5 Countries with the Longest Lunch Breaks in the World

Three hours for eating and napping.

The Spanish take their siesta from 2 pm to 5 pm.
The Greeks take their time to eat lunch, their biggest meal of the day.
Factory workers in China are allowed to take power naps.

Most employees get only an hour of lunch break everyday. We all know one hour is not much, but we still make the most of it and somehow manage to chow down our meals, run mid-day errands, and have a quick smoke break before we get back to our desks.

This is why we can only sit back and weep upon learning that some counties have way more generous lunch breaks like say, three hours. THREE HOURS. Imagine the refreshing naps we can squeeze in after lunch!

So if you are tired of the usual one-hour lunch break, you need to find work in these countries:

Spain – 3 Hours

Most probably, you have heard of the famous Spanish siesta. This is no joke. In Spain, offices normally take a break between 2 pm to 5 pm. That leaves them around three more hours for working before they quit for the day.

How on Earth do they manage it, you ask? Well, people in Spain normally have late dinners, around 10 pm. Also, the weather outside starts to become hot from 2 pm, which affects employee productivity so they might as well use the downtime for rest.

Greece – 3 hours

Unlike the Spanish who makes use of the break time for resting, the Greeks use it for eating. See, lunch is the biggest meal of the day for most Greeks and they are not the type to hurry up to finish their meal just to get back to work. After eating at home, they nap around 2 pm and then return to work at 5 pm.

China – 2 hours

Those who work in China get to eat and nap between noon and 2 pm. Employers believe in power naps and so they allow factory workers to take 30-minute naps.

France – 2 hours

Shop owners in France usually shut down between 2 pm to 4 pm. This period is considered the universal lunch break for both working adults and school kids alike.

According to a survey featured in the French digital publication thelocal.fr, 43 percent of the workers in France spend more than 45 minutes eating their lunch everyday.

Brazil – 2 hours

Workers in Brazil are smart when it comes to managing their work days. They will usually schedule out-of-office meetings for 10:30 am or 11 am. Afterwards, they take a two-hour lunch break. Like Spain, Brazilian workers have very late dinners, which allows them to work later.