I never understood this nordic lifestyle I saw in Scandinavia
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.
I (Norwegian) recently had a meeting with our Portuguese colleagues about optimal meeting times on a Friday. For the Portuguese, anything between 12 and 14 was impossible (due to lunch), whereas in Norway, anything after 14 was impossible (in the car on the way to the cabin for the weekend).
I'm highly sceptical of this meme online that office workers in Scandinavia, Germany etc quickly get their work done and focus on productivity and leave as early as they can each day instead of waiting till 1730 or whatever. I know better now that this doesn't actually exist anymore these days.
Nope, working in Norway, I can confirm that the office gets very empty very quickly after 16:00, and more than once have I been reminded not to stay all day when I was still at my desk around 17:00.
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.