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“It’s kind of a strict thing. It’s easy to make, easy to carry around, easy to eat, but it should be a disappointment“ I am a non Norwegian living in Norway. I
by vinni2 8y ago
“It’s kind of a strict thing. It’s easy to make, easy to carry around, easy to eat, but it should be a disappointment“
I am a non Norwegian living in Norway. I can confirm that it is almost all the time disappointing. Also it is a strange practice to have short lunch breaks. When I was in Germany 1 hour lunch break was common. But in Norway 30 minutes is more common. It is too short even with a matpakke. It’s too rushed when it is an organized lunch say for a workshop or a conference.
- znpy 8y agoItalian here. We have 1-hour lunch breaks between 13:00 and 14:00, which is usually long enough to eat our meals, have a cup of coffee and mess around a little with colleagues. Sometimes (but very rarely) my colleagues from my team and me go have lunch at some fancier place and completely miss the 1-hour time limit (by a lot). This is kinda tolerated because it happens very rarely, but I can assure that this is awesome for team building. Nothing gets people closer than "we took a 2.5h lunch break and we're all equally responsible for it".
- hirundo 8y agoGDP per capita from the IMF, 2017: Norway: $70,590 Italy: $37,970 I doubt the difference is much from longer Italian lunches, but the same cultural differences may well be responsible for both longer lunches and lower productivity.
- mathattack 8y agoNorwegian oil has a lot to do with this too.
- paulpauper 8y agoAnd possibly IQ too . There is a high correlation between national IQ and GDP per capita.
- cuchoi 8y agoThe average IQ of Italy and Norway is practically the same.
- paulpauper 8y agoHigh correlation is not the same as perfect correlation https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IQatWoN_GDP_IQ.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IQatWoN_GDP_IQ.png
- mort96 8y agoIsn't it pretty widely accepted that your IQ, at least as measured by IQ tests, aren't a perfect measure of your "intrinsic" intelligence; that environmental factors contribute to IQ test results? If environmental factors do indeed contribute to IQ scores, doesn't it seem pretty plausible that lower GDP per capita, which results in changes to environmental factors such as education, might result in lower IQ scores, rather than the other way around? It'd be interesting to read studies which investigate whether there's a causal link between IQ and GDP per capita, and if there is one, which one causes the other.
- maxxxxx 8y agoMaybe high IQ people move to areas with a lot of oil?
- paulpauper 8y agohow about South Korea
- marvin 8y agoSweden would be a better comparison, with a GDP per capita of $53,442, which is about 50% higher than Italy's. Sweden is culturally very similar to Norway. I have no doubt that certain cultural aspects of Southern Europe have a huge impact on their countries' GDP, long lunches and a more relaxed attitude towards labor (not to mention taxes and corruption!) among them. In Scandinavia, the Protestant work ethic is still deeply ingrained in the culture, and this shows.
- fixvzbdjzis 8y agoGod bless the Swedes, the per capita largest merchant of weapons in the world. Sweden: enjoy your feminism with a side of slaughter folks!
- mathattack 8y agoCorruption too. And off the books businesses. (Which perhaps underpform, and definitely are undermeasured)
- johnchristopher 8y agoDo you think the Protestant work ethic can be beneficial to an individual ? Or does it work only on a larger scale ?
- marvin 8y agoAh, sorry for the late reply here. This actually touches on something I've been thinking about recently. It's probably got its advantages and disadvantages on an individual level. You'd most likely be regarded as an attractive worker, but would at the same time have to be careful not to get taken advantage of. I think many who have this work ethic fall into the trap of the latter point, and that this is systematically abused some places. E.g. Scandinavia, where people pay _massive_ amounts of tax and at the same time voluntarily work unpaid overtime for low-pay public-sector jobs such as nursing, in a misunderstood loyalty to their patients. And it necessarily leaves less time and space for non-work-related activities. So it meshes poorly with hedonism. But happiness can certainly come from fitting in with a role and excelling at something.
- vinni2 8y agoI wonder what would be Norway economically today without it’s oil. More like Iceland may be.
- mathattack 8y agoIceland is a tough comparison due to a disproportionately large financial sector relative to population. Perhaps Sweden or Denmark would be closer? I’ve never been to Scandinavia. All this talk makes me want to visit.
- vinni2 8y agoI deliberately didn’t compare to Sweden and Denmark because historically they are more technologically advanced they have achieved similar quality of living without oil (no offense to Norway). Norway on the other hand was a country of farmers and fishermen. Not much technological or industrial progress before the oil boom. Which is why I compared it to Iceland.
- baxtr 8y agoLife expectancy from the World Bank, 2016: Norway: 82.51 Italy: 82.54 I doubt the difference is much from longer Italian lunches, but the same cultural differences may well be responsible for both longer lunches and higher life expectancy.
- objectivetruth 8y agoI get your point in response to the parent post, but I think most people would choose to die 11 days earlier in their old age in exchange for double lifetime earnings :-)
- Scoundreller 8y agoI understand that teachers in France used to be able to order a pitcher of wine at the cafeteria as well.
- markbnj 8y agoYou remind me of a business trip to Italy some 25 years ago, when I visited a factory outside Florence and was shocked to see small bottles of wine served in the employee lunchroom for the mid-day meal. I don't know if this practice is still common in Italy or other parts of Europe, but the thing that amazed me was that the plant was industrial, and most of the employees left the lunchroom and went back to operating moving machinery.
- ghaff 8y agoIt used to be much more commonplace in the US to have alcohol at business lunches than it now is. But, even at that time, the company I was working for at the time had very strict rules prohibiting alcohol in an industrial setting--and, indeed, on company property more broadly.
- carlob 8y agoThe cafeteria of the place where I went to grad school in Paris still serves wine. I also know of at least one research institution in the US that serves wine at the cafeteria.
- atombender 8y agoWhy is it disappointing? Didn't you pack it yourself? Norwegians make the matpakke they want to eat. (Source: Am Norwegian.)
- funtastique 8y agoLets start with variety-pricing that EU gets and get it into NOR food stores, then we will talk rest.
- Scoundreller 8y agoGrabbing a dish of leftovers from the fridge that needs to be re-heated and then cleaning the dish seems like it will rob 10-20% of the limited time. Would colleagues be offended in any way if your dish was particularly aromatic once reheated?
- atombender 8y agoNo. Norwegian love Indian food, for example, and there are several popular Scandinavian foods that are a bit smelly. Most people don't bring leftovers, though. They typically pack open sandwiches that they make themselves. A lot of companies have kitchen areas that they keep stocked. People typically make sandwiches (open, again!) and salads. I've never seen anyone hear anything in a microwave.
- tallanvor 8y agoAt least the office I work in, nobody would care if you took an hour for lunch as long as you're getting your work done. And nobody is watching to see if you're putting in more or less than your 37.5 hours/week unless they think you're not doing your share of the work.