úřední dny (days open to the public).

State offices in the Czech Republic, like the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Unemployment Office, are not open to the public every day as one might expect, but only on scheduled úřední dny. These are typically Monday and Wednesday, with the more citizen friendly ones opening their doors for half a day on Friday, all of course minus an hour-long lunch break. It is unclear how bureaucrats spend the rest of the week, but the habit of opening infrequently – inherited from Austro-Hungarian days and further entrenched under communism – is surely evidence of a society where government employees are not used to helping citizens, but to dictating to them.