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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/nov/08/fika-four-week-holidays-and-zero-overtime-swedens-stunningly-healthy-work-culture>
"Gym classes, massages, mood boosting hobbies; it’s no secret that staying
“well” can be prohibitively expensive. But not necessarily in Sweden, where
many employers offer their workers a so-called “wellness allowance”: up to
5,000 SEK (approximately £372) tax-free a year to spend on pre-approved
wellbeing-based activities.
First introduced in 1988, the allowance can be used for endeavours ranging from
horseback riding to smoking cessation programmes, and Swedish employers have
stuck with it, with many increasing their offering over the years. But the
allowance, it turns out, is just the tip of Sweden’s workplace wellbeing
iceberg. In fact, when it comes to ideal countries to be employed in, Sweden
sets the pace.
“It’s pretty amazing,” says Maja Wessel, acting CEO of Region Stockholm’s
Patient Advisory Committee (Patientnämnden) of the wellness allowance. Her
organisation was awarded Sweden’s best small workplace by Great Place to Work
earlier this year and came third in their European final. She spends her
allowance on a gym membership, but says that yoga classes and ski passes are
also popular choices. Many Swedish employers also offer a weekly
friskvårdstimme or “wellness hour” – 60 minutes a week to look after their
wellbeing during paid working hours.
Perhaps the best-known of Sweden’s enviable workplace practices is the
tradition of fika (derived from the Swedish word for coffee,
kaffe), which
involves stepping away from your desk to share coffee and cake or pastries with
colleagues. Unlike in other countries, where a coffee run may more commonly be
carried out by one person, or used to facilitate a work meeting, in Sweden the
focus tends to be on taking a collective break. “It’s not a time to talk about
work – it’s a pause from work, to talk about other things,” says Lotta
Henrysson, head of HR at Vattenfall Sweden, a state-owned energy company. “Some
people are strict with it: every morning at 9am and every afternoon at 4pm.
That’s kind of the old culture, I would say – how it was 20 years ago. Now, it
can also be more ad hoc.” Vattenfall’s offices have seating areas on every
floor to make it easy for people to move away from their desks and “change the
environment” during fika breaks."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
