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I'm actually a Swedish business owner (me and co-owner) doing 30 hour weeks. One of our main goals of starting our digital consultancy was to work less but rece

by devdad 10y ago

I'm actually a Swedish business owner (me and co-owner) doing 30 hour weeks. One of our main goals of starting our digital consultancy was to work less but receive same or better pay. It works well for us. We're at least as productive as we were as employees. The main difference being we cut out "fika" - this was easily 60 minutes per day at our old work place - and dropped all private web lurking from the work days. We just decided we didn't need all that downtime from doing work during days, we'd rather spend it at home. Clients are pleased with the work, I get to both drop and pickup up my kids everyday. In Sweden, if you've got web dev skills, this is very doable. I believe in it on a bigger scale for worker happiness sake and really hope we'll get there soon.

tomcam 10y ago
It's great that you cut out fika, because as we all agree, fika is... er, what, exactly?
- MagnumOpus 10y ago
  Coffee breaks, essentially. From the first google result: "Fika is a common practice at workplaces in Sweden and Finland where it constitutes at least one break during a normal workday. Often, two fikor are taken in a day at around 9:00 in the morning and 3:00 in the afternoon. The work fika is an important social event where employees can gather and socialize to discuss private and professional matters. It is not uncommon for management to join employees and to some extent it can even be considered impolite not to join one's colleagues at fika. The practice is not limited to any specific sector of the labor market and is considered normal practice even in government administration."
  - devdad 10y ago
    This is a good interpretation of the term. Sorry for not explaining the concept of fika :) My company is a bit weird in the Swedish work culture since we don't really go for breaks at 9.00 am and 3 pm. But we get to go home at 3-4 pm because of it. I realize that this is privileged and that the fika fills an important need for a break during more physical or mentally demanding work.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

by devdad 10y ago

tomcam 10y ago

It's great that you cut out fika, because as we all agree, fika is... er, what, exactly?

MagnumOpus 10y ago
Coffee breaks, essentially. From the first google result: "Fika is a common practice at workplaces in Sweden and Finland where it constitutes at least one break during a normal workday. Often, two fikor are taken in a day at around 9:00 in the morning and 3:00 in the afternoon. The work fika is an important social event where employees can gather and socialize to discuss private and professional matters. It is not uncommon for management to join employees and to some extent it can even be considered impolite not to join one's colleagues at fika. The practice is not limited to any specific sector of the labor market and is considered normal practice even in government administration."
- devdad 10y ago
  This is a good interpretation of the term. Sorry for not explaining the concept of fika :) My company is a bit weird in the Swedish work culture since we don't really go for breaks at 9.00 am and 3 pm. But we get to go home at 3-4 pm because of it. I realize that this is privileged and that the fika fills an important need for a break during more physical or mentally demanding work.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]