No blogging

This week has been a bit crazy and I don't even want to think about the next two weeks. So many details need to be put together for the big meeting in about ten days time and blogging it's exactly my number one priority...

I had a discussion with a Brit the other day and she said the only thing Swedes aren't taxed on is time and that's why our free time is so holy and so cared for by our unions. And as she explained what she meant I realised that she's absolutly right. You can't really make money by working in Sweden, the taxes are to high so even if you work monster hours and get a monster pay the state is taking most of it back in tax, it just doesn't pay enough to work long hours because we're not paid enough to give up our free time. A CEO in Sweden makes maybe the double of his assistant, in the US that is five-ten times more than the assistant. Why take on the responsibility and the hours when you're not getting paid enough? Of course everybody who can will take off as early as they can. Especially if the weather is good.

The Japanese companies we deal with get angry when they ring up at 3pm and we say the person they are looking for has gone for the day while in Japan it's 10pm and they are still at work. But Sweden (and Scandinavia) has a really long and dark winter and a short summer. We have about three months of summer when it can be nice and warm, where we can actually be outside and be warm. It's only natural that we want to have as much free time as possible when the weather is good, when our country is actually livable for a few short months. In June, when the days are long and bright and it's warm, I want to be out on the lake in my boat, not stuck in an office.

I'd never thought about it that way before but I reckon she's right. I'm sure as hell not getting paid enough to waste my free time at work.

Today at 21:30


/Mel