When you arrive in Switzerland from Spain and start your first job, there’s something that happens during the first few days that throws you off balance a bit. At 5 pm, or whatever time is specified in the contract, your colleagues switch off their computers, grab their coats and leave. Without looking back. Without waiting for the boss to arrive. Without that awkward moment of ‘well, I’m off then’, which in Spain usually involves a bit of negotiation.
In German-speaking Swiss culture, there is the concept of ‘Feierabend’: literally, the moment when work ends and the evening begins. It isn’t just a time of day; it’s a real separation between work and personal life. Nobody sends you emails after 6 pm expecting a reply. Your boss doesn’t message you on a Sunday. And neither do you, because you understand that they, too, have Feierabend.
In Spain, leaving on the dot is sometimes seen as a sign of laziness, as though you’re not fully committed. Here, it’s the other way round: what’s expected is that you do your job properly within your working hours. Staying on until 7pm doesn’t earn you any extra credit. And if you do it regularly, your boss will most likely think you have a problem with organisation, rather than that you’re a hard worker.
The first time you leave at 5 pm sharp without anyone saying a word, it feels strange. By the tenth time, it doesn’t anymore. And after a few months, you start to realise that it’s not a lack of interest, but mutual respect for each other’s time. That you don’t have to be the last to leave to prove anything.