---
title: The appeal of the Swiss and Swedish work life
date:  2017-01-25
tags:  life, work
tldr:  Living to work versus working to live.
---

I recently read an article[1] about Sweden's six-hour work day and was
fascinated by it because here in the States, it's more about the *quantity* of
hours you put in, it's not about the *quality* of the work you put in (FWIW,
that seems to be changing in start-up land). Henry Ford famously tested the
eight-hour work day with his factory employees, but it's 2017 now. Do we
*really* need to continue the trend?

To quote[2] Magnus Bråth of Brath, a tech company in Sweden (emphasis mine):

> We also believe that once you've gotten used to having time for the family,
picking up the kids at day care, spending time training for a race or simply
just cooking good food at home, you don't want to lose that again. We believe
that this is a good reason to stay with us and not only because of the actual
impact longer hours would make in your life but for the reason behind our
shorter days. That we have shorter days is not the main reason people stay with
us, they are the symptom of the reason. The reason is that we actually care
about our employees, *we care enough to prioritize their time with the family,
cooking or doing something else they love doing*.

> A third huge reason for shorter days is that we all feel more rested.
Obviously we too have to stay late at times, obviously we too are stressed at
times but it's from a better base line. Working late at our two offices often
mean staying for 8 hours, or 7. *Think about it, when mom comes home late, she
comes home at 5.*

In the linked article at the top of this post, the six-hour work day experiment
ended because it was too expensive for the nursing home it was tested in.
Nurses were more alert and as a result, *care and happiness amongst those being
cared for increased* drastically. *However*, more nurses were hired to provide
overlap for shifts. As countries become more wealthy, I think the benefits will
outweigh the costs.

I look forward to implementing a similar system when I am able to hire people
for Ideas Never Cease[3]. Better maternity / paternity / grief leave as well!
A previous employer didn't seem to give a damn while I was grieving over my
miscarried daughter Zoe Elise and that added to the hurt, immensely. I don't
*ever* want to make someone else feel the way I felt, it sucked. My grief was
getting in the way of your *false deadline* on a project for your
*still breathing* family member? Whoops, *my bad*. 🙄 But I digress.

Chantal Panozzo wrote a great article for Vox[4] detailing her life in
Switzerland and the amazing adjustment from American work life. Here are a few
choice quotes:

> In Switzerland, you don't arrive to a meeting late, but you also don't leave
for your lunch break a second past noon. If it's summer, jumping into the lake
to swim with the swans is an acceptable way to spend your lunch hour. If you
eat a sandwich at your desk, people will scold you.

> Lunchtime is sacred time in Switzerland. When I was on maternity leave, my
husband came home for lunch to help me care for our daughter. This strengthened
our marriage. Many families still reunite during weekdays over the lunch hour.

> Swiss law mandates a 14-week maternity leave at a minimum of 80 percent pay.

> People in Europe took vacation seriously. Once, when I only took 10 days for
a trip to Spain, my colleagues chastised me for taking so little time off. I
learned to take vacation chunks in two-week intervals. Well rested, I noticed
that I felt more productive and creative when I returned to work. Recent
American research[5] confirms what I was feeling: Relaxing can make you more
productive[6].

I could continue, but you get the gist.

With self-imposed deadlines, I find that I am more creative in my
problem-solving and often find better solutions than if I was working on
problems without a time-sensitive goal attached. I believe the same thing would
be applied to a shorter work day. A six-hour work day would also discourage
long meetings without focus (well, long meetings *period*). I don't see big
American companies making these quote drastic changes but startups? Hell yeah,
definitely. Instead of focusing on "perks" like beer on tap, foosball tables,
and game systems, &c, why not focus on improving the lives of your employees
so they can make dope shit?

Happy employees will reward you with their absolute best work. Simple. 🕸



---

[1]: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sweden-six-hour-working-day-too-expensive-scrapped-experiment-cothenburg-pilot-scheme-a7508581.html
[2]: https://brath.com/why-we-started-with-6-hour-work-days
[3]: https://the-inc.co
[4]: https://www.vox.com/2015/7/21/8974435/switzerland-work-life-balance
[5]: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/opinion/sunday/relax-youll-be-more-productive.html?pagewanted=all&\_r=1&&gwh=AC034D10F64239B961A6E1CDE12C9332&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion
[6]: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/22/5912369/creativity-vacation-work-office