VMaybe the medical officers are just ready for vacation, the pandemic, the lack of staff, now the heat – you can’t blame anyone for longing for Spain, after all, the siesta there is an intangible cultural heritage. It is also good for the top medical officer in Germany that he will soon be leaving for southern regions. The only thing that we find a bit strange is that he wants to take us all there, officially, so to speak.
In the summer months, German workers should adapt to the way people work in southern countries and take a long siesta, he says. Why not regulate in the workplace ordinance that the offices are locked at midday and the WLAN is turned off? In the paternalistic view of the world, one prefers not to orientate oneself beyond the borders, but rather stays with oneself in Germany. Otherwise, the chief medical officer might have noticed that the Spaniards are now looking north when it comes to organizing their day-to-day work.
relic of patriarchal structures
The long siesta worked particularly well in patriarchal and village structures, where the commutes to work are short and the women are at home. At lunchtime, the whole family gathers around the dining table, and after the siesta, each member goes his own way. But when both parents commute from the suburbs to Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia during the week, the dining table at home remains empty at lunchtime. The downside of the long lunch break is the extension of the working hours into the evening. In Spain, not only are two-hour lunch breaks the norm, but also business meetings at 8 p.m.
For many parents, this is dreadful, as it means that family time in the evening is limited to kissing goodnight. Instead of spending the late hours with the children, she kills them at midday, since most shops and offices don’t have a sofa ready for a clerk or secretary to sleep on in the midday heat. Therefore, after a well-deserved summer break, we recommend that you reconsider whether we want to adapt our working methods to Spain in the future, the country with the second lowest birth rate in Europe. Maybe we should look north instead. In Scandinavia, working hours end at 4 p.m. After that, mother and father have time for the family. And it’s enough to rest too.
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