Spanish "jornada"

There is the schedule of the most successful business in my neighborhood, the cobbler: 35 hours a week. If this business in good times goes well, in times of crisis it fares even better.

The "Spanish" schedule of my shoemaker is one of the most irrational in the world and is known as "split-day". It prevents the worker to do anything after a day's work, keeps the work - family balance untenable and prevents civilized dinner hours. It, however, permits the nap, the greater Spanish invention of all times. Note that the shoemaker takes 2 hours of rest at midday (enough time to go home, eat, take a nap and come back). By the time our cobbler opens at 16:30, European workers are beginning to pick up and store their tools to go back home.

The irrationality of the Spanish work schedule has led to the creation of the Association for the Rationalization of Spanish Hours (ARHO), which is not to be taken as a joke, as it has already made its first Congress , with  the honorary presidency of, no less, than the King of Spain.

But there are worse things. If the split - time work schedule is irrational, the continuous work schedule of the public officials is a real scam. These, theoretically work from 8 to 15h, with half an hour break in-between (the famous breakfast of public workers). In practice, they arrive at 9 o'clock and live at 14 hours. If we discount the smoke breaks, we have about 4 hours of actual work. That is, 20 hours a week, which throws productivity to unfathomable depths. But officials do not hold conferences to streamline schedules. It looks they are fine with what they have.