Vacation...Where Can I Get Some? A couple of weeks ago The Lattice Group team was speaking to a young gentleman in Moscow who works for East Capital, which describes itself as “a leading independent asset manager specializing in Eastern European financial markets.” East Capital is based in Stockholm, and I recall the surge of exhilaration when the interviewee in question told me as much. Yes, he did work for a Swedish company. And yes, it was very different than working for a Russian company. Offhandedly, he mentioned an emphasis on horizontal hierarchies, parental leave (note: for fathers as well as mothers) and extensive vacation time.
 Today, I happened across an article in Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish daily) with a large picture of a sharp-eyed woman and the heading: “Looking East.” It was an article about, low and behold, East Capital and it’s CEO, French-born Karine Hirn (globetrotter, multi-linguist, businesswoman and mother). Hirn founded the company in 1997, and since then it has become the largest company managing funds in Eastern Europe. Very Lattice-like, the two journalists ask: “How do you balance your job as a CEO with your life as a mother of small children?” Her answer? “Sweden is one of the few countries in which one can combine a good family life with an exciting job.” Perhaps, thanks partly to that good old extensive vacation time.
Vetta and I are currently compiling our Lattice Group research while romping in the rustic fields of southern Sweden, seemingly far from the management of any kinds of funds, besides perhaps the daily ice-cream fund. But not so. I met my neighbor in his bathrobe on the way to the harbor for a swim. He is the CEO of a large Nordic recruiting company. I called one of our recent interview subjects, CEO of Christies Sweden, only to find that she was answering her cell phone in a small fishing village a couple of miles away. I sent a business email and received an automated response that said: “I am out of office until 11th of August.” The country is on vacation. Long vacation.
How quickly one forgets. My sister and her husband just left to return to their demanding jobs in New York after an oh-so-short stay in Sweden. This was their vacation for the year. Two weeks, that’s what you get. Two weeks???? When in an American context, discussing job options with college friends (or trying to find a time to see my boyfriend who could not get even a single vacation day), two weeks sounded desirable, enviable even. But now, several weeks into our Swedish sejour, two weeks sounds impossible, barbaric. Isn’t there something in some human rights treaty about that? No? Really…? Oh.
Well, it is in the laws of many European nations. Sweden and France guarantee five weeks minimum- to factory workers and CEOs alike. Even Russia gives you four. And the USA? In America a company doesn’t, by law, have to give you any. Not a single day.
Vacation isn’t all about putting up your feet. It is about re-connecting with family and friends, taking a breather, yes, but also about re-charging your batteries so that you can return to work with new energy. Ready to flex your creative muscles. Ready to give back more to that employer and that market and that larger economy than you could have if you are worked to the bone, haggard and drained and torn between everyone and everything and their demands.
A lot of the high power individuals we have interviewed over the past couple of months have mentioned the importance of knowing what you want and going for it in a strategic, and straight-forward way. Not being afraid of saying what you want. Even of demanding what you want (with due respect, of course).
Well, I hereby state, with all due respect to anyone who cares to listen, that: I need at least five weeks of vacation a year. Bottom line. I need that for my personal sanity, but also for my ability to produce creative output, to achieve and excel in my work.
Apparently, in Sweden, I can be a CEO and still do that. - Astri
One person has commented on this article.  1. UntitledEdward J, UnregisteredIt reminds me of myself…always available on cell and email..at anytime, and anywhere in the world. It’s the only way to keep a good mindset, when you explore the world it gives you a fresh prospective about your own homeland and work environment. |
