The last thing we need is people in other countries who have nothing to do with us telling us our food culture isn't "proper".

God that was depressing, and stressful. The mad rush to the compulsory office canteen, buy some basic food, throw the food in, and run back to your desk as you only have a 30 minutes lunch break.

No chance of going outside for a short walk to get some oxygen, little choice in what food to get, no chance of bonding with colleagues and not talk about work, no chance of disconnecting and avoiding stress.

Only occasionally did I manage to convince colleagues to rebel, go outside with me to a sushi place (or McD's...), sit in the park for bit, and take a few breaths and not rush back. It should be a daily occurrance but only happened once or twice a month.

Having mostly worked in an industry where formal breaks largely don't exist, I find returning to work after more than 10 minutes painful. I hated the one place with mandated 30 minute lunches because I'd be completely unwound by the end of it and just wanted to go home.

I personally eat full meals at 10AM and 7PM and light meals at 3PM and 9PM. Not the most conventional times but that's when I'm hungry. Everyone has different times that work for them.

A couple of years ago or so I started skipping breakfast and eating my first meal at lunchtime.

This works extremely well for me and allows me to keep focus through the day - even if I eat a warm lunch instead of just Norwegian "matpakke".

Personally I "skip" breakfast and lunch, eating my first meal at dinner. Late night munchies, my diet kryptonite, land in my eating period so I'm more likely to be hungry enough for proper food.

During the day that means no breakfast before work, no lunch packing, no bad cantinas, and no productivity slumps before or after meals. At night it means I can be a lot more calorie dense with my meals, and feel good about it :)

People would go get their kids at school, have lunch with them at home, and bring them back before returning to work. Or child free people would go have a nice lunch out together. I personally would go back to my apartment and cook with my girlfriend. It was really nice. Adding to that, French companies have to give you a “ticket restaurant” if they don’t provide you lunches, which is essentially a 10 euro or so coupon that you can use at any restaurant, or even to buy food in grocery stores, so you get a lot of flexibility.

It was all very pleasant. I haven’t worked in France in many years, and I hear from friends that this culture is eroding, and places that still follow this kind of pace are getting rarer and rarer.

In my current team (US), we all take an hour long lunch break all together every day. That is a surprising thing to most other people at the company, and I suspect we started doing that because many of us in the team are European.

I really preferred eating at my desk while clocked in to eating a slow, luxurious lunch while clocked out. The slow lunch just means less time for the things you actually want to do.

Having also held salaried jobs, it was very much the case that some people worked different schedules than others. One was particularly notable for leaving in the early afternoon.

Yes, your employer's expectations for "business hours" are set by how many of those hours you spend being present at work. Try extending your lunch another hour and leaving at the same time, see what your employer thinks.

Your lunch hour isn't really an hour, by the time walk somewhere or prepare a lunch. I can't use that hour to actually spend time with my friends or do anything meaningful. I'd rather skip lunch and just head to the pub with my mates at 5.

We're now under the constant reminder from our employers that there's always a bunch of people outside ready to do your work without lunch break for less money.

In Scandinavia, lunch breaks are mandated by law. In Norway, if you work more than 5.5 hours, your employer must give you at least 30 minutes off (unpaid) to have lunch. If the nature of your workplace is such that you cannot leave work, the lunch break is paid. [0]

Hence no desperate souls at the gate, ready to take my place without demanding any lunch break.

Also, as other scandinavians have pointed out - this is not a recent measure to make life easier on your employer; it's just the way it has always been.

[0] https://lovdata.no/NLE/lov/2005-06-17-62/§section10-9

Employer won't get more or better work if you prevent everyone taking a worthwhile break. Thankfully nearly all the places I've worked over the years have been entirely happy to permit it. Or expect it.

Also, people are planning meeting at 13h, because they can't find a time where everyone is available. I have a weekly meeting set up every thursday at 13h, I hate it because I have to rush my lunch.

Norway and Sweden are completely different. In Sweden most people either go out to a restaurant for a warm a lunch or eat a warm lunch they brought with from home. An hour lunch break, while not official sanctioned, is hardly uncommon.

And even when I worked in Norway where many people just ate sandwiches for lunch, almost everybody ate lunch in the lunchroom.

Sitting glued to my chair in front of the computer for 8 hours straight

Or you sit glued to your computer 6 hours straight, get done what you where supposed to do and go home at 3 to be with your family or get in some other afternoon activities. A very common mindset in Norway.

Is job done? Nop...

Actually it is between 8:45 and 16:05

Here is some proof:

https://www.dn.no/arbeidsliv/nav/tre-milliarder-til-ett-sels...

That is when Accenture billed 350 MILLION USD... for miscellaneous it services.

I’d say an average working day is 7 hours plus a 30-minute lunch break, usually taken before noon.

I don't know about the preferences of the parent you're replying to, however the description in this article - and what others here have said - sounds depressing as hell.

You're being strongly downvoted because you're not allowed to say anything negative about Scandinavian culture.

If this food story were about the US, it would be held up as an example of how Americans are tortured in their food choices (read any popular thread on HN about American food); and in your example, in their work habits (sit there and eat your sad little sandwich, worker robot). Since it's Norway, it's an extraordinary shared cultural culinary experience in its wisely barren, enlightened simplicity of nothingness. As the article comically exclaims: it's unexpectedly genius.

No, it's perfectly fair to call it out for what it actually is: depressing, a sad tradition of mediocre sandwich lunches.

Hilariously, in this thread you have people arguing that Americans eat bland flavorless food while also arguing that Americans "obsess" over food that tastes good, both from a negative perspective.

I guess now Scandinavians are also a "protected" "race"- list...

It's just food, it doesn't have to be a party.

No offense, but only kids need to be entertained to eat, most people need food only because they get hungry.

If I want to have a nice meal, I go out at night with my girlfriend in a restaurant we like.

> In southern Europe(Austria)

That's a bold statement! :)

Austria is Mitteleuropa (middle Europe) its traditions are very similar to those of Germany, southern Europe is radically different.

In Italy we call "germans" the people living in Südtirol on the border with Austria, because they are different from average stereotypical Italians.

Anyway you can walk to a bistrot (it's a French thing, not Austrian) and have warm lunch with fresh cooked quality food (it's a southern tradition, historically northern countries had problems growing fresh food in their long winters, except for apples, that grow abundantly in south Austria) in Berlin or Stockholm as well.

If you leave Wien and go to the Austrian mountains, for example Innsbruck, you can experience typical Tyrolean food, which is equally good, albeit not exactly light.