I can offer you table on the terrace to eat at half past four. It’s a little late, yes. We start at one and the rest I have full. In the luxury beach bar where they prepare some killer paellas in front of the sea, they lengthen the hours to eat, but It is still impossible to be served at 12. France is far away and the staff does not yet follow European timetables. of course later the theater starts at eight; there we have advanced. We’ll have dinner afterwards; before, impossible. It will be easy to find a restaurant with the kitchen open until midnight. As tomorrow is a holiday, then the disorder does not matter much. And on weekdays, Has anything changed since, in 2014, an interdisciplinary group, led by Fabián Mohedano, pushed for a time reform so that we do not unproductively lengthen the working day, with a lunch break, going to bed late and sleeping less than the European average? Not to mention reconciliation. Will you go to pick up the child from school at half past four in the afternoon? That extracurriculars don’t start until October! As you know, the hourly discussion is also pedagogical. From Germany to Portugal, the proposal to open schools with extended hours, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. it is already a reality.
I am optimistic and I dare to say that let’s go better, especially as a result of the flexibility and teleworking measures that many companies adopted after confinement due to covid-19. In April 2020, the municipal manager of Barcelona, social psychologist, Sara Berbel, issued an instruction for public workers, which included an enormous time rationalization, exemplary and internationally referenced. From April 2022, Barcelona is the first world capital of time politics and spokesperson for the Network of Local and Regional Governments. The challenge is international. These days we attend the first Ibero-American Week of schedules and time. Inaugural conference: ‘The key to happiness: the right to time’.
The second vice-presidency and the Ministry of Labor push for a future time use law, and are technically supported by the BTUI (Barcelona Time Use Initiative), that prepares a theoretical and practical study with concrete proposals.
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From the UPF-BSM Leadership in Business Observatory, We have studied how the lack of digital disconnection entails damages, for both business productivity and personal well-being. We are currently investigating what measures are being carried out by companies that place time as a key factor in business profit and personal well-being, focusing in the companies of the NUST (New Social Uses of Time) network. Studies and much more social pedagogical awareness are necessary. But I already advance that flexible hours is a trend and a key element not only to attract, but to retain talent. In young people and qualified workers. If working time is managed well, there is life for life.
* Sílvia Cóppulo is a member of the Advisory Council of Experts of the BTUI (Barcelona Time Use Initiative).