American Work Culture: Identity and Lunch Breaks

Nick: When it comes to work culture in the United States, there are two things that come to mind. The first one is work identity.

Nick: Your work is kind of, like, your entire identity, and the first thing people ask you when they meet you is, “Oh, uh, what do you do for work? Um, what do you do for a living?”

Nick: Right? And that’s the first conversation we have. Um, right now, I live in Spain, and you really- you rarely ever hear anybody ask that question — at least not right away in the conversation.

Nick: Um, the other thing for me is lunch breaks. So, in the United States, taking time off or, you know, taking a lunch break, a lot of times — at least in an office job — is, you know, very minimal.

Nick: You get, maybe, 30 minutes to go get your lunch and run back to work, or, a lot of times, I used to eat my lunch and work at the same time because I had so much to do — I didn’t wanna put in extra hours.

Nick: Here in Spain, people love to take their one-to-two-hour lunch breaks. They take all the time they need, they don’t talk about work; it’s very carefree. And then they get back to work when they’re done with lunch, and there’s no rush to it.

Nick: So there’s the big differences for me in culture, you know. It’s very “go, go, go” in the United States.

Vocabulary:

work culture – the habits, beliefs, and behaviors of the people in a workplace, “Our company has a friendly work culture where everyone helps each other.”

come to mind – to enter your thoughts or be remembered suddenly, “When I think of summer, beaches and ice cream always come to mind.”

for a living – as a job to earn money, “My brother paints houses for a living.”

taking time off – stopping your work for a short period to rest or go on vacation, “He is taking time off next week to visit his grandparents.”

put in extra hours – to work more time than you are normally required to do, “She had to put in extra hours to finish the project before Friday.”

carefree – happy because you have no worries, stress, or heavy troubles, “We spent a carefree afternoon playing at the park.”

no rush – no need to hurry or move quickly, “Take your time reading the book; there is no rush to give it back.”

go, go, go – very busy, fast, and full of activity without any stopping, “Life in a big city is always go, go, go.”