Everyone knows about the Mexican siesta, the closing of stores and businesses between roughly 1-3 or 1-4 PM every day, and then reopening until around 8 or 9 PM. During this time, the Mexicans typically have their large, hot meal of the day and relax with their families. One of the things that wasn’t immediately apparent to us is that this long mid-day break also results in basically one “shift” being able to cover the full business day. Since many Mexican businesses are small and narrowly focused, this one-shift approach also enables one person to cover the full business day and still only work 8 hours. It appears that most grocery stores, from the “mini-supers” (which are ubiquitous; sometimes it seems they make up the majority of the buildings in some small roadside communities) don’t close for siesta, but still use the “all family” staffing plan. Kids as young as 7 or 8 help with the bagging of groceries, or dusting the shelves. The universal dust in this dry climate with lots of dirt roads is just a fact of life. Another difference in the approach to work is the pace that is expected of people working in the shops. It’s clear that people here just don’t have to “appear busy” like they do at home. It’s ok to sit with your co-workers (often family), friends, or customers and just visit. Clearly this reduces “productivity” but it appears that connection and civility is valued more. Not bad, just different. If you want to see a contrast in cultures, it’s easy to do. Just go from a small Mexican shop down the road, and then into a Wal-Mart or Home Depot (in a big city) where the signs at the latter are in Spanish, but the culture is American.
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