In my final full week in Spain, I really learned a lot about the business practices of Spain. At the ESERP Business School, professor Gund?n, our economics professor, talked about some of the various customs of the local businesses of Barcelona, such as how restaurants will charge you for water. Something else she mentioned was that you do not have to tip the waiters, as opposed to in the United States how waiters make the majority of their money off of tips from customers. Another big source of income for Spain is tourism. This past weekend I went to two more classic and older Spanish towns, Granada and Seville. In Granada we visited the Alhambra, which is the biggest tourist attraction in the city of Granada. It was fascinating seeing the ancient palace as well as the famous gardens on the palace grounds.
We also visited Seville this past weekend, which is also an older and more rustic Spanish town, as opposed to how Barcelona and Madrid have become more urbanized and fast-paced. In Seville we hit all of the tourist hubs such as the Alcazar, the Cathedral, and the bullfighting ring. The Alcazar was fascinating because it had a lot of Islamic ties even though it was in Southern Spain which is traditionally a catholic region. We also finally got to go to a bull-fighting ring and got to learn about the roles of matadors as well as the logistics of a bull fight as well as the infamous running of the bulls. With all of that travel, we easily dropped around 300-400 Euros on plane tickets, train tickets, as well as various transportation fees such as taxis and electric scooters. Both of these cities are not quite as international as Barcelona or Madrid, but they still bring in a lot of tourists wanting to visit the more historically significant sights of Southern Spain.
The culture differences between Spain and the United States can be clearly seen by looking at the work hour differences between the two countries. In Spain it is common for the workforce to take a siesta, which is a lunch and rest break from about 2 to 5 o?clock. This causes for dinner in Spain to be much later than it is in the United States, with a normal time to eat dinner being around 9 o?clock. Not only are the working hours different in Spain, they work less time in general because they are okay with making less money in exchange for a better quality of life. In America the culture is for everyone to be a workaholic as opposed to in Spain, as well as Europe as a whole, the culture is more relaxed when it comes to work-life balance and more in favor of a more relaxed lifestyle and workweek. Lastly, I have learned that businesses are much more individualistic than United States businesses, meaning that group work and group projects are much less common in Spain. Businesses in Spain favor individual work because they feel like group work is not as efficient because collaboration takes up more time when an individual could complete the assignment much quicker. Overall, the various business practices of Spain have been fascinating to observe and have been a nice change of pace.