Finland vs. the United States

An excerpt from CNBC Make It -  

28-year-old who left the U.S. for Finland: What work is like in the world’s happiest country—‘they essentially force you to take a vacation’

By Jade Ventoniemi, Contributor

Here I am at my old office.Photo: Jade Ventoniemi

I’ve been living in Finland, the world’s happiest country, for five years now. I think one of the secrets to the happiness of the Finnish people is the country’s work culture. 

Getting work here as a foreigner can be tough, but I’ve been fortunate to have two different corporate jobs in Finland. One job was at a start-up software company with under 50 employees, and the other was at a manufacturing company with over 500 employees. 

I quickly found that their approach to things like vacation time, parental leave and benefits differed from the US. There are a lot of aspects of work life here that I appreciate, but there was a lot that surprised me and took some time to adjust to. 

In the last year, I took what I learned, launched my own marketing firm and started working for myself. These are a few things that stand out to me about corporate life in Finland:

Many workplaces are flexible and allow employees to choose a schedule that fits their lifestyle.

In Finland, typical office hours go from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. One small culture shock I experienced early on is that when workdays often start so early, some people start going to lunch around 11 a.m. Another surprise was how dark it is during the winter when you arrive and when you leave the office.

For many corporate jobs, the work week is 37.5 hours. Overtime hours are not paid in salary, but in corresponding time off. So, if you work a lot one week, it’s normal to do less the next week or take more vacation days. 

If you have an appointment or some obligations for your children during the work day, that can be considered paid time off. In Finland, you’ll often get paid double if you work on Sundays.

It feels like, in Finland, managers and bosses respect employees’ time off. If it’s after 4 p.m., people do not expect their colleagues to respond to an email or answer their work phone. The flexible hours are meant to allow people to have more time in the evenings for hobbies, activities and picking up kids from school.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/27/american-in-finland-what-work-is-like-in-the-worlds-happiest-country.html