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WORKING IN SWEDEN

Ten phrases you’ve definitely heard if you work in Sweden

Sweden's global reputation as a hub for gender equality, efficiency and work-life balance can also result in some baffling conversations for those new to doing business with Swedes. Here's The Local's guide to the ten catchphrases all foreign workers need to know.

Ten phrases you've definitely heard if you work in Sweden
"We have to cut this meeting short because it's my turn to pick up Kalle from preschool." Photo: Scandinav/imageban.sweden.se

1. ‘Don’t call me after 3.30pm. I’ll be picking up the kids’

Swedish parents can quite happily walk out of the office mid-afternoon to pick up their children from daycare or schools without other colleagues raising an eyebrow.

Thanks to heavily subsidised daycare, mums and dads can afford to go back to work after taking their parental leave and many couples share the responsibility of picking up and dropping off their children from nursery. With more women in top roles in business or politics compared to a lot of other European countries, it wouldn’t make sense to Swedes to do things any other way.

2. ‘I’m off on paternity leave for six months’

That parental leave we mentioned adds up to 480 days per couple. Each parent has three months reserved exclusively for him or her and the rest can be shared between the couple. Should one of them decide not to take their allocation, those days cannot be transferred to the other partner and are lost.

The result? Head to any Swedish café during the week and you’ll come across the country’s notorious lattepappor enjoying a coffee break, before heading to the park with their kids. Taking time off to spend with your children is actively encouraged in Sweden and should not be detrimental to your career.

3. ‘I have to work late so I won’t be home until 6pm’

Work-life balance is second-nature to Swedes. Even those not picking up children regularly leave the office at 4pm or 5pm, depending on their start time. You won’t get promoted for staying later – your colleagues will just think you’re a bit strange or have no friends.

That said, Sweden has embraced the global obsession with smartphones and tablets (what else would you expect in such a tech-savvy country), so answering emails out-of-hours has become much more common in recent years. Collaboration is also a key buzzword in the Swedish workplace – if there is a pressing deadline, everyone will be expected to work extra hours and muck in.

4. ‘Can you ring me back? I’m just having a fika’

Swede’s love their fika (coffee and cake) breaks and will openly (sometimes even proudly) tell you when they are having one – even in the midst of a company crisis.

The Local has been asked to call back CEOs, politicians and police officers because they were busy getting some caffeine into their systems when we rung them for a comment on breaking news stories.

A key point here is that they all still pick up their phones (at least before 3.30pm). We’ve experienced less call screening in Sweden’s open society than in many other western nations.

5. ‘The managing director is in a meeting but here’s her mobile number. Why don’t you text her?’

Here’s another example of that Swedish openness. Phone numbers and addresses are widely available in Sweden. You can look up anyone’s contact details online and if you’re calling from a reputable company, you won’t be scoffed at if you try to contact a CEOs or senior public figure directly. And now you’re almost halfway through this article, you should not have batted an eyelid that the manager in this example was a woman.

6. ‘Where are you standing at the moment?

Health-conscious Swedes have embraced a trend for desks that can be raised or lowered, so you’ll often see people standing up typing at their computers, or holding meetings upright on two feet. Given that Swedes are the second tallest people in the world after the Dutch, this can be a bit intimidating for shorter foreign workers at first. 

7. ‘Where’s the CEO? He’s on dishwater duty this week’

A less hierarchical structure in Swedish businesses compared to in many other countries means that you’ll see some CEOs doing the washing up and making tea for their colleagues or even joining in with company bake-offs and sport events. Swedish companies love team-building activities, so also expect plenty of these kind of group social activities after work in bigger firms.

8. ‘I can’t work tomorrow, I’m VABing’

VAB stands for Vård av Barn (Care of Children). Parents get VAB time on at least 80 percent of their salary (paid by the state) if their children are sick and they need to stay at home to look after them. Swedes would not dream of sending a sick child to daycare for fear of spreading germs around.

Once again, both mums and dads take advantage of VAB time and employers should not judge any parents who need to take time off for this reason. Swedes will also be open about the impact this has had on their work. “Sorry I haven’t read the newspapers this morning as my kid has a cold,” a press officer for a very senior government minister once told The Local.

9.  ‘I am leaving at 2pm for a weekend in Finland’

That 5pm finishing time that’s probably making you extremely jealous if you’re reading this from London, Tokyo or New York is pushed forward to mid-afternoon at weekends in many Swedish offices as workers head off to their second country homes (not just the richer ones, “summer” houses are surprisingly affordable in Sweden) or for a break elsewhere in Scandinavia.

It can be a nightmare if you’re trying to close a business deal or get a comment or update on a project you’re working on. But if you’re a foreign worker at a Swedish company you might also get to embrace the dream, and find yourself warming up in a rural sauna before the sun sets.

10. ‘Try me again in four weeks, I am off on holiday’

It’s much more common in Sweden than a lot of other countries to take long periods of holiday. Swedes are typically entitled to take four consecutive weeks, when they make the most of those summer houses or jet off in search of sunshine in southern Europe.

This means that Sweden’s cities are quieter than usual during June and July – perhaps an ideal time to take advantage of the weak krona and invite foreign friends to come and stay, while your boss is out of the office.

Article written by Maddy Savage in 2015

MY SWEDISH CAREER

My Swedish Career: ‘I went freelance and don’t regret it for a second’

Irish journalist, author and former musician Philip O’Connor managed to start off his career in journalism by 'shooting at the moon'. He has since been creating a digital footprint for those with links to Ireland and setting up community events in Stockholm.

My Swedish Career: 'I went freelance and don't regret it for a second'

When Philip walked into one of his favourite restaurants in Märsta, feeling nervous and somewhat guilty since he was going in to ask for a job, it went better than anticipated.

“I went in one night to ask for a job. I had been in there before, and I was kind of friendly with the two sons. I kind of felt embarrassed going in there and asking for a job because it really was the last chance saloon for me.”

But he didn’t even have to ask for the job himself.

“The eldest son said, ‘Oh, here, here’s a beer. I’ll be right back to you in a second’ and I went in there with my tail between my legs. He came out and said, look, normally I wouldn’t ask but I am desperate for somebody to work here. Could you possibly consider walking a few shifts here? I said ‘ah yeah, I’ll do you the favour’,” he tells The Local, laughing.

When Philip first arrived in Sweden in 1999, guitar in hand, he thought that a new country and atmosphere would give him the chance he needed to go further with his music career. However, a new issue appeared. One night when he got on stage he just froze.

“I went there to play in O’Connor’s pub out in Uppsala on the square and for the first time in my life, I got stage fright. I was standing there, and I didn’t understand what it was until years later.”

As he continued to work in the restaurant, his passion for creativity was still in the back of his mind.

With the experience he had writing for music magazines and working in local radio in Ireland, he started to apply for work in media companies. However, that proved to be more difficult than expected. Having gone through a long list of potential media outlets that could take him on for either work placement or for work, he received nothing back.

“There’s a big difference between Ireland and Sweden in terms of, in Ireland, if you have the gift of the gab, if you have the ability to talk your way into situations, you don’t need pieces of paper or anything else like that. If you just, fake it till you make it kind of thing, that works. That didn’t work in Sweden.”

CAREER TIPS:

He then took the opportunity to do an IT course at Komvux, Sweden’s adult education centre, which he used as a backdoor to get into the job he really wanted. Following the completion of that course, Philip, once again, set out to apply for jobs in media organisations and went through a long list. He had no luck until he got to the last name on the list, Reuters – the worldwide news agency.

“Talk about shooting at the moon. I sent off the email thinking, there’s absolutely no chance that these people are going to let me in the door.”

“About 10 minutes later, I got a phone call and they said, yeah, we need somebody to come in on work experience here to help out in the IT department.”

2002 and now working in the IT department with Reuters, it provided Philip with the perfect opportunity to work his way up. Just a few hours after starting his work experience, he was offered a part-time job with the company.

He went on to write a variety of articles within the IT department, which included, how to set up the computer, set passwords and how to store files. This then led him into writing news articles for the company.

“As long as you worked hard and you were in the right environment, people noticed, and I found that to be really refreshing. Because oftentimes you’ll find that you work hard and people either don’t notice or they don’t care or they’re happy enough for what you’re doing, and they just want to leave you there,” he says.

In 2006 he wrote sport-related articles for the news agency before later taking over the sports department at the end of the decade. This position was a freelance contract and required him to decide on whether to take it or not, but he jumped at the opportunity.

“The moment I was told here’s the sports, but it’s freelance, I said where do I resign. It was a case of going out the front door and coming in through the backdoor as a freelancer. So, I had to give up a sort of a permanent pensionable job with a company car to take a freelance contract and I don’t regret it for a second.”

READERS REVEAL:

After spending over two decades in Stockholm and continuing to work freelance, Philip now also spends his time trying to create a sense of community among the Irish population in Sweden.

Through his podcast, Irish In Sweden, he speaks to people with a variety of backgrounds, from those who are involved in the Irish societies in Sweden, to business owners, politicians and everyone in between. However, the definition of Irish is flexible, he explains, since there was a woman on the podcast who owns a bookstore in Gothenburg, but her parents are Irish.

“As long as those who have a story to share that would be of interest to the Irish listenership then they are welcome on the podcast,” he says.

Philip O’Connor runs the Global Gael and Irish in Sweden podcasts. Photo: Private

He created the podcast as a time capsule which captures the lives of those with Irish links living in Sweden, noting that Ireland lost all records dating before the 1840s, when the Public Record Office of Ireland was burned in 1922 during the civil war.

“Who are we as an Irish community, pass that along to the younger generations, and just for them to understand, the culture, the way we speak English, it’s quite unique. We have our own language as well. To pass on all those things, and that perspective and history.”

In October 2022, Philip expanded his podcast offering by creating a global stage for the Irish around the world. The Global Gael podcast offers the opportunity for those who have gone on to do a wide variety of things, from journalism to sport and actors to ambassadors.

Creating a sense of community in Stockholm, not only for the Irish, is another task he aims to complete. He is able to do this through teaching kids how to podcast, from planning and preparation to recording. He has also coached soccer as well as Gaelic games, a sport native to Ireland and a cross between soccer and rugby, and he teaches Brazilian jiu jitsu at least twice a week in Jakobsberg.

Along with that he mentors young journalists both in Sweden and around the world, through helping them develop and opening doors for them.

“Many of them would be from a similar background to me – usually with an immigrant background and coming from a non-academic home and without the natural networks that might exist for people whose families have previously been involved in media,” he says.

“These are often the kinds of people that aren’t heard in media, and their perspective is vital to understanding who we are as a society, and where we want to go.”

“All of these things, it’s community,” he says.

He says the podcasts aren’t only engaging for Irish people, but also for others thanks to the diverse selection of topics discussed and the people who he interviews.

“The podcasts are what I hope and believe will be what I end up doing long-term, but building an audience is like going into battle every day – it’s a very competitive sector and people only have so much time and attention! That said, it’s a great medium and harks back to where I started in community radio.”

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