Whatever happened to the Danish lunch break?
There’s something funny about the Danish lunch break. It doesn’t really exist. It’s 30 minutes of quick eating, a short chat and then straight back to work. Is this a good idea?
As an Englishman, I grew up in world where lunch is long and leisurely. In the UK, a one-hour lunch is considered the minumum and two hours is not unheard of. People use their lunch breaks to rest, read the newspaper or do some stuff in town. I remember my teenage years working on building sites where the one-hour lunch was the most wonderful time of day. Starving after a morning’s work, I’d eat slowly and then still have 25 minutes to find a quiet spot in the shade for a quick nap. Wonderful.
In Denmark, you barely have time to swallow before it’s back to work - which at first glance seems pretty paltry. But, there’s a huge upside to this. In the UK, it’s not unusual to start work at 9am and not get home until well past 6pm. Sure, you can enjoy a long lunch, but isn’t that time better spent at home with your family? With the short Danish lunch break, people often leave work around 4 pm - and have a full evening ahead of them.
There’s also the beauty of the Danish canteen. My brother was on a visit recently and I told him the story of a Danish friend of mine who took the quality of the canteen into consideration when taking a job. My brother was (a) shocked that this was important to him and (b) surprised that so many work places have a canteen. I guess if you only have 30 minutes to eat, you don’t have time to pop out to the sandwich shop - so having food provided is essential.
December 19th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Paltry, you say!? Picture yourself at an agency in the U.S. You get to the office, work straight through the day, dropping your sandwich crumbs into your keyboard as you email, talk on the phone, and down a coke at the same time. Then, when you’re about to check out at 7:00, your boss stops you in your tracks with a, “And where are YOU going.” No question mark there because it’s rhetorical. And then you’re back at your desk for a bit more face time, with a leftover cookie to drown your sorrows.
Denmark is a HOLIDAY!
December 21st, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Yes - I guess Denmark is a holiday. A few years ago I read a book about the seven deadly sins by Dan Savage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Savage
In the chapter on sloth, there were some pretty scary stats - it’s old data (from 2001) but I guess it hasn’t changed that much - and I’m too lazy to find more up-to-date stats.
So here goes:
- 20% of American said they never went on vacations (33% had too much work to take time off and 11% were worried that if they took a vacation they’d lose their jobs)
- Americans work longer hours than the citizens of any other industrialised nation
- The average American works 49.5 weeks a year (3.5 weeks more than the Japanese)
- 32% of Americans eat lunch and work simultaneously
As I said, those stats are old…but still, Denmark is heaven in comparison!