Spain considers saying adios to the siesta
Spanish campaigners push for end to timezone anomaly, claiming it would boost productivity and improve civil society
It’s 10.30am, and Fernando, a civil servant in his late 40s, sits down to a cafe con leche, the sports pages and a cigarette in Madrid’s Plaza del Rey. At work since 9am, he is taking his routine morning break.
It’s a ritual you see everywhere across the capital: friends and colleagues gather in the mid-morning, coffees are ordered, noisy conversation ensues, and 20 minutes later they’re back to work.
But these leisurely coffee breaks may soon come to an end, following a vote by a parliamentary commission on Thursday (26SEP) recommending that Spain turn its clocks back an hour and introduce more regular working days, starting at 9am and ending at 5pm.
The cliche of Spain’s late-rising, long lunches and afternoon siestas may prevail in the mind of foreigners, but the reality for most Spanish workers is a long and disjointed day.
“I’m normally in the office until about 8pm,”said Fernando, explaining the long hours worked by the average Spaniard. “I could take two hours for lunch, but mostly I just have an hour, and often eat at my desk. I certainly don’t take a siesta.”
In part, Spain’s chaotic working hours come down to a historical anomaly. In 1942, Spain’s dictator, General Francisco Franco, changed the country’s time zone to coincide with Germany’s in an act of solidarity with his fascist ally. And it has never gone back.
“Because of a great historical error, in Spain we eat at 2pm, and we don’t have dinner until 9pm, but according to the position of the sun, we eat at the same time as the rest of Europe: 1pm and 8pm,”explained Professor Nuria Chinchilla, director of the International Centre for Work and Family at the IESE Business School. “We are living with 71 years of jet-lag, and it’s unsustainable.
