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Sweden gives employees unpaid time off to be entrepreneurs (2019)
- acd 7y agoI think we should also start with 6 hours work days or 4 days 8 hours. It will free up time to try new ideas and spend more time with family and loved ones. 6-7 weeks of vacation would also be something to try. Ie optimizing for life quality.
- Dominisi 7y agoMy current job is doing 4 days 8 hours because the boss read an article saying it increases productivity. So, his opinion is that we should be more productive in 4 days than we are in 5. I do enjoy the 3 day weekends, but I have to admit that I don't like the immense pressure of the shortened week.
- unlinked_dll 7y agoI think two mandatory vacation days every four weeks would work pretty well.
- swiley 7y agoOne of the most productive teams I’ve worked on had unlimited vacation that was actually used. People were taking a week or so off every month and we’re still getting a crazy amount of stuff done. That or they were very good at faking it.
- codr7 7y agoWhy wouldn't it work? People will find ways to get the time and rest they need, hiding and faking is less effective. On top of that you get loyalty in return for being treated as human beings rather than slaves.
- unlinked_dll 7y agoPart of the problem with unlimited vacation is that companies that use it tend to do it to save money, since if you have unlimited vacation days they don't need to compensate you for unused PTO when you leave. They'll also try and create a culture where employees don't want to or "can't" take time off. It can be more nefarious than anything. Of course companies that do that are usually startups, and if your startup tries to fuck you, leave. They probably need you more than you need them.
- ghaff 7y agoThe financial aspect is certainly true though, as someone who hasn't moved around a lot and who pretty much uses all their vacation, that aspect of traditional vacation banking has never been a big deal to me. The culture aspect needs to come down from the top. A senior engineering manager at a well-known SV company with "unlimited" vacation claims it works pretty well because, from his perspective, an expectation that you'll take time off and disconnect comes from the top. On the other hand, I've heard others at the same company give a less rosy report, so YMMV depending on teams, etc.
- systemtest 7y agoWhy not work a week and take a month off?
- BurningFrog 7y agoWe already have two mandated vacation days every week.
- xg15 7y agoAre you telling that your employees? And we're getting more than half of each 24-hour day off too! I guess what more could we want?
- xg15 7y agoI remember reading a discussion about this in a german online newspaper a while ago. (In light of an initiative of the Finnish cabinet exploring 6 hour workdays, I believe). When reading the comments, I expected people to dismiss the idea as unrealistic or naive but to agree with the spirit and to share the general goal of reducing worktime. I was not expecting panic and outrage. It was a minority (and certainly skewed by the groups of people who post online in the first place), but a notable number of commenters were violently opposed the idea, not out of economical concerns, but because they believed the end goal of having more free time itself was highly problematic - that it would encourage an unhealthy lifestyle, erode morals, would pose a danger to social order, etc etc. It was a sobering read and a reminder that status-quo bias is still very much a thing.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoMy god it’s so true. I’m a robotics engineer and I’m an advocate of what I call “reduce the human cost of living to zero” through automation and democratic arrangements. The idea being that we can make it cost very little for society to support non-working people, such that work is not compulsory for survival. It’s similar to a basic income but it’s universal basic services where we try to get the marginal cost to zero (we can IMO make it cheaper than a basic income). I get so many people telling me “but people would be miserable, they need work to be happy and have purpose.” UGH YES I agree, but I never said I would ban employment! I just want people to be able to take a year off now and then, or work half time, or volunteer or do non-capitalist work and be fine. People seem to think that if we weren’t desperate for employment we’d just sit around bored all the time. That’s not what wealthy people do! Human beings are far too creative to just sit around and do nothing. Eliminating compulsory work is about increasing freedom. We’re smart enough to find something good to do with that freedom.
- hutzlibu 7y agoWell, but sadly it is true for people who have been in chains for years, that they don't know what to do anymore(except drinking and watching TV), when suddenly there is no one around anymore to tell them what to do. Lots of people quickly degrade after retirement. You can also see that effect already in schools. Currently there is school vacation and you see lots of groups of bored teenagers hanging around. There is something very wrong with a "free society", when most of its people don't know what to do with their free time except to kill it. (The very concept of timekilling is disturbing as well) But yes. I am 100% behind the idea of robotic basic income! People can learn again, that there is more to live than mindless huzzling and consuming.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoIve been working four 4-6 hour days a week for the past year. I’m in my opinion quite productive. I think we need to stop thinking in terms of 8 hour days. An 8 hour work day is a lot! Same with five day work weeks. With four day work weeks you get perpetual three day weekend and that makes a huge difference. Actually recently I started working Monday and taking Tuesday off so I can attend a Tuesday night hack night at the local hacker space that I would not be able to attend on a work day.
- rb808 7y ago6 hours days would be great then I can work two jobs.
- gherkinnn 7y agoI work 8h, 4 days per week. You learn to make meetings more effective, group menial tasks in to blocks and make time for interesting things, and become better at prioritising. And damn do I feel productive when working on hard technical problems. Some things just require a fresh mind.
- cvik 7y ago>I think we should also start with 6 hours work days or 4 days 8 hours. I hope you are not alluding that Sweden has 6 hour work days? That is not true. It has 8 hours, like most other countries.
- petre 7y agoOnly France has a 35 hour work week. 35 or 40, not much of a difference but nevertheless important since you can have a decent lunch break and still spend meaningful time with your kids if we account for commuting etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/35-hour_workweek
- refurb 7y agoIt’s not hard to work more than 35 hours in France, correct? I work with teams across Europe and they seems to put in hours that aren’t that different from the US. I assume that voluntary?
- petre 7y agoOne gets get paid overtime for anything more than the 35h work week and can work up a limit of h/yr overtime. They also reduced overtime payments. If the company needs 70h per week from an employee, they'd probably be better off employing two people anyway, at least in theory.
- brendanfalk 7y agoThis is simply amazing
- jedberg 7y agoSince the leave is unpaid, does it basically just mean your old company has to hire you back in six months if you decide to come back?
- aliceryhl 7y agoIt also means you retain stuff like your seniority.
- nisse72 7y agoYou remain employed during this time off, there is no re-hiring involved.
- glofish 7y agoare benefits still paid by the employer?
- herbstein 7y agoThis is Sweden so you don't have the same requirement on healthcare benefits like in the US. I imagine the biggest benefits are pension and equity. It's my impression that most pension benefits are as a percentage of the wage, so unpaid leave doesn't net you any pension. Equity I imagine depends on the language of the specific contract.
- amiga_500 7y agoThey aren't under the shadow of imminent ruin due to health issues in Europe
- BurningFrog 7y agoSwedish companies don't pay health insurance etc, so there isn't much benefits outside of salary.
- dgellow 7y agoWhat about retirement contributions?
- soygul 7y agoI've used this 3 years ago. I took 6 months off to conduct my own business. I also published a "choose your own adventure" game during that time: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soygul.crowner https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soygul.cro... Amazingly productive days. I must add that you don't get paid for the time off. It's just that you don't lose your employment status.
- riffraff 7y agooh, so it's not paid. Then I am surprised to say, there is the same thing in Italy ("aspettativa per avvio attività"), but oddly enough, only for public sector employees, up to 12 months. I am not sure many people make use of it, I would guess very, very few.
- LegitShady 7y agoSabbaticals can be useful be require a lot of planning and saving.
- toyg 7y agoAspettativa is subject to conditions, though (i.e. it can be denied).
- riffraff 7y agoRight, though I met a few people who made use of it for studying, so it's not super rare. It probably varies a lot from job to job.
- toyg 7y agoYeah, as everything with labor laws in Italy, it can be fiendishly complicated and vary dramatically from sector to sector, from year (of hiring) to year...
- TLightful 7y agoI would definitely use it. Save up a bit of money and then go and do whatever you like. What's not to like?
- wesammikhail 7y ago<rant> As a Swedish entrepreneur with 2 exits under my belt and a startup in progress, nothing boils my blood more than bullshit like this. You want to encourage entrepreneurs? stop making up bullshit laws and initiatives that does nothing but fuck us over every single day. Initiatives like this have the exact opposite effect of how they´re advertised as I´ve personally experienced first hand. Yet somehow all you read about is the outgoing PR of how great this place is, when in fact it is a god awful place to conduct business in. Heck just living here is becoming a nightmare as of late. It´s time to move on from this shit hole to somewhere more welcoming. Too bad the US immigration system is a clusterfuck regardless of how much money you´re willing to throw at it. </rant> As requested here is an example: Lets take the "Right to Leave to Conduct a Business Operation Act" or "maternity leave". In both of cases if you work at an early stage startup and exercise your right to take a leave (paid or otherwise), I as an employer have to hold on to that position for the duration of the entire leave of absence. In the case of maternity leave (~1.5 year of paid leave) for instance, I have to hold that position open for you as an employee. The last startup I was involved in had a female employee that was there for about 6 months and then left work for ages before returning, and then "somehow" in an "unplanned manner" managed to quit a few weeks after. Zero work experience, have to hold the spot open for her, have to hire expensive replacement consultants for the duration of the leave which could be extended at any point and I am also obligated to provide benefits to the workers that come in as temporary replacement at a higher cost???? All of that without having the right to fire or suspend said person. Imagine being 1 out of 6 employees and you just vanish, leaving behind everything for the company to pick up by having to hire a secondary person as a consultant for far more money, giving them those same benefits while keeping your position open. Startups cannot afford these costs period. Not every startup enjoys the millions of SV dollars. Our bootstrapped startup almost went under because of employee benefit payments for people who were not even showing up to work and we cannot fire by law. This is beyond sinister and it isnt done to protect employees, it is merely done to extract the maximum amount of value from companies at all stages so that the state can afford to deliver on its never-ending promises of "FREE EVERYTHING". One of my best friends have had a full salary for the last 5 years and have not worked a single day. Who pays for that do you reckon? and in what world is that fair to the rest of us?
- 7y ago
- gdsdfe 7y agoA side question : I keep hearing good things about Sweden, I'm wondering how welcoming is it to immigrants?
- willvarfar 7y agoVery. You are asking on HN, so you are bound to be the kind of person who can go to Sweden, find work or continue to work remotely for your present employer or whatever, and settle into things and be welcomed. The office language is often English, everyone speaks excellent English and everyone is happy to speak it. I know many immigrants in the IT sector who have picked up only the most basic Swedish despite years of living there; you can get by by just talking to absolutely everyone in English. At least half of the programmers at offices I’ve seen are immigrants. They have a variety of reasons for going to Sweden, which usually seem to start with uni eg from the classic “met my wife-to-be when she was an exchange student” to “studied here, never went home” etc. Now there’s an entirely different experience for the unskilled and refugees, but although there is an veiled racist vocal right wing, the real people, even those who live near flyktingboende, seem compassionate.
- seppin 7y agoThere's a difference between tolerance and acceptance. People are very nice and tolerant of foreigners, but they will always be the "other" in society. This is btw the case for immigrants in most places in the world, especially Asia. But because Sweden especially gets such a high reputation for being welcoming, I feel the need to contextualize.
- BelleOfTheBall 7y agoThis sounds like a wonderful idea but I'd love to hear some stats on how this specific time-off fares for would-be startupers. The article mentions a few successful start-ups but it's unclear whether these came about as a result of the time-off or if they resulted from someone just pursuing them full time. Not knocking the idea either way, just would love to see data on how many new companies it's helped create.
- ajross 7y agoI mean... most startups fail. Surely that's no less true in Sweden than elsewhere. If you want statistics, I guess you'd measure this in terms of successful exits or revenue or equity size or something as a fraction of population or GDP or workforce. But at least anecdotally (c.f. Spotify/Skype/Mojang) they seem to be doing pretty well.
- lawik 7y agoFrom my experience people are more likely to use this for studying, trying a business idea (not the HN meaning of startup) or extended travel. Startup I imagine is an outlier in what its used for. It lines up well with the very advantageous student loans (for living costs, university is free) for studying and lets people try their hand at going through higher education wothout throwing their job away.
- caconym_ 7y agoCool idea. Here in the US we go the opposite way: even if you do find some way to take enough time off to accomplish something significant, there's a good chance your employer (legally) owns it.
- hombre_fatal 7y agoAnd when you go without a job to try your hand at starting a business, it's usually accompanied with the gamble that you won't need any medical service that will wipe our your savings.
- coreyoconnor 7y agoNo worries for Amazon SDEs! The amazon software developer "outside contributions" agreement basically states that you are not allowed to do anything without approval anyways. /s Seriously tho. When I was employed by them their agreements were by far most draconian compared to any other company I've worked for. Ridiculous. Most companies I've worked did have a route to enable you to contribute to projects outside of work and still retain the rights. Tho the easiest route is to establish something within a domain you want to work and then state that on a "inventions and copyrights" pre-employment agreement. This will outright eliminate you from certain jobs but... That's the US for ya.
- seppin 7y agoAny Sweden does _____ is immediately BS. The five hour work day was BS, this is too.
- StartupTree 7y agoSwedish resident here. Absolutely correct. 99% of "Sweden does" stories are absolute and total nonsense. Publishers publish what their audience want to read. No-one* uses this 6 month sabbatical for startup purposes.
- seppin 7y ago3 comments in support of what I said and -1 total votes, this website is broken. Anyways whatever Sweden's PR people are getting paid, it's not enough.
- jolts 7y ago100% Correct. Also you are still unpaid, all you get is job security. This is something im sure other companies would be cool with it if you are essential enough...
- alkonaut 7y agoThe 5 hour work week was an isolated thing reported as somehow a national change (i.e. BS). This might actually be true (that people are entitled to this) I guess, but you are correct that basically no one does.
- kzrdude 7y agoHeadlines are misinterpreted and the rumors travel far on the internet. I've also seen that "finland has UBI" being re-told as a story, and that's just from the trials that have been done in Finland. I'd say the onus is mostly on us, to read the articles and not the headlines to understand what they say. And be critical of what the articles say, too.
- go13 7y agoWhy can't people they just quit their job for the duration needed, do the startup in their spare time using their own money rather than taking advantage of someone else who is already successful? They want to be called entrepreneurs - why would they not grow balls, take risk like proper entrepreneurs do and not hide behind socialist populist state? Looks like a lot of people on HN have left-leaning views despite the name "HACKERnews"
- Erlich_Bachman 7y agoThat's basically what they are doing. The title is sort of misleading. The time off is not paid.
- go13 7y agoI know, but still someone needs to cover their position in the meantime and potentially provide other benefits.
- herbstein 7y ago> Why can't people they just quit their job for the duration needed, do the startup in their spare time using their own money rather than taking advantage of someone else who is already successful? The idea is basically that the idea of being forced to look for work, something that can be very draining, is keeping people from taking the chance. This law allows swedes to give their idea a shot without having the lack of job loom over their head. > Looks like a lot of people on HN have left-leaning views despite the name "HACKERnews" I'm not really sure what you mean with this. Can you not be a hacker/entrepreneur/developer and have left-leaning views and ideas? If that's the case I have a few friends that need to change their views or sell their companies. And these friends are left-leaning Danes. So in essence, if you're American, you can generally compare their views to a slightly more "extreme" version of Bernie Sanders.
- go13 7y ago1. i wonder, what makes people and politicians think that an employee who is not certain to find a new job within 6 months and who doesn't have 6 months of savings is capable of creating a sustainable business or a startup? And why creating business is less "draining" than looking for a job in already familiar area for that person? Looks infantile to me. 2. I would imagine entrepreneurs and even more business owners statistically should be right-leaning. Especially, when they start feeling how socialist government "loves" them ;) 3. yes, i was wrong. didn't think it through. hackers can be left leaning. probable today's hackers are naturally left-leaning from what i can see from the comments :) "The problem with socialism is that it runs out of other peoples' money"
- just_a_fella 7y ago> "...Stockholm, has become Europe’s start-up capital, second only to California’s Silicon Valley for the number of unicorns (billion-dollar tech companies) that it produces per capita." I can't find any evidence for this. According to wiki[1]: "Unicorns are concentrated in a few countries/regions: China (125), United States (121), India (27), South Korea (11), UK (10), Israel (7), Sweden (5), Indonesia (5), France, Hong Kong (3), Portugal (3), Switzerland (3), Australia (2),Estonia (2), Belgium (2), Canada (2), Germany (2), Singapore (4), Ukraine (2), and thirteen other countries (1 each)." Smells like propaganda to help the stagnating innovation in europe. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unicorn_startup_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unicorn_startup_compan...
- digitalixus 7y agoFunny that you say that because it's precisely what I've noticed and been saying, having moved to Europe because of all the great stuff mentioned on the internet and realizing it's not as great as people would have you believe. What's weird is every time I've brought it up, either my comment gets buried or a bunch of excuse makers jump in and say "it's not like that, it's just you..." Not until very recently have I noticed other people talking about the lovely EU propaganda and not getting buried.
- myle 7y agoThe keyword here is per capita.
- wesammikhail 7y agoAnd if it wasn´t per capita, they´d find some other way to slice the data. This is simply a PR campaign to attract foreign investment into a country that it latching onto a piece of stat in an ocean of bad indicators.
- belorn 7y agoChina has 1.5 billion people. Sweden has 10 millions. If China would have numerically less start up companies than Sweden than something would be serious wrong in both countries.
- tpmx 7y agoBeing Swedish, I attempted to use that back in 2002 when I was fed up with with my current, quite stagnant employer. Being young and naive I allowed my then direct manager and CEO to bully myself into giving up on that idea. They weren't even aware of this possibility. I showed them the actual law. They implied they would lawyer up if I fighted them. I ended up simply resigning instead. In retrospect that was a fantastic idea! In retrospect I saw people getting stuck there, while my career took off like a rocket (well, comparatively speaking)... If I had been a similar age today, wanting to attempt this, I'd probably be able to find free help online. It's such a different world now, compared to 18 years ago.
- foogazi 7y ago> Anyone who’s been in full-time employment for at least six months is entitled to apply for the unpaid sabbatical, or tjänstledighet, as it’s called in Sweden. I just don’t see the magic in this or the extended parental leave Why can’t any healthy functioning adult do the exact same thing on their own ? is 6 months living expenses really holding back your entrepreneurial dreams?
- ghaff 7y ago>is 6 months living expenses really holding back your entrepreneurial dreams? This isn't even that. It's unpaid time. You're just guaranteed to be able to return to your existing job afterwards.
- foogazi 7y agoDoesn’t seem that impressive to me and a huge burden for companies
- toyg 7y ago> Why can’t any healthy functioning adult do the exact same thing on their own ? Because they know it would be very hard to be re-hired if things don't work out. > is 6 months living expenses really holding back your entrepreneurial dreams? No, for most people it's the thought of renouncing a guaranteed job. With this sort of thing, you know that there is a safety net if the business doesn't take off in 6 months.
- foogazi 7y ago> Because they know it would be very hard to be re-hired if things don't work out. Do people never change jobs in Sweden? Unemployment rate is 6.6% in Sweden - is it that hard to find a job?
- sidlls 7y agoAt least in America it is extremely difficult, if not practically impossible, for "any healthy functioning adult" to just take six months off to do something like start a business. Very few households have even one month of expenses saved up (most can't afford something like a $400 emergency, e.g., car repair).
- amelius 7y ago> Sweden gives employees unpaid time off to be entrepreneurs Shouldn't it be the choice of the employees what they do with their unpaid time off?
- JoachimS 7y agoNo. Unless you don't compete with your employer, poach customers, or do something illegal - what you do on your unpaid time off is none of their business.
- msrmthehomeless 7y agoGovernment are concerned about gdp and creating jobs.
- codelord 7y agoI think Sweden is very romanticized in American media and amongst the elites. Having lived there for 6 years before moving to US, I think it's an ok country but nowhere near the paradise that is promised by the American media. They say the best thing in Sweden is its health care. In the entire time I was there I attempted to see a specialist for a condition that I had maybe two or three times, I ended up giving up every single time after I was told the wait time is between 3-4 months. I keep my American employer sponsored private insurance and employer determined time off policy, thank you very much.
- urvader 7y agoThere are private health insurances here too. If the public system would be so bad as you describe it everyone would use the private ones but very few do.
- marcinzm 7y agoPrivate Health insurance without group plans does not really work well so the fact people don't choose it doesn't mean much to me. Essentially, since sick people are more likely to choose such plans the costs are going to be very high. Either that or the restrictions on the plans need to be high to prevent it. Both make such plans unattractive independent of how bad or good the public plans are.
- brobdingnagians 7y agoFrom my experience in the UK, people typically don't get private insurance because they _believe_ in the public system, not because they have a generally positive experience with the public system. They don't really realize that the service could or should be much different, so they just put up with it because they believe in the system being the way it is. They believe in chipping in, paying their fair share, and everyone being in the pot. It's a mind set, not an optimal set of circumstances. I admire the mindset in many ways, but it doesn't make for quick or efficient service. It all kind of depends on what you optimize for, and what you are willing to put up with based on your worldview of what is most important.
- mk89 7y agoI think also France allows that, not just for entrepreneurs, but for anything. A colleague of mine just took a sabbatical and next year he'll be back.
- ronyfadel 7y agoSame here, a colleague is living his best life for 11 months traveling around the world before going back to his job.
- foxx-boxx 7y agoAfter 50 years of overtaxation they are finally turning away from socialism.
- tengbretson 7y agoWhat sort of unfulfilling work are these people doing where they can just leave and not need to be replaced?
- ourcat 7y agoHow does this work when it comes to any intellectual property you create, while still bound by an employment contract which can often stipulate a company's ownership of ALL of your creations while working for them. (Maybe not being paid is a factor?)
- herbstein 7y ago> which can often stipulate a company's ownership of ALL of your creations while working for them Such laws are generally not lawful in Europe. It certainly isn't here in Denmark, and I imagine it's the same in Sweden
- ourcat 7y agoInteresting. I've had to insist on that clause being removed at a couple of places I've worked. As long as anything I build in my spare time (which I like to do a lot) isn't competitive.
- strictfp 7y agoI'm from Sweden and I've consulted a lawyer regarding a similar clause in my employment contract. That firm suggested that it was enforcable, and more so the closer your "invention" is to the business of your employee. This, however, does not hold if your invention is patentable, since patentable inventions have special protection in Swedish law. This is ironically not applicable to software, since we don't have software patents.
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- badrabbit 7y agoI heard finding housing in stockholm is very hard. How do policies like this play in practice? Is it like how some US states pay you to move there except it's really nowhere near enough to be considered a livable income?
- strictfp 7y agoSwede here. We have a largely regulated rental market throughout the country, stupid as it is. In my view, this is an old remain from bygone times, but for some reason it is romanticised by many. With this system you have to stand in line for at least 20 years to get a decent rental apartment in inner-city Stockholm. As you can probably guess, this system doesn't exactly encourage free movement. And it's created a huge black market, plus that it's pushing everyone into buying.
- SiempreViernes 7y agoBah, stick to the truth: 20 years is for the decent but super cheap apartments, if you pay “market rates” you can get something from the private owners within months.
- xnyan 7y agoBy "you” I think he means most swedes. I don’t know anything about the Stockholm rent market, are rents cost accessible to the average person or is a top-teir-income zone?
- strictfp 7y agoAll rents follow a standard model based on a number of parameters, but it's purposely constructed to enable lower-income household to aquire apartments in attractive locations. At the time of inception, the construction was considered an alternative to dedicated social housing. An article on the current situation: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/why-stockholm-housing-rules-rent-control-flat https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/why-stockholm-...
- RantyDave 7y agoIsn't unpaid time off called "quitting"?
- aliswe 7y agoYou're guaranteed the position when you get back, I think.
- jolts 7y agothis is mostly bullshit... if you are unemployed you can use 6 months of your unemployment money as a lump sum to start a business. most of the time noone gets unemployment money. as many have said sweden is romanticized.
- agentbellnorm 7y agoI enjoy and support the systems mentioned in the article, but the right to unpaid leave was used by Daniel Ek, Markus Persson or Niklas Zennström as far as I know.
- ronyfadel 7y agoFrance has something similar: congé création d’entreprise, up to 1 year (renewable once adding an additional year). Also, if you’ve worked in the private sector for 6 cumulative years, you’re entitled to an unpaid sabbatical of up to 11 months, and you get to keep your job when you go back.
- gerdesj 7y agoThat's how me and my mates started off in the UK. We three were working for a firm in the UK in various capacities in 1999. The firm decided to FM their IT function to Synstar which became part of HP(E). We formed a company and resold ourselves back through Synstar (they took 17%, we were still cheap and still made a living) Nowadays, 20 years later, we are still going. We will never set the world on fire and that is the way I like it. We turn over £1.5M at the moment and have 20 employees, we grow gradually as needed. I sleep very well at night. I'll quite happily stick two fingers up at any fantastically wealthy fuckwit who managed to make themselves wealthy beyond compare who might describe my little company as an underachiever (and have done so.) I'm not advocating that our approach is the best. It works for us. It wont put you on the cover of a magazine. Be absolutely certain that you are the dog's nadgers when you think you are the dog's nadgers. If you are not the dog's then be prepared for disappointment and worse.
- aliswe 7y ago> Stockholm, has become Europe’s start-up capital I dunno, but this just feels very strange. Sure the unicorns, but to call it the #1 startup capital in Europe? Something HAS to be better at this, Berlin perhaps?...
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- enz 7y agoThere is something like this in France, called "Congé pour création d'entreprie" (en: time off to build a company). Basically, you can leave your job (unpaid) but your contract still holds, so you can get back to your job if things don't go as planned.
- Proven 7y agoWho is Sweden? As I already commented in a previous article on this topic, this is nothing but yet another tax by an ever encroaching government. Private companies are simply forced to spend more money for the same amount of labor because employees are doing their own stuff on employers' dime. A gentle reminder to big government fans: government spending always only destroys wealth. It does not create it.
- m0zg 7y agoSo they basically let you not get paid for a while? What incredible generosity!
- divbzero 7y agoIn practice, if you left a job in the US for an entrepreneurial venture that fails, your former employer or a competitor would gladly welcome you back as an employee.
- yspeak 7y agoNot true. Business changes quickly. One day they need you next day they reorganize or fill your position. Particularly true if business is not doing well or on the flip side moving too quickly.
- cookingrobot 7y agoThat seems true for tech workers, but also seems likely you’d forfeit any unvested compensation (stock/option/retention bonus/etc)
- 29athrowaway 7y agoSweden also gives you subsidies to maintain your property.
- yspeak 7y agoTime off is not free and is not given by the government. Even if it's unpaid it's a tax on employers as it costs money to hold job open, loses efficiencies, and required training and transition costs. Even if direct competition is ruled out the employer is assisting with having a valued employee leave. Employers are subsidizing these startups and leaves but politicians take the credit.
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- foxx-boxx 7y agoSweden government is simply reacting to the US policy of DJ administration, because they have to. They look at entrepreneurs like at cash cows without actual political power in Europe. Government officials are masters, everybody else is their servants. Europe sucks.
- cavallone 7y agoI wonder if Sweden accept immigrants from China. This kind of system sounds really appealing.
- jamesblonde 7y agoI am CEO of a swedish VC-backed startup, and i am currently off 2 days a week for parental leave for 6 months. Yes, i am a man. And when we hire somebody in their 30s (man or woman), we can expect that for 6-12 months they will be gone on parental leave at some stage. (We have 4 people now out of 16 who will be on parental leave during 2020 - 3 of them men).
- easytiger 7y agoLet me guess, business is part of the AI/Cloud hypetrain.
- jamesblonde 7y agoDid you guess that without even looking at my post history?
- misev 7y agoThis is not so unusual around Europe I think, I'm off 3 days a week for 7 months for parental leave (in Germany).
- Winterflow3r 7y agoCan I ask what your startup does? (also located in Sweden, so curious about the kinds of companies started here)
- jamesblonde 7y agoData-intensive AI. Based in Kista.
- neximo64 7y agoSo basically how it is with the US/UK but with formalities? I've never heard of an employer refusing to take an entrepreneur-failed attempt back, if anything its a demotion to have the same rank/job after
- esotericn 7y agoWhat is the difference between this and me (UK) just telling my boss I'll be back in N months? The boss being forced to take me back? The usefulness of this seems predicated on employment shortages (otherwise people don't need permission to leave).
- notlukesky 7y agoLove the Greta-like how-dare-they-leave-us quote: “Employers can only turn the request down if the employee is vital to the business’s operations. Also, your new idea can’t compete with your existing employer, nor cause them any significant inconvenience.“
- iron0013 7y agoTotally awkward way to wedge a dig at Greta in there. I guess when all you’ve got is an axe, everything looks like a grinder.