The Un-Working Day: Siesta and telly

I have a confession to make. I am writing this article having just woken up from a siesta. This might not sound like much of a confession but it is for someone who has long eschewed the daytime snooze, however much there does seem sense in taking a "power nap"; and when it's called a power nap, it has the virtue of sounding as if it will lead to one's productivity being enhanced.

I'm excusing myself on account of having been one of the many who has succumbed to the Mallorcan flu and who is still recovering from it. In the circumstances, being knackered by the afternoon is not perhaps so unusual. But were it not for this enduring malady, given as it is March and not a time for hot weather (despite the most unexpected 27 degrees on Monday), there would - or should - be no excuse at all.

I am well aware of the theory that the Spanish working man (and sometimes woman) was so impoverished and poorly treated that more than one job was needed and that a consequence of this was the requirement for an afternoon kip in between lousily paid toils. The weather theory, though, is that much more persuasive (and true), and it is not as if Spain was the only Mediterranean country where the practice of a siesta and its equivalent was developed. Yes, in the heat of summer, there was and is much to be said for having a short burst of shuteye in a cooled, shutter-tight room. But at other times of the year ...?

The afternoon break, which doesn't necessarily entail sleeping, is a cultural habit. It is said that it is one that has become less ingrained into society, especially in places dominated by commerce; the larger towns and cities, therefore. Palma qualifies as one of these, and yet the bizarre phenomenon of four rush hours in one day continues. Additional pollution and greater spend on petrol (the most expensive in Spain as it is) are thus added to productive downsides of the afternoon break. 

This break, siesta, call it what you will is just one element of the working day that academics, business associations and some politicians wish to amend. And joining their ranks is the national broadcaster; RTVE is bringing evening prime-time programming forward by an hour. In an act of unselfish altruism aimed at getting the Spaniard to turn in earlier, its nightly top shows (such as they are) will start at 10.15. Yes, you have read this correctly. A quarter past ten. And it will mean that going to bed will be around 2am rather than 3am. It shouldn't be so late but it can be because prime-time TV is prime-time advertising time. Slots for this are like programmes in their own right. On, on and on they go. So long are they that on one occasion when watching "The Shawshank Redemption" (in Spanish), it felt as though I had spent as long watching it as Tim Robbins had in digging his tunnel.

Different solutions to the working day have been advanced. The national commission for its rationalisation has been beating the drum for several years for a conformity with a norm of nine-to-five, insofar as this is the norm in other countries. Its principal concern is productivity, an aspect of which is the fact that Spaniards, as a rule, work longer hours than European counterparts. But these longer hours do not equate to being more productive. Parkinson's Law might have been developed with Spain in mind - work expands to fill the time available. Plus the time that is added on to take account of a lengthy afternoon break, which is a necessity if you have been watching telly into the wee small hours as much as it is a cultural habit.

Then there is the Greenwich Mean Time solution, one that has a great deal of logic given that the Meridian passes through Spain, that GMT was once upon a time used and that Portugal and the Canary Islands operate according to it. Such logic, though, runs up against cultural habit. The commission would like everyone to be working by 9am at the latest, to have finished work by 6pm at the latest, to not have had an extended breakfast break and to not have had a siesta. If they all finished by 6pm, then RTVE could presumably make its prime-time programming start very much earlier. But there is still one flaw in this plan. Dinner. Still, if there were a readjustment of the working day, then dinner might no longer be taken at the same time as the evening's main telly shows will be starting.

Might this ever happen? Somehow, you would doubt it. Cultural habits die hard, while maybe there is something to be said for thumbing a nose at generally-accepted working-day convention.