I think the article accurately describes the good parts of Danish working culture. Of course there is a big difference between sectors and job types. This mostly covers office and knowledge based...
I think the article accurately describes the good parts of Danish working culture. Of course there is a big difference between sectors and job types. This mostly covers office and knowledge based work, which usually comes with a lot of flexibility with regards to working hours and with a trust based management. People working in retail, health and child care, teaching or just in general "not sitting in front of a computer all day" types of jobs generally don't have the same kind flexibility with regards to working hours. However, they will generally be off-duty when they go home, compared to many knowledge sector workers where we take our works home and sometimes work and free time can blend together.
From what I have read about office and work culture in other countries, especially the US, I am very grateful for how things work here. Though I should point out that my experience is from a very privileged position of having worked in high paying IT-jobs for the last 15 years which has levels of privilege that aren't found everywhere.
I really despite the culture of "office time", where people are just staying at the office (or on the clock in front of their computer at home), to get the hours to add up. Even though they have no more work to do or are just mentally drained that not much more will get done at 15:00, they will still stay an hour or two more, just to give their manager and their coworkers the impression that they are working. So they just browse the news or social media to pass the time. I have thankfully mostly been spared for that kind of office culture, but I have heard from several people that it is quite common.
I would hate to be judged by the hours I clock rather than the quality of the work I do. I do my best to do the same for the people on my team. It shouldn't matter if they technically don't always add up their full hours, because in practice no good will come out of forcing people to stay 30-45 minutes extra just to have the time sheet add up perfectly. I think it will likely decrease productivity to not give people that trust that they do their best.
These values were especially challenged when new EU regulations required everyone to keep logs of their hours on a day to day basis. That forced us back to registration of hours rather than allowing for a good faith system where we don't keep taps on every minute, which removed flexibility and added an element of distrust that I really despised. We found ways around it to comply with regulations without going overboard on the detailed registration, and while I completely understand EUs need for better harmonized working laws across all countries, I am worried if Denmark can keep our trust based approach to work-life balance in the long term.
I think the article accurately describes the good parts of Danish working culture. Of course there is a big difference between sectors and job types. This mostly covers office and knowledge based work, which usually comes with a lot of flexibility with regards to working hours and with a trust based management. People working in retail, health and child care, teaching or just in general "not sitting in front of a computer all day" types of jobs generally don't have the same kind flexibility with regards to working hours. However, they will generally be off-duty when they go home, compared to many knowledge sector workers where we take our works home and sometimes work and free time can blend together.
From what I have read about office and work culture in other countries, especially the US, I am very grateful for how things work here. Though I should point out that my experience is from a very privileged position of having worked in high paying IT-jobs for the last 15 years which has levels of privilege that aren't found everywhere.
I really despite the culture of "office time", where people are just staying at the office (or on the clock in front of their computer at home), to get the hours to add up. Even though they have no more work to do or are just mentally drained that not much more will get done at 15:00, they will still stay an hour or two more, just to give their manager and their coworkers the impression that they are working. So they just browse the news or social media to pass the time. I have thankfully mostly been spared for that kind of office culture, but I have heard from several people that it is quite common.
I would hate to be judged by the hours I clock rather than the quality of the work I do. I do my best to do the same for the people on my team. It shouldn't matter if they technically don't always add up their full hours, because in practice no good will come out of forcing people to stay 30-45 minutes extra just to have the time sheet add up perfectly. I think it will likely decrease productivity to not give people that trust that they do their best.
These values were especially challenged when new EU regulations required everyone to keep logs of their hours on a day to day basis. That forced us back to registration of hours rather than allowing for a good faith system where we don't keep taps on every minute, which removed flexibility and added an element of distrust that I really despised. We found ways around it to comply with regulations without going overboard on the detailed registration, and while I completely understand EUs need for better harmonized working laws across all countries, I am worried if Denmark can keep our trust based approach to work-life balance in the long term.