally follow a certain procedure. The Swedes would avoid starting something until very one on the project had been heard and their concerns addressed.

If this is completely true in all cases seems questionable to me, but we did complete a project faster than the Oslo office could plan and document an identical project in Norway, resulting in an audit from the head office.

I'm a dual US/Italian citizen and the joke in Italy is:

"The Germans like the Italians b/c they are fun but don't respect them b/c they are disorganized.

The Italians respect the Germans b/c they are organized but don't like them b/c they are not fun"

Also interesting with the sharp 10AM spike on both desktop and mobile in Germany. Video calls, I presume.

I have it on my TODO list to look a little more into that. It caught me by surprise when I pulled up the data for Germany.

I was surprised by the same thing. Is it a common time for meetings? Is there some cultural thing that happens exactly at 10am?

Not sure but I do have daily standups at 10am here in Sweden. It seems like a time when most people have had time to get to the office, but it still leaves a couple hours until lunch.

In offices it would usually be from ~14h to 15h or 15:30h. Open to the public, street-level, small businesses (let's say, a butcher, a small hardware store, a bakery...) usually close from 14h to 16h or 16:30h. They open till later than other countries, though, often till 20h or so. That can vary per region and the size of the city, of course.

But not for siesta, for lunch. And, by lunch, for HNers, I mean a mid sized meal, not just a sandwitch.

The problem is Spain is that we have the breakfast and lunch kinda the opposite as the Brits.

Brits eat a big breakfast and a small lunch. We do the opposite. Some coffee and maybe a small pastry, and we are done for breakfast. For luch, we have a first and second dish and a dessert.

tbh that's in mostly an exaggeration, specially among new gens who tend to do more quick lunchs and take-aways. Even though we have lunch significantly later than the european average (I'd even say closer to 2pm or even up to 3pm rather than 1pm), something that somewhat awkwardly here I agree it's excessive, I doubt anyone (unless they're exploiting the cultural-difference thing and somehow it's working) stays until 5pm lunchin' midweek. Perhaps it may only be applicable in the context of the weekend (when lots of gatherings at bars and tapa overdoses for who-knows-how much time happen), but overall for at least 5 out of 7 days a week that's an oversimplification.

> lunch … starting around 1pm, and going on until 4 or 5pm

So wait when do they get work done? Do they just work later into the night?

yes, shops are also open later.

Yes. The historical siesta is about mitigating the hottest part of the day, spaniards tend to work both earlier and later.

The Northern of Spain has no concept of hot in the Summer. The actual issue is that we are living in the same timezone as Berlin.

And we are like reverse Brits.

Brits: big breakfast, small lunch.

Spain: small breakfast (coffee and a small pastry), and big lunch.

So, we aren't having siesta. We have a big gap at work to be able to feed ourselves on time.

You mean the northwest like Galicia? The northeast where I live still gets plenty hot. We don't have major beach resorts like Lloret and Salou for no reason :)

Though I guess this might not qualify as "Spain" depending on who you ask - if I ask my neighbours if they are living in Spain they certainly will say NO :P Hot topic alert :)

The Atlantic Spain and everything around Picos de Europa. Also, most mountain ranges, and Spain is the 2nd most mountainous country in Europe, so a lot of Spain is not that warm in Winter.

the only people I know who do that are shopkeepers as they stay closed until 5 when people start leaving work

Reply on news.ycombinator.com