4 ms·

I never saw anyone bring lunch to work when I worked in Copenhagen over a decade ago, but the at work cantinas were a lot more common than they were in Sweden.

I never saw anyone bring lunch to work when I worked in Copenhagen over a decade ago, but the at work cantinas were a lot more common than they were in Sweden. Whereas in Sweden, the work cantinas were phased out in the 80's and the norm if you have an office job is that everyone leaves the office for lunch, and you go to a lunch restaurant, sit down, and eat your lunch. I really tried finding something similar to Swedish lunch restaurants in Copenhagen, but I could never find any. There's only "real" restaurants, which are too slow and upscale and expensive for lunch every day, or they're too fast-food-y or only really do take-away, that you're supposed to take back to the office and sit there and eat. Drove me nuts. I have a bunch of Swedish friends who all came back from work trips to Norway, cursing, because the &¤#&#"&"# Norwegians would schedule meetings over lunch, and then everyone else would just pull up their /¤#&"&!"#&#" matpakke in the middle of the meeting, while my friends were stuck with nothing to eat, because they were used to taking a break, going out, sitting down, eating lunch, and then going back to the office. Instead, they had to sit and starve in meetings.

funtastique 8y ago
Haha, classic. Didn't pack your lunch? Your problem. We forgot to tell you to pack your lunch ("cause that's how we roll here in Norway") ? Your problem.
Oreb 8y ago
> I have a bunch of Swedish friends who all came back from work trips to Norway, cursing, because the &¤#&#"&"# Norwegians would schedule meetings over lunch, and then everyone else would just pull up their /¤#&"&!"#&#" matpakke in the middle of the meeting, while my friends were stuck with nothing to eat, because they were used to taking a break, going out, sitting down, eating lunch, and then going back to the office. Instead, they had to sit and starve in meetings. That sounds extremely odd. I'm 44 years old, and I've lived and worked in Norway for most of my professional career and have had numerous jobs, but I've never experienced anything like what you describe. On the rare locations when a long meeting or workshop extends through lunch ours, there is either a lunch break where we all go out somewhere to eat, or we get lunch delivered to to everyone in the meeting room. The packed lunch seems to me to be almost exclusively a school thing. At workplaces, only a few people near retirement age or people with very strict dietary requirements bring their own lunches.
- tbassetto 8y ago
  Let me counter your anecdata with mine: my wife works at a big Norwegian public company and she often has meetings from 10 am to 3 pm. No time to grab lunch, they have to bring their matpakke or starve! Where I work (Cisco Norway) we would have food delivered to the meeting room, or most likely we would just take a break. But even if we have a nice cantina, some Norwegian colleagues are bringing their homemade matpakke every day! It’s not just a school thing :)
bosyr 8y ago
Short, but efficient days at work:) That’s probably why the GDP per capita is a lot higher than in Sweden:p

funtastique 8y ago

Haha, classic. Didn't pack your lunch? Your problem. We forgot to tell you to pack your lunch ("cause that's how we roll here in Norway") ? Your problem.

Oreb 8y ago

> I have a bunch of Swedish friends who all came back from work trips to Norway, cursing, because the &¤#&#"&"# Norwegians would schedule meetings over lunch, and then everyone else would just pull up their /¤#&"&!"#&#" matpakke in the middle of the meeting, while my friends were stuck with nothing to eat, because they were used to taking a break, going out, sitting down, eating lunch, and then going back to the office. Instead, they had to sit and starve in meetings. That sounds extremely odd. I'm 44 years old, and I've lived and worked in Norway for most of my professional career and have had numerous jobs, but I've never experienced anything like what you describe. On the rare locations when a long meeting or workshop extends through lunch ours, there is either a lunch break where we all go out somewhere to eat, or we get lunch delivered to to everyone in the meeting room. The packed lunch seems to me to be almost exclusively a school thing. At workplaces, only a few people near retirement age or people with very strict dietary requirements bring their own lunches.

tbassetto 8y ago
Let me counter your anecdata with mine: my wife works at a big Norwegian public company and she often has meetings from 10 am to 3 pm. No time to grab lunch, they have to bring their matpakke or starve! Where I work (Cisco Norway) we would have food delivered to the meeting room, or most likely we would just take a break. But even if we have a nice cantina, some Norwegian colleagues are bringing their homemade matpakke every day! It’s not just a school thing :)

bosyr 8y ago

Short, but efficient days at work:) That’s probably why the GDP per capita is a lot higher than in Sweden:p