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I've often read that Stockholm, and Sweden in general, has great work-life balance. This list seems super cool for folks who may be interested in (what I've hea

I've often read that Stockholm, and Sweden in general, has great work-life balance. This list seems super cool for folks who may be interested in (what I've heard is) a more relaxed lifestyle while keeping some work excitement in their lives from a startup environment. It's really interesting to see how successful Sweden has been in pushing itself as a good home for startups. Also, is the logo on this site messed up? It just says SEEDTAB for me without the LE, like this: https://i.imgur.com/oEN7R2Q.png https://i.imgur.com/oEN7R2Q.png. Kind of an odd bug; even the actual .svg file it links to appears like that for me (https://www.seedtable.com/img/logo.svg https://www.seedtable.com/img/logo.svg). I would've thought it was intentional if not for the sliver of what appears to be an L at the right end.

_Microft 8y ago
The work-life balance might be lagom. ;)
camochameleon 8y ago
It looks like the SVG has just been exported at a width much narrower than the text. If you inspect the SVG on the second link you posted, you can edit the `width` attribute to something like 200 and see the full text. Normally, when exporting SVGs for the web, you would convert the text to shapes. That way, people don't need a version of the font you've used and you can guarantee it looking the same across browsers.
- gonsanchezs 8y ago
  will fix
SeaSeaRider 8y ago
You heard wrong. Sweden has one if the longest working weeks in the EU. Normal work day starts at 8am. Most stuff that you read about Sweden (ie stuff that gets shared on socisl media) is false.
- dmitriid 8y ago
  > Sweden has one if the longest working weeks in the EU. Normal work day starts at 8am. We're talking about startups on a website mostly for programmers, right? Programmers enjoy nearly free work schedule. I've seen people come at work at 7 in the morning and leave at three in the evening. Or come to work at 10 and leave at 7. Second, work-life balance is paramount in Sweden. No one will bat an eye if you have to pick your kids early from kindergarten/school, go to a doctor's appointment, take a day off because you're sick etc. The government even tries to combat exploitative employers by making it mandatory that employees take at least 20 days of vacation a year.
  - yitchelle 8y ago
    Speaking from Germany, what you have described is true for here as well.
  - SeaSeaRider 8y ago
    “No one will bat an eyelid if you take a day off work.” You forgot to mention that you WON’T get paid if you take a single day off work, something that makes Sweden unique in the modern world? Sweden is a great place to work in many ways, but there are severe problems for people moving here to work if they are accustomed to other EU countries.
    - cjg_ 8y ago
      That's only if you are taking sick-leave (and for the first day, then you get some part of your salary), also Sweden got 25 days of mandatory paid vacation days.
    - C1sc0cat 8y ago
      Would not that lead to people taking the minimum required to get sick pay even for minor ailments.
    - mariefred 8y ago
      off for sick leave, and this is somewhat changing now with the new karensavdrag system
bobl 8y ago
It is significantly harder to attain a high quality of life at decent cost in Stockholm these days. Especially since the housing market is high, but stalling, and there is a recession looming. Sweden pushing itself as a good home for startups seem to largely correlate with becoming a worse place to live in, and therefor to a large extent be posturing. There have also been more obviously successful startups in the past then there are now. Moving to Stockholm could still be the right move for some people, but I would advice looking at the situation carefully beforehand.
- renholder 8y ago
  >Sweden pushing itself as a good home for startups seem to largely correlate with becoming a worse place to live in, and therefor to a large extent be posturing. This isn't, implicitly, true. For Stockholm, sure. What about a city like Växjö? Or Motala? There are very decent areas to live in Sweden, close to booming tech start-ups, and aren't suffering the same plights that the capital is seeing. Admittedly, the points-system is a bit of a pain-in-the-ass and they seemed to have a plan for it, when it first started, for newcomers to the country; however, that plan doesn't work-out so well in the terms of today. To point: Sweden, in general, doesn't suffer from all of the plights seen in Stockholm. If Stockholm is your goto, then by all means, you should be aware of them; but a larger portion of Sweden doesn't see the same problems (yet).
  - bobl 8y ago
    Those places are far more average with for example small city centers and limited transportation. As such there are far more competition, and therefor places to consider, before selecting one of those options. Especially since you might end up living outside one of those cities. Smaller isn't necessarily easier either. Most of Sweden has a rental shortage and a pricey housing market. It is a systematic issue of abandoning the rental market in favor of 100+ year mortgages. But if anyone know of a city in Sweden with accessible good living conditions and decent opportunities I would of course be happy to hear about it.
  - Arkenklo 8y ago
    The best of both worlds is living within travel distance of Stockholm but working from home. I've spent a couple years executing this plan, and from a quality-of-life perspective it's been an amazing improvement from living in Stockholm. Sweden is small enough where even Malmö isn't too far away - but the economical and social differences are huge. You can have your cake and eat it too.
johnwyles 8y ago
There was a recent NPR segment highlighting also a program of Sweden for entrepreneurship of a six-month-leave where your job would be saved for you while you pursued a startup or business venture as well but I forget the name of the program in Sweden.
- Entalpi 8y ago
  Yes, usually there is a thing called tjänsteledigt. Which basically means that you can ask your employer for a ”pause” in your employment. I believe they are required by law to let you keep your employment.

_Microft 8y ago

The work-life balance might be lagom. ;)

camochameleon 8y ago

It looks like the SVG has just been exported at a width much narrower than the text. If you inspect the SVG on the second link you posted, you can edit the `width` attribute to something like 200 and see the full text. Normally, when exporting SVGs for the web, you would convert the text to shapes. That way, people don't need a version of the font you've used and you can guarantee it looking the same across browsers.

gonsanchezs 8y ago
will fix

SeaSeaRider 8y ago

You heard wrong. Sweden has one if the longest working weeks in the EU. Normal work day starts at 8am. Most stuff that you read about Sweden (ie stuff that gets shared on socisl media) is false.

dmitriid 8y ago
> Sweden has one if the longest working weeks in the EU. Normal work day starts at 8am. We're talking about startups on a website mostly for programmers, right? Programmers enjoy nearly free work schedule. I've seen people come at work at 7 in the morning and leave at three in the evening. Or come to work at 10 and leave at 7. Second, work-life balance is paramount in Sweden. No one will bat an eye if you have to pick your kids early from kindergarten/school, go to a doctor's appointment, take a day off because you're sick etc. The government even tries to combat exploitative employers by making it mandatory that employees take at least 20 days of vacation a year.
- yitchelle 8y ago
  Speaking from Germany, what you have described is true for here as well.
- SeaSeaRider 8y ago
  “No one will bat an eyelid if you take a day off work.” You forgot to mention that you WON’T get paid if you take a single day off work, something that makes Sweden unique in the modern world? Sweden is a great place to work in many ways, but there are severe problems for people moving here to work if they are accustomed to other EU countries.
  - cjg_ 8y ago
    That's only if you are taking sick-leave (and for the first day, then you get some part of your salary), also Sweden got 25 days of mandatory paid vacation days.
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    Would not that lead to people taking the minimum required to get sick pay even for minor ailments.
  - mariefred 8y ago
    off for sick leave, and this is somewhat changing now with the new karensavdrag system

bobl 8y ago

It is significantly harder to attain a high quality of life at decent cost in Stockholm these days. Especially since the housing market is high, but stalling, and there is a recession looming. Sweden pushing itself as a good home for startups seem to largely correlate with becoming a worse place to live in, and therefor to a large extent be posturing. There have also been more obviously successful startups in the past then there are now. Moving to Stockholm could still be the right move for some people, but I would advice looking at the situation carefully beforehand.

renholder 8y ago
>Sweden pushing itself as a good home for startups seem to largely correlate with becoming a worse place to live in, and therefor to a large extent be posturing. This isn't, implicitly, true. For Stockholm, sure. What about a city like Växjö? Or Motala? There are very decent areas to live in Sweden, close to booming tech start-ups, and aren't suffering the same plights that the capital is seeing. Admittedly, the points-system is a bit of a pain-in-the-ass and they seemed to have a plan for it, when it first started, for newcomers to the country; however, that plan doesn't work-out so well in the terms of today. To point: Sweden, in general, doesn't suffer from all of the plights seen in Stockholm. If Stockholm is your goto, then by all means, you should be aware of them; but a larger portion of Sweden doesn't see the same problems (yet).
- bobl 8y ago
  Those places are far more average with for example small city centers and limited transportation. As such there are far more competition, and therefor places to consider, before selecting one of those options. Especially since you might end up living outside one of those cities. Smaller isn't necessarily easier either. Most of Sweden has a rental shortage and a pricey housing market. It is a systematic issue of abandoning the rental market in favor of 100+ year mortgages. But if anyone know of a city in Sweden with accessible good living conditions and decent opportunities I would of course be happy to hear about it.
- Arkenklo 8y ago
  The best of both worlds is living within travel distance of Stockholm but working from home. I've spent a couple years executing this plan, and from a quality-of-life perspective it's been an amazing improvement from living in Stockholm. Sweden is small enough where even Malmö isn't too far away - but the economical and social differences are huge. You can have your cake and eat it too.

johnwyles 8y ago

There was a recent NPR segment highlighting also a program of Sweden for entrepreneurship of a six-month-leave where your job would be saved for you while you pursued a startup or business venture as well but I forget the name of the program in Sweden.

Entalpi 8y ago
Yes, usually there is a thing called tjänsteledigt. Which basically means that you can ask your employer for a ”pause” in your employment. I believe they are required by law to let you keep your employment.