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WORKING IN SWEDEN

Reader question: Do I get a day off at Midsummer?

When Swedes talk about celebrating midsommar, they mean Midsummer's Eve, which this year falls on Friday June 21st. It's not a so-called 'red day', but do you still get the day off?

Published: 20 June 2023 12:04 CEST
Updated: 20 June 2024 13:58 CEST
Reader question: Do I get a day off at Midsummer?
A Midsummer celebration in Dalarna last year. Photo: Ulf Palm/TT

The majority of workers – at least those who work normal working hours throughout the week – will have the day off on Midsummer’s Eve, despite the fact that it is not officially a röd dag or public holiday.

The reason it’s celebrated on a Friday rather than on the actual summer solstice, which this year is on June 20th, is due to a 1953 reform to make it fit in better with the working week – and presumably to give workers the Saturday off to recover from the festivities.

It is, however, listed as a holiday day equivalent to a Sunday in Sweden’s Annual Leave Act, so if you don’t usually work on Sundays you should have the day off.

If you do have to work on Midsummer’s Eve, you may be offered OB-tillägg (pay for working inconvenient hours), overtime pay, or a day off in lieu at a later date.

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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: How much should you work when you’re actually working in summer?

Swedes take long summer holidays, but even they can't take six whole weeks off from last week of June until the first week in August. What are the expectations when you are actually working?

Published: 27 July 2024 12:00 CEST
Inside Sweden: How much should you work when you're actually working in summer?

The very fact that I’m writing this means that I’m working, and working in the last week of July, a week everyone sensible in Sweden takes off. But with The Local’s Editor and Deputy Editor, Emma and Becky both on their respective holidays, somebody had to keep The Local Sweden going. 

I’m out at our summer cabin project, which my wife is still finishing building, which means that I’ve done some of my work — on dry days at least — at a shaded table by the side of our local lake, occasionally pausing to buy my daughter and son (12 and 10) ice cream, or in cooler weather on the table at the open-air swimming pool, otherwise cycling off to a local cafe where I can work in relative peace. 

This is not new to me.

In previous years, I’ve spent work hours delivering the children to sailing courses in the nearby harbours of Kivik and Simrishamn, and then typing feverishly in a nearby café. Both times I’ve not been alone. The Kivik café, particularly, was chock-a-block with Stockholm creative professionals taking conference calls.

A Swedish consultant friend I met this week shared tips on how to hack the screen of a Macbook so that you can still use it in bright sunlight. He also expressed incredulity that I wasn’t willing (or able) to clock off at 2.30pm or 3pm, arguing that was the standard practice in the summer months in Sweden. 

This does indeed seem to be the case.

Last year, when I surveyed readers working through the dog days of summer, many respondents complained that even those few Swedish colleagues who were working weren’t doing very much.

When I researched stories this week on tourists stocking up on Swedish candy, or on the government not exempting the Migration Agency from the six-month rule, the press officers I dealt with gave the distinct impression of working from the beach or the passenger seat of a car packed with children. 

The key question, I imagine, is what your job entails. Is it a middle management job in a business where all major projects are on hold until mid-August? In that case, you can get away with clocking off early once you’ve made sure that all important requests and emails from less fortunate international colleagues are dealt with. 

Is it a news site that needs to be filled with news and features? Then, sadly, you may find yourself working even harder than normal. 

What have we been working on this week? 

We put out the August number of our monthly guide to what’s happening, which is a mix of exciting festivals and serious events.

What stuck out for me was a new rule which means you can get 10,000 kronor from the government if you scrap a petrol or diesel car and get an electric one instead (something, incidentally, I’ve been unable for find anything more out about, since everyone who knows is on holiday). 

I wrote about the special administrative trick you can use to speed up applications with the Swedish Migration Agency if they drag out for more than six months. 

With the Swedish krona hitting new lows in June and the IMF rating it the world’s most undervalued currency, we looked at what the weak currency means for Brits in Sweden and whether it will deter the Riksbank from cutting rates. 

We looked at whether holidaymakers are really streaming to Sweden from further south in Europe to escape the summer heat in search the ‘coolcation’ trend, and looked at the total cost of flight delays for people going in the opposite direction. 

I took a deep dive into the Swedish Candy TikTok trend, giving a guide for tourists on where you can stock up on the good stuff, and selflessly consuming one of nearly every type of pick-and-mix candy in my local Ica, for a comprehensive, but far from exhaustive, review of all the main candy types. 

And that’s about that. See you on Monday, when I will continue providing you with news and features through the final peak week of summer! 

PS – if you have a chance please fill in our survey looking for reader suggestions for all the best little things that make summer holidays in Sweden special. 

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