They're talking time again. It's one of those topics that possibly only the Spanish can talk about. Time is a national pastime. Rather like the weather is for the British. How strange that it is the same word in Spanish: "tiempo".
Mariano Rajoy, of whom it might be suggested that he is running out of time, has said that if he were to remain premier, then he would change the working day and the basis of time. The day would end at six in the evening (or is it afternoon?), while Spain would revert to the time when it was fully in time with British time (and Portuguese time, oh, and Canary Islands' time).
These discussions crop up frequently; usually when there's been the loss or gaining of an hour - spring forward, fall back. But these are discussions that the man and woman in the street (or more appropriately the bar) would have. Politicians can talk about such things at any time.
Rajoy has previously had it in mind to make changes to time. In 2013, the matter came before Congress, but only now, when Rajoy is merely acting at being a prime minister, has he stated clearly his preference to legislate. If he's still holding out for another crack at an election, does he think this might be a vote-winner? Would a nation be swayed by being told to go home at 6pm or by Greenwich Mean Time? Perhaps it would be. It might be noted that Ciudadanos (C's), would-be usurpers of some of the traditional PP support base, made changing time an electoral pledge. Is this how it works? Time is an issue between right and left? If I had the time to plough through the several hundred items in the Podemos programme, I might be able to verify that it is or it isn't.
Abandoning Central European Time (CET) and aligning the clocks with the British does make geographical sense. Apart from the Balearics and bits of the eastern part of the mainland, Spain lies to the west of the Meridian, as of course do Portugal and the Canaries, the only part of Spain that goes it alone time-wise. But in the time debate, this seems a diversion. What really exercises politicians and those who devote great energies to researching time is the working day. This is linked with CET, but the actual time system may not fundamentally make a great deal of difference. Do people in the Canaries operate according to different daily patterns to other Spaniards? One would very much doubt that they do. Culture is culture, and Spanish time culture is pretty homogenous, regardless of whether the clocks are set according to CET or British Summer Time.
The accepted norm for the Spanish working day is that it starts at 9am takes a break at 2pm, resumes at 4pm and ends at 7pm. But accepted norms are only normal enough. The working day can and does extend to 8pm or 9pm. So it is the lateness of this end plus the two hours off (which can be more) that are under the microscope, as also is a work culture - in certain situations - which demands being seen to be working late, however unproductive this might be.
It is productivity that is really at the heart of the time debate. Hence, why a political party with pro-business ambitions like the C's would embrace a need for time change in order to boost output and work efficiency and effectiveness. Politically, although Congress made no real move on the issue in 2013, a parliamentary commission was to be established, and it was to be guided by the national commission for the rationalisation of hours: yes, there really is such a body. It itself has been influenced by the work of Professor Nuria Chinchilla, probably the foremost expert on the subject. She has been banging the drum for change for years, the result of her being the IESE Business School's director for the centre for work and the family.
Her argumentation is indisputable. If people work late, don't eat until 10pm, watch prime time TV (that doesn't start until 10pm), go to bed at 1am or 2am but still get up and go to work for nine in the morning, then the nation is in a permanent and collective state akin to jetlag. From a productivity perspective this makes no sense.
Of course, not everyone follows such a routine, just as not everyone follows a work pattern which conforms with a norm. Nine to five in the UK or US has long been no more than a guideline. Work is work, and the working day is dependent upon all sorts of factors. As a general principle, however, the Rajoy time change has much merit. But what about the culture? Working days, Greenwich Mean Time can be subject to legislation, but who can legislate for culture?
Showing posts with label Working day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Working day. Show all posts
Thursday, April 07, 2016
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Turn Back Time: Spanish hours
With autumn having arrived, it feels as though we should be turning the clocks back. The days are already shorter, but it will of course still be a month or so before darkness will really be settling in at six in the evening. From the end of October, for anyone in the UK, at six in the evening it will have been well and truly dark for an hour. There have been moves to change UK "time" and to bring the clocks in line with Central European Time. Were it to be, then it would be the same time in Spain as it is in the UK.
While there was debate about an alteration under the Daylight Saving Bill (which failed to complete its passage through parliament) and while it might be possible that the UK might one day end up on Central European Time, in Spain there is a possibility that time would go in the opposite direction; Spain's Congress has called for a socioeconomic study to be undertaken into switching Spain's "time" to match that of the UK.
If you turn the clock back over a hundred years - to 1901 - you will discover that Spain adopted Greenwich Mean Time in that year. Spain was on the same time system as the UK until 1940. When Germany, which had an hour's difference, i.e. "Berlin Time" (now Central European Time), invaded France, which at the start of the Second World War was also on GMT, the Nazis changed the French system to match that of Germany. The Spanish decided to follow the new French model, and so it has been ever since.
The Greenwich Meridian runs through Spain in a line that corresponds, for example, with the location of Castellón in Valencia. Consequently, and although Mallorca is therefore to the east, mostly all of Spain is to the west, just like Portugal, which is on GMT (as, by the way, are the Canaries). Spain's Central European Time is in fact an anomaly. Or just wrong, and it was the Nazis who, if not directly, were responsible for this anomaly.
The professor and director of the International Centre for Work and Family at the IESE Business School, Nuria Chinchilla , has been arguing the case for some years for Spain to revert to GMT. Congress wants to consider the socioeconomic impact of her proposal because the change would have a number of consequences for the very nature of life and especially for eating habits.
Professor Chinchilla has pointed out that in Spain lunch is determined by the importance placed on solar time (and mean solar time was the system before GMT was introduced), resulting, because of the current CET system, in lunch being taken at three in the afternoon in summer (or two in winter). Dinner follows this pattern, which is why Spaniards eat at ten in the evening in summer. Because of this, and although there certainly are businesses which don't bother opening until ten in the morning or later, no one should start work before ten. But they do of course and they habitually get an hour's less sleep than they should do because they have been going to bed too late.
Reverting to GMT is just one aspect of what has been a debate about "time" which has been going on for several years. Professor Chinchilla presented her proposal at something called the Congress for Rationalisation of Spanish Schedules in December last year. It was the seventh such congress. There is a national commission that bears the title of this congress and, as can be seen by the fact that parliament wants a study, a parliamentary commission as well. Another key point for debate, and it partly has to do with when people eat, is the working day in Spain. Essentially, there is a desire to see the tradition of the siesta scrapped, to ensure that the typical working day starts between 7.30am and 9am and ends by 6pm, to eradicate the mid-morning "breakfast", which can last anything up to an hour, and to limit lunch breaks to no more than 45 minutes.
The impact of introducing GMT and of a fundamental alteration to the daily pattern of life would be profound. Or it would be profound in theory. In practice one wonders. It would take a great deal to make the Spaniard change the habits of a lifetime or of a lunchtime, while passing any meaningful legislation which might impose all this could take ... . Well, who knows how long it might take? Time moves at its own very Spanish pace. And there is, after all, always mañana.
While there was debate about an alteration under the Daylight Saving Bill (which failed to complete its passage through parliament) and while it might be possible that the UK might one day end up on Central European Time, in Spain there is a possibility that time would go in the opposite direction; Spain's Congress has called for a socioeconomic study to be undertaken into switching Spain's "time" to match that of the UK.
If you turn the clock back over a hundred years - to 1901 - you will discover that Spain adopted Greenwich Mean Time in that year. Spain was on the same time system as the UK until 1940. When Germany, which had an hour's difference, i.e. "Berlin Time" (now Central European Time), invaded France, which at the start of the Second World War was also on GMT, the Nazis changed the French system to match that of Germany. The Spanish decided to follow the new French model, and so it has been ever since.
The Greenwich Meridian runs through Spain in a line that corresponds, for example, with the location of Castellón in Valencia. Consequently, and although Mallorca is therefore to the east, mostly all of Spain is to the west, just like Portugal, which is on GMT (as, by the way, are the Canaries). Spain's Central European Time is in fact an anomaly. Or just wrong, and it was the Nazis who, if not directly, were responsible for this anomaly.
The professor and director of the International Centre for Work and Family at the IESE Business School, Nuria Chinchilla , has been arguing the case for some years for Spain to revert to GMT. Congress wants to consider the socioeconomic impact of her proposal because the change would have a number of consequences for the very nature of life and especially for eating habits.
Professor Chinchilla has pointed out that in Spain lunch is determined by the importance placed on solar time (and mean solar time was the system before GMT was introduced), resulting, because of the current CET system, in lunch being taken at three in the afternoon in summer (or two in winter). Dinner follows this pattern, which is why Spaniards eat at ten in the evening in summer. Because of this, and although there certainly are businesses which don't bother opening until ten in the morning or later, no one should start work before ten. But they do of course and they habitually get an hour's less sleep than they should do because they have been going to bed too late.
Reverting to GMT is just one aspect of what has been a debate about "time" which has been going on for several years. Professor Chinchilla presented her proposal at something called the Congress for Rationalisation of Spanish Schedules in December last year. It was the seventh such congress. There is a national commission that bears the title of this congress and, as can be seen by the fact that parliament wants a study, a parliamentary commission as well. Another key point for debate, and it partly has to do with when people eat, is the working day in Spain. Essentially, there is a desire to see the tradition of the siesta scrapped, to ensure that the typical working day starts between 7.30am and 9am and ends by 6pm, to eradicate the mid-morning "breakfast", which can last anything up to an hour, and to limit lunch breaks to no more than 45 minutes.
The impact of introducing GMT and of a fundamental alteration to the daily pattern of life would be profound. Or it would be profound in theory. In practice one wonders. It would take a great deal to make the Spaniard change the habits of a lifetime or of a lunchtime, while passing any meaningful legislation which might impose all this could take ... . Well, who knows how long it might take? Time moves at its own very Spanish pace. And there is, after all, always mañana.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Time Of Day: Working hours and productivity
Did you know that there is a national commission in Spain dedicated to the rationalisation of timetables (Comisión Nacional para la Racionalización de los Horarios Españoles)? Well, you do now.
The title is a bit misleading. This commission isn't concerned with the "horarios" of buses or trains but with working hours. It wants, among other things, to bring the Spanish working day into line with most of Europe. In other words, the siesta would go.
The commission does not seek to make working days longer (the Spaniards already, contrary to what might be thought, tend to work longer than most Europeans). What it does seek is greater productivity, and Spain's productivity is one of Europe's lowest. Longer hours do not mean more productivity, as anyone, bar the most macho of managers, can tell you.
If it has its way, the commission would apply greater conformity to the working day, with 9-5 becoming more of the norm insofar as it can be said to be the norm anywhere nowadays. It would also like Spain to switch back to Greenwich Mean Time (some sixty years after abandoning it), a move, it reckons, that would aid productivity. Not that it does in Portugal where productivity is lower still.
There are a number of reasons for low productivity, not all of them to do with the siesta and the afternoon break, but some specifically are - phone calls not being taken; erratic schedules for appointments to fit around the break; too much commuting (in effect, four rush hours a day); too much food and potentially too much sleep.
To these can be added more general problems of higher levels of absenteeism than in other countries; lack of punctuality; too much time spent on meetings which aren't necessarily meetings just excuses for a chat and often in a café; and too little sleep (although some might nod off into a deep sleep in the afternoon, which is not a good idea, most don't but also don't sleep enough at night).
While there may once have been a sound reason for the siesta, and still is for those engaged in farming or labouring, there is less justification for it in what is now an advanced economy. Within the public sector there has been some attempt to move towards a 9-5 regime; the Ministry of Public Administration, for instance, has encouraged these hours. But there has been only limited success, and there is also the fact that many public offices which close at one or two o'clock then don't re-open later.
Coming into line with how business operates in other European countries would not be the only advantage for a realignment of the working day. Another would be that it would meet the demands of changing lifestyles. It isn't only the British, the Germans and other northern Europeans who get frustrated by the afternoon break, so also do increasing numbers of Spaniards. A further advantage would be to attack what is still something of a bureaucratic culture within business, as opposed to an entrepreneurial one.
Playing around with hours and time is, however, something of a challenge for a society that treats time with such disregard. This is no more than the case than with "mediodía". Just as lunch is literally a movable feast - any time you want it to be really - so also is midday. The vagueness of Mallorcan and Spanish time is probably the greatest culture clash that a northern European has to contend with. Midday is hardly ever twelve o'clock, but an appointment may be made for "mediodía", the exact time of which is anyone's guess. And whether the appointment is actually met is another matter; often it will not be because one man's one o'clock is another man's two-thirty.
This vagueness also leads to the almost unknown concept of punctuality. The word exists - "puntualidad" - but few have ever learnt what it means. I once turned up for an appointment bang on nine in the evening, as had been the arrangement. "Muy puntual," was the surprised comment. "I am English," I responded only half-jokingly.
For nine to five to become normal practice would require a pretty major shift in behaviour and culture, and, as with everything else, there is a tradition to be preserved, the siesta most obviously.
The commission for timetables faces opposition, such as that from the National Association of Friends of the Siesta. And yes, there really is one, and in October last year it held its first siesta championship. Seriously, there was a competition to judge the best siesta-ist. The commission may want to rationalise hours, but it will never be able to rationalise the irrational.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The title is a bit misleading. This commission isn't concerned with the "horarios" of buses or trains but with working hours. It wants, among other things, to bring the Spanish working day into line with most of Europe. In other words, the siesta would go.
The commission does not seek to make working days longer (the Spaniards already, contrary to what might be thought, tend to work longer than most Europeans). What it does seek is greater productivity, and Spain's productivity is one of Europe's lowest. Longer hours do not mean more productivity, as anyone, bar the most macho of managers, can tell you.
If it has its way, the commission would apply greater conformity to the working day, with 9-5 becoming more of the norm insofar as it can be said to be the norm anywhere nowadays. It would also like Spain to switch back to Greenwich Mean Time (some sixty years after abandoning it), a move, it reckons, that would aid productivity. Not that it does in Portugal where productivity is lower still.
There are a number of reasons for low productivity, not all of them to do with the siesta and the afternoon break, but some specifically are - phone calls not being taken; erratic schedules for appointments to fit around the break; too much commuting (in effect, four rush hours a day); too much food and potentially too much sleep.
To these can be added more general problems of higher levels of absenteeism than in other countries; lack of punctuality; too much time spent on meetings which aren't necessarily meetings just excuses for a chat and often in a café; and too little sleep (although some might nod off into a deep sleep in the afternoon, which is not a good idea, most don't but also don't sleep enough at night).
While there may once have been a sound reason for the siesta, and still is for those engaged in farming or labouring, there is less justification for it in what is now an advanced economy. Within the public sector there has been some attempt to move towards a 9-5 regime; the Ministry of Public Administration, for instance, has encouraged these hours. But there has been only limited success, and there is also the fact that many public offices which close at one or two o'clock then don't re-open later.
Coming into line with how business operates in other European countries would not be the only advantage for a realignment of the working day. Another would be that it would meet the demands of changing lifestyles. It isn't only the British, the Germans and other northern Europeans who get frustrated by the afternoon break, so also do increasing numbers of Spaniards. A further advantage would be to attack what is still something of a bureaucratic culture within business, as opposed to an entrepreneurial one.
Playing around with hours and time is, however, something of a challenge for a society that treats time with such disregard. This is no more than the case than with "mediodía". Just as lunch is literally a movable feast - any time you want it to be really - so also is midday. The vagueness of Mallorcan and Spanish time is probably the greatest culture clash that a northern European has to contend with. Midday is hardly ever twelve o'clock, but an appointment may be made for "mediodía", the exact time of which is anyone's guess. And whether the appointment is actually met is another matter; often it will not be because one man's one o'clock is another man's two-thirty.
This vagueness also leads to the almost unknown concept of punctuality. The word exists - "puntualidad" - but few have ever learnt what it means. I once turned up for an appointment bang on nine in the evening, as had been the arrangement. "Muy puntual," was the surprised comment. "I am English," I responded only half-jokingly.
For nine to five to become normal practice would require a pretty major shift in behaviour and culture, and, as with everything else, there is a tradition to be preserved, the siesta most obviously.
The commission for timetables faces opposition, such as that from the National Association of Friends of the Siesta. And yes, there really is one, and in October last year it held its first siesta championship. Seriously, there was a competition to judge the best siesta-ist. The commission may want to rationalise hours, but it will never be able to rationalise the irrational.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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