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Spanish Siesta Culture Lets Entrepreneur Turn Naps Into Gold (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report: There's little that's more Spanish than the afternoon siesta. As the mid-day sun goes up, businesses in small-town Spain pull down their shutters for a traditional nap. In big urban centers, modern business trends have ended that habit, leaving many Spaniards who work long hours exhausted. Now, Maria Estrella Jorro de Inza has found a way to bring back the siesta, making money while her countrymen nap. Bankers, lawyers and consultants catch up on their sleep at Siesta and Go -- Madrid's first nap-bar located in Azca, in the heart of the city's financial district that's home to firms like HSBC, Google and Deloitte. The concept is simple: for just 14 euros ($16) an hour, you get to unwind and take a power nap in a private bedroom before heading back to work. "It's funny that we're known for the siesta, but we haven't been professional about it," said De Inza, the nap-bar's 32-year-old founder. "We get a lot of men in suits who just want to relax and women wanting to take their heels off. Lunch break is the busiest time."
I wish that more employers whose workers didn't do shift-work or didn't have to work closely with other people were more flexible about downtime during the day. There have been days when a quick 30 minute nap would've really benefited me, but I've seen coworkers get in trouble when discovered asleep at their desks.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
...a hotel that's pay by the hour. I don't know why nobody has ever thought of this before!
I worked in Spain for a while, but it was a German company so we kept "normal" office hours. To be fair, our building had decent aircon so the heat wasn't so bad.
What was funny (to us) was turning up at restaurants around 9 p.m. and finding them setting up.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Man, there are days I'd actually pay $16 to crash out on a real bed at lunchtime instead of snoozing in the front seats of my vehicle in the parking lot. I may fold up rather well but it doesn't mean I wouldn't like to stretch out.
"We get a lot of men in suits who just want to relax and women wanting to take their heels off. Lunch break is the busiest time."
Know what I mean?
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Mmmmmm the word afternoon does exist in spanish, is "tarde".
One guy with a jackhammer out front can drive away all your business.
There are places like this in Japan, one a few minutes walk from my work place in Downtown Tokyo. It's basically sound proof, clean, even offers some tea etc. They are great.
I am spanish, and the nap thing is a thing of the past. We work 10-12 hour shifts, we are basically the slaves of Europe.
We'd love to nap, though.
In the center-south of Spain with temperatures that can reach 40C in the summer it would be tough for farmers to work in the field during the hotest hours.
That's the burning question.
The word 'afternoon' does not exist in Spanish nor does the concept exist in Spanish minds. They eat between 3-5 p.m.
La palabra es "tarde"... that's pronounced tar-day not tard, which would be you.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
That's the hour where the people here begin to have dinner, so it's sensible. Schedules in Spain are offsetted by 2-3 hours, due to our peculiar timetables and the relative daylight hours.
Restaurants and meals in Spain generally are a different thing than in anglo-centered countries. They have very heavy social component to it, as if it were a party of sorts. And we enjoy good food. Very hobbit-like, so to speak.
The word 'afternoon' does not exist in Spanish nor does the concept exist in Spanish minds. They eat between 3-5 p.m.
Which planet is your Spain in? On this one, "tarde" means afternoon and evening - and in tropical and sub-tropical realms, the day fades slowly compared to an English December.
Hispanic countries often don't have actual dinner until about 10:00pm.
I think it's a general thing in Romantic countries - France and Italy are similar. My dad was convinced there's something about Italian beer and wine because while on a trip in Italy, he'd have a drink with dinner and not feel the effects as much as back here in Canada. I simply pointed out that our dinners in Italy typically lasted 2-3 hours with his drink lasting the entire time. While back home, the dinner is over in half an hour or so.
A slow dinner is a very nice thing to do on a vacation, and I know France/Italy/Spain have it as a social event.
And we're not talking about "fine dining" experiences either - I don't think the meals were particularly expensive (or the food particularly upscale), so it's really more an experience where eating happens to be a component of it. And no, you don't leave hungry or wish for the food to come out faster - it comes out "fast enough" while you enjoy the entertainment and time passes quickly. You might start dinner at 7pm and before you realize, it's 9pm when you finish dessert.