5 ms·

The article criticizes American work culture for very good reasons. Of course we should work and have jobs, but that doesn't mean work needs to be like it is in

The article criticizes American work culture for very good reasons. Of course we should work and have jobs, but that doesn't mean work needs to be like it is in America. Do you guys in America even know how it is in Sweden for example? We don't have this competitive culture, and companies are trying hard to make their employees feel good at work. Nobody really works full 8 hours at big companies and nobody is stressed very much. Bosses never blame anyone directly for anything since it's not allowed, culture wise. People are very relaxed. When I read about American culture, it seems insane.

tuukkah 9y ago
Plus the month-long paid summer vacations! EDIT: To be more precise: typically ~20 days in the summer and additional ~5-15 days in the winter. Averages by country, Sweden 26 days: https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/highlights/which-country-eu-has-most-annual-holidays https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/highlights/which-countr... 34 days (minimum?) when you include the 16 paid public holidays such as Christmas, New Year, Easter, Midsummer: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-vacation-days.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-...
- gambiting 9y ago
  Everyone in EU gets at least 21 paid days off a year + unlimited paid sick leave, no matter if you're a surgeon or a cleaner. But yes, for bigger companies it's usually closer to 30 paid days off than 20.
- antonkm 9y ago
  It's more often 5-6 weeks. As a Swede I always feel alien to the hours Americans seem to put in. I'm a consultant and work roughly 35h/w in Sweden. I often find this a bit too much, given that the work I do is disconnected from anything "real". Sure, my clients are always happy and I do fun things, but my family and friends is what's real. I truly believe we should automate everything and let humans decide by themselves if they feel like working. If not, something like UBI should exist.
  - kofejnik 9y ago
    hey, if you have too much work, I'd be happy to help with some of it (preferably web dev and ML in python) -_- dy (a) deepmagic.io
- wu-ikkyu 9y ago
  From what I've seen, 10 days vacation per year seems to be the norm in corporate US, though I know people who get even less than that.
  - volkl48 9y ago
    I'd say more like 10-15 days (2-3 weeks). That's said, I will point out that most people posting on this site are in desirable enough roles that US work culture is a choice, not a requirement, even when you're living in the US. It just seems to be a choice that most don't consider. I could easily find a position which makes 25% salary than my current position. Instead I took one where I never work more than 40hrs, where I have essentially 7 weeks PTO starting and it'll go up if I stay here long-term. My quality of life is fantastic and I still make more than enough for a very nice lifestyle (and proper retirement/long-term goal savings). I'm sure I could live even more luxuriously or retire a couple years sooner if I made even more money, but I don't think that would be remotely worth what I get by not going that route. Not to mention the people who just die or develop debilitating ailments before they ever really get to enjoy that retirement.
Applejinx 9y ago
I'm pretty sure the idea is that we're supposed to be killing you, so the people in Sweden end up out of a job and only the frantic, stressed American workers survive. This, for the purpose of making just a few American capital holders impossibly more wealthy for the virtue of holding the reins on the madly charging American workers. I think you're quite correct that it's insane, but you can also view it through the lens of class war. There are some people in charge who have an unthinkable amount of capital, and they would like it to be this way everywhere. 'Culture' is led by leaders. Company culture comes from the top down. If you had a company leader who earnestly thought hunting down and murdering workers in rival companies was the best way to be a company, AND he was allowed to pursue that unregulated and unrestrained, you'd see a 'culture' straight out of the darkest cyberpunk because others would play copycat and it'd become the new normal. You'd have to deal with it on its own terms. Of course it's insane, and of course it's killing people: in a sense that's a feature. This is the operating system on which we run. There's only workarounds, or changing the OS out from under the 'culture' it produces.
CalRobert 9y ago
To be fair, there are a lot of Americans who would prefer the Swedish approach, but are stuck. When I last checked Sweden was not as easy to get a visa for as some other countries. Sounds lovely, though.

tuukkah 9y ago

Plus the month-long paid summer vacations! EDIT: To be more precise: typically ~20 days in the summer and additional ~5-15 days in the winter. Averages by country, Sweden 26 days: https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/highlights/which-country-eu-has-most-annual-holidays https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/highlights/which-countr... 34 days (minimum?) when you include the 16 paid public holidays such as Christmas, New Year, Easter, Midsummer: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-vacation-days.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-...

gambiting 9y ago
Everyone in EU gets at least 21 paid days off a year + unlimited paid sick leave, no matter if you're a surgeon or a cleaner. But yes, for bigger companies it's usually closer to 30 paid days off than 20.
antonkm 9y ago
It's more often 5-6 weeks. As a Swede I always feel alien to the hours Americans seem to put in. I'm a consultant and work roughly 35h/w in Sweden. I often find this a bit too much, given that the work I do is disconnected from anything "real". Sure, my clients are always happy and I do fun things, but my family and friends is what's real. I truly believe we should automate everything and let humans decide by themselves if they feel like working. If not, something like UBI should exist.
- kofejnik 9y ago
  hey, if you have too much work, I'd be happy to help with some of it (preferably web dev and ML in python) -_- dy (a) deepmagic.io
wu-ikkyu 9y ago
From what I've seen, 10 days vacation per year seems to be the norm in corporate US, though I know people who get even less than that.
- volkl48 9y ago
  I'd say more like 10-15 days (2-3 weeks). That's said, I will point out that most people posting on this site are in desirable enough roles that US work culture is a choice, not a requirement, even when you're living in the US. It just seems to be a choice that most don't consider. I could easily find a position which makes 25% salary than my current position. Instead I took one where I never work more than 40hrs, where I have essentially 7 weeks PTO starting and it'll go up if I stay here long-term. My quality of life is fantastic and I still make more than enough for a very nice lifestyle (and proper retirement/long-term goal savings). I'm sure I could live even more luxuriously or retire a couple years sooner if I made even more money, but I don't think that would be remotely worth what I get by not going that route. Not to mention the people who just die or develop debilitating ailments before they ever really get to enjoy that retirement.

Applejinx 9y ago

I'm pretty sure the idea is that we're supposed to be killing you, so the people in Sweden end up out of a job and only the frantic, stressed American workers survive. This, for the purpose of making just a few American capital holders impossibly more wealthy for the virtue of holding the reins on the madly charging American workers. I think you're quite correct that it's insane, but you can also view it through the lens of class war. There are some people in charge who have an unthinkable amount of capital, and they would like it to be this way everywhere. 'Culture' is led by leaders. Company culture comes from the top down. If you had a company leader who earnestly thought hunting down and murdering workers in rival companies was the best way to be a company, AND he was allowed to pursue that unregulated and unrestrained, you'd see a 'culture' straight out of the darkest cyberpunk because others would play copycat and it'd become the new normal. You'd have to deal with it on its own terms. Of course it's insane, and of course it's killing people: in a sense that's a feature. This is the operating system on which we run. There's only workarounds, or changing the OS out from under the 'culture' it produces.

CalRobert 9y ago

To be fair, there are a lot of Americans who would prefer the Swedish approach, but are stuck. When I last checked Sweden was not as easy to get a visa for as some other countries. Sounds lovely, though.