So This Is Why The Spanish Are Lazy

Now I know why the Spanish are so LAZY its the damned HEAT 

AFTER three weeks of this HOT SUNNY weather it DRAINS you its the LONGEST spell of this weather I can remember and its set to CARRY on 

HOW do the BRITISH manage in SPAINS MID summer heat I DONT know

 Rod I have been here for 15 years and have spent every summer here in Spain or the islands and you quite simply do not get used to it, ever. The worst spell I suffered was in Seville in mid August, quite unbearable. It certainly does drain you so the best you can do is avoid the heat until the afternoon, stay indoors or look for the sea breeze at the beach.  It seems just like another summer to me every year is like an fan-oven, the heat is far more bearable if you don't have humidity, here in Valencia the humidity is horrible and sticky, in Ciudad Real it is hotter but far easier to handle as it is a dry heat.

Sometimes it makes me feel like moving up north!

Winters can be quite cold in Spain.  What's their excuse then?

I don't wish to offend anyone, but this thread is absurd.  First off the derogatory generalisation about the Spanish is innappropriate. 

Secondly it's simply not actually that hot, at least not yet.  It's a bit sticky tonight, but c'mon guys this is not vaguely as hot as it can be.  

A few years ago - I think it was 2008 it was up to 40C or so in July and that was worth taking about, this is nothing - we've not even thought about using the A/C yet! 

Now i know why Rod CANT write PROPERLY, the HEAT has got to HIM

Well i am just going to upset a few people now with the cold truth. Spanish people are generally hard workers and hard "players"

I have worked all over the world apart from Australasia and can honestly say it is us British that are one of the laziest nations in the world but we seem to think we are one of the hardest working nations . I can remember working in Africa and a colleague remarking how lazy the locals were and needed "us Brits" to keep them going. This colleague spent most days surfing the internet.

My father and his brother had the same mindset until I told them when visiting my Spanish villa to watch the workers on the site over the road carefully. They apologised upon returning to UK and agreed with me.

We should stop believing the politicians bulling the UK workforce up and try actually working as hard as we believe we do. The Uk is going to the dogs.

Kyote,

Most of your post makes sense to me, but the last comment "the Uk is going to the dogs" is a bit OTT.  The UK is facing some harsh realities and is now dealing with at least some of the anomalies - I'm not a Tory but IDS has got it right in trying to eradicate the sheer number of spongers that we have who've been lovingly cultivated by the Blair and Brown administrations.
 

The NHS and Social support are marvellous in many ways, but there is a class of people who would ruin them if they were allowed to, by their own greed.
 

I believe it is both wrong and inaccurate to label the whole Spanish nation as "lazy".  There are thousands who would happily work their butts off for €50 a day if they had the chance.  In actual fact I would say that in general terms the Spanish have a better work ethic than the Brits.  Where the Spanish fall down is not the "blue" collar workers it's the extraordinary beaurocracy that pervades Spanish offices, banks, town halls etc where the norm is to find reasons to be obstructive.

The present temperature has absolutely nothing to do with it.  I woke up this morning feeling cold as I had slept with the window open.  When you have a serious heatwave it's hot all the time, not just when the sun is out.

IMHO the Spanish are not "lazy" - on average they work longer and harder than the average Brit.  But they often just seem to lack real leadership to give them a size 9 up their rear orifice to get them away from their  "no can do" culture which is too frequently experienced.

 

I don't believe the Spanish are lazy.  They do have a different way of working which us Brits often cannot understand.  I know builders and farmers who work late into the night - and are sensible enough not to even try to work in the heat of a summer's afternoon.  It does have to get pretty hot though for them to stop work.  They just drink lots of water and carry on. After 25 years in Spain, I definitely do not believe that the Spanish are in any way lazy.  We Brits could take a leaf out of their book - at least they don't rely on hand outs from the state. As Kyote says, the Brits have encouraged  the hand out culture in Britain by Blair and Brown.  The UK has had it.

If anyone thinks the Brits are not lazy try employing them, okay so any race will dodge a few hours of here and their but when it comes to excuse's for being late, cant turn up, doing nothing...you wont beat a Brit.

I get a few letters a month asking if i have any jobs going, out of ten letters i bet i cant read  nine due to the bad writing, now i am not knocking the grammer, look at mine, but name a household that hasn't a computor to type out a readable letter these days, sometimes it's even been like as in a text they send..."C u tomrow b wit u 9 cool"

Advertise for labour, wait in for them to turn up, or rather not turn up, if they do an hour late.

How are we supposed to compete with the basic wage at around £292.00 a week when this dopey mob has just put a cap on benefits of £500,00 per week married couple, and about £360,00 for a single person. They give out about £70.00 per week if your looking for work, plus the cash in hand, car boot, gardening, painting, etc.

A Bulgarian chap who does some work for me will go out late at night if i wanted it, work sunday mornings and afternoon, the Brit stops Friday about 4pm until Monday morning about 9.30am, once he's had a cup of tea.....Yes your correct....the UK has had it!

I have to admit that I thought that Rod was referring to the heat in the UK at the moment.........my mistake!

Have to agree that I don't think that any nationality has a monopoly on laziness.

M

I wonder if  baz can live on 292 pounds a week without benefits.  Perhaps if they paid a living wage more would want to work for him. He must remember that the east of Europe  is just emerging from the communist dictators and are thankful of any pay. The day will come when he will not be able to exploit them.

I wonder if baz can live on 292 pounds a week without benefits. Perhaps if they paid a living wage more would want to work for him. He must remember that the east of Europe is just emerging from the communist dictators and are thankful of any pay. The day will come when he will not be able to exploit them.

No i dont choose to live on £292.00 a week, thats why i dont pay my staff that low amount...when i could get them, try double that. Plenty of jobs do pay the minimum wage though, i dont.

Some do want to work for me, plenty in fact ask me but when i make the arrangment for the easy short interview they either dont turn up, or turn up late, dont want to do 45 hours a week, cant work Sats, overtime..er let me think about that one.

As of late i have stopped taking anyone on, in fact getting rid of quite a few,  many of my staff are Ladies and have been with me for years, now they do work and turn up on time....mind you i do have to take the stick from them.

I dont exploit any Eastern people, where did that come from? your lips,  if you had read what i posted you would see what i wrote, "A Bulgarian chap who does some work for me" blah blah, i dont employ him, he is self employed but when i need him he does the work, on time, every time,  not once have i knocked him on the amount he ask's for, in fact quite a few times i told him "Thats to low" and paid a bit more.

Dont bother to try and remind me or lecture me about any communist dictators either, unless you or your loved one comes from one of these places.

Acer...spot on with the remark RE paperwork/beaurocracy It can be a nightmare and one reason why I pay all the HARD working locals cash in hand. Which is another reason why Spain is failing. Yes I am to blame also

I still have to pinch myself what I can get regards quality work at a fraction of the price of what I get in UK.

ROD, Which part of Spain are you in ?  Not where I am or I would have seen you for sure.

Baz1946

Love your posts  they really make me smile, and are usually spot-on, we obviously think the same way

Acer...spot on with the remark RE paperwork/beaurocracy It can be a nightmare and one reason why I pay all the HARD working locals cash in hand. Which is another reason why Spain is failing. Yes I am to blame also

I still have to pinch myself what I can get regards quality work at a fraction of the price of what I get in UK.

And if you didn't pay that guy cash in hand maybe not much food for them that week, even he has to spend some of the cash, so somewhere along the chain it goes back into the system anyway, and if the government woke up to see the real situation and what is happening then maybe things might change. You can't keep on putting up the tax on people. 

No you are not to blame why Spain is failing, you would be though if you didn't employ and pay cash in hand to anyone at all.

 I'm amazed at how many people are jumping to the defence of the Spanish. Or maybe different areas of Spain have different work ethics.

I've lived and worked in Valencia for seven years and not only do I find the people here lazy, but they take no pride whatsoever in their work. Everywhere I look, there's evidence of poor workmanship and a real, 'that'll do, I don't care' attitude to what they do. Everyday I leave work frustrated and often infuriated at the laziness and incompetence of my Spanish work colleagues and they certainly can't blame the heat for that.

I'm not saying that all Spaniards are the same, but  while there are some hard workers in Spain, I'd bet there are also some lazy Germans out there. But it's the majority that gives a country it's reputation, and the majority that affects a country's efficiency, and ultimately, it's economy.

Do not put everbody in the same basket. Where I work they have fired many brits and dutch people because they were lazy. The oldest employee is an arabic girl. My two dutch brothers in law have never worked. My family is spanish and we all have been working all our lifes.

Why was there 4 years between this post last and the recent answers?    

Now that's what I call lazy 😳