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We still complain. About the high prices. How short the summer is. The cold. The rain. The snow. All the people on welfare. That we can't buy beer after 18:00
by vetler 15y ago
We still complain.
About the high prices. How short the summer is. The cold. The rain. The snow. All the people on welfare. That we can't buy beer after 18:00 om weekdays and 20:00 on Saturdays (and not at all on Sundays).
Norway might not be very exciting, though. After all, we're only 5 million people, which is like half of Paris.
Although I don't work there anymore, Opera is hiring[0], and it has a multinational workforce and English is the working language.
Other benefits not mentioned in the article is 5 weeks paid vacation and Norwegian management style[1].
[0]: http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/ http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/
[1]: http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Norwegian-Management-Style.html http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Norwegian-Management-Sty...
- duck 15y agoI have to ask, how hard would it be for an American to get a job in Norway (lets say at Opera) and move their family there?
- hmottestad 15y agoProbably not that hard. However you'd probably be going down a lot in salary, the top 95th percentile for people with masters in technical subjects is around 800 000 NOK or 138 000 usd, but the average is around 550 000. Considering a cheap apartment with 2 bedrooms costs minimum 2 000 000 nok. A bus ticket starts at 28 nok about 5 usd.
- strictfp 15y agoYou might also want to consider the 35 days of payed holiday that you get, the generous parenting leaves and healthcare and pension packages, as well as the higher tax :)
- hmottestad 15y agoIt's only 25 days, or 4 weeks and 1 day. The payment part is just a percentage of what you earned the previous year. So the first year I start working after college I will not get paid during my holidays. Parenting leaves are very important since it is assumed that women should work and not stay home with the children. We also have subsidized kindergartens. Healthcare is fair. However we have pretty much no dental and you only get subsidized medication if you need medication for more than 3 months. Pension is ok, however it's just an economical model where you deduct peoples salaries and force them to save money. And yes, taxes are very high: 25% VAT High income tax Wealth tax and also housing tax
- tallanvor 15y ago25 days is the legal minimum. My employer gives 30 days paid vacation. Some companies also handle holiday pay slightly differently (while still complying with the law), so it's possible to get paid while you are on vacation - I did. You have to have a lot of money before the wealth tax hits you, and it's quite low anyway (if you have enough money that the wealth tax will hit you, you can earn more in interest having the money sitting in a bank account than you will be paying).
- vetler 15y agoOpera does have a few Americans working there, including at least one who moved his entire family there (even his dogs, I believe). Yes, you'd might go down in salary, as hmottestad mentions, so there are pros and cons. People do live fine here on their salaries, so I don't think it would be a problem.
- tallanvor 15y agoIT workers are in demand in Norway, so if you're skilled, it's generally not too hard to get a job here. And the pay is decent - sure you might find some jobs that pay more in the States, but you're not going to starve here. My pay actually jumped by about 50% when I moved here. Things are more expensive here, of course, but not everything is a lot more expensive - renting an apartment here is similar to prices you'd expect in New York. I've never had a problem with healthcare, but off hand I don't know any company that provides dental coverage or vision plans. The hardest part is the language. --Everyone can speak English here, but, like anywhere, the more of the local language you speak, the easier it is.
- karipatila 15y agoAll of your negative points remind me of Finland. Perhaps all of us Nordic folk suffer from some von Trier-ish ailment, where we focus on what's wrong instead of how good we have it here.
- _delirium 15y agoOddly, from what I can tell, von Trier's native Denmark doesn't seem to suffer from it: it seems to always top lists of people happy with their country's situation, and talking in person to Danes, it is nearly impossible to get anyone to admit that there's anything non-great about Denmark...
- laut 15y agoIt is very common for people to complain in Denmark. I left the country, but if you want I can still complain about it ;)
- _delirium 15y agoHmm, maybe I get a different view because I'm a foreigner living in Denmark, but the Danes I know seem strangely patriotic! Not necessarily in a nationalist way, but in a way that's sort of civic-minded and non-cynical: proud to be Danish and think that the way things are done in Denmark is generally a good way to do them. Very different than most people I knew in U.S. universities, who were very cynical about the U.S. society/government.
- bitsoda 15y agoImposing a nation-wide "fat tax" is definitely something Denmark does wrong. Folks who regularly consume foods high in saturated fats will be penalized -- presumably based off fat-phobic, bunk science. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2096185,00.html http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2096185,00.htm...
- laut 15y agoYou write "civic-minded" and "non-cynical", I read "nationalist" and "naive" ;) But perhaps I am cynical. Are the Danes you know students? Among the minority in Denmark that works full time in the private sector, there is discontent with how the system works.
- EiZei 15y agoHonestly I have never failed to meet people complaining about prices anywhere and as far as weather goes even the Russians and Lithuanians seem to do that. That being said I wish I was a Finnish taxi driver in Norway instead of a Finnish taxi driver in Finland. ;(
- tikhonj 15y agoHah, I've even heard people complaining about the weather here in the Silicon Valley. That and real estate prices, but the latter complaints are warranted.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- SamReidHughes 15y agoI lived in San Diego before I moved to Mountain View, and I can confirm that the weather here is indeed horrid. :)
- iaskwhy 15y agoSlightly (or completely) off-topic but you really are a taxi driver? I'm curious why you read HN and how you found it.
- Sukotto 15y agoI meant to vote you up and hit the wrong arrow. Sorry :(
- mdaniel 15y agoI see this a fair bit and wonder if moving the arrows further apart (formally by PG or using GreaseMonkey in the interim) has been discussed? I don't have any down arrows, otherwise I would post code instead of just a suggestion. I absolutely would love to see the arrows resized when viewing using a mobile device.
- afterburner 15y agoYou're probably justified in your complaints about prices; Norway has higher prices than almost anywhere in Europe.
- Rastafarian 15y agoOnly Europe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index#Figures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index#Figures
- vetler 15y agoNorway, and Oslo in particular, is one of the most expensive places in the world, and prices are often discussed in the media. However, I read recently that although we like to complain about food prices, they are not very high when compared to our income. Of course, the Big Mac index clearly shows that food can be very expensive. In general, all fast food is expensive. This is probably in part because there's no such thing as cheap labor here.
- winter_blue 15y agoWhy do you complain about people in welfare? (I think it's a good thing that a country provides welfare to its people like Norway does.)
- latch 15y agoI've lived in a country with good social services and one with less good social services. They both have their ups and downs. The problem with social services as a system, is the same problem as with any system: people game it. I assume in Norway it's no different. Employed feel that the [some] of the unemployed are lazy and taking advantage of the system.
- __rkaup__ 15y agoIt's worth a mention that this is a common complaint in the UK. We've even had a few government ads run railing against "benefits fraud."
- vetler 15y agoSome people take advantage of it. People who don't use it might feel like they're paying for lazy bums. Personally I like to think most people aren't on welfare voluntarily. I recently read somewhere that Norwegians are some of the most gullible people in the world though. YMMV.
- swah 15y agoThe bad behaviours it encourages: having another child to receive state support, don't look for jobs if you expect to be paid less than the what the govt pays unemployed folks, etc.
- sigvef 15y agoThough not important to the essence of your post, I would like to point out that beer is sold until 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturdays, not the other way around.