Denmark:
Is work-life-balance always a good thing?
To most Hong Kong people, achieving work-life balance would seem an impossible feat. The Danes, who rank first in achieving work-balance balance, however, work almost half the number of hours per week they did a century ago, and significantly fewer than the rest of Europe: 1,559 hours per year compared with the EU average of 1,749 hours. In another light, according to a 2011 OECD study encompassing thirty countries, the Danes were second only to the Belgians in the laziest stakes globally.
In practice this means that most people knock off at around four or five in the afternoon, few feel pressured to work at weekends, and you can forget about getting anything done after 1 p.m. on a Friday. Annual leave is often as much as six weeks and, during July, the entire country shuts down as the Danes might en masse, like mild-mannered wildebeest, to their summer houses for their vacation.
That is to say, most of the Danes, when having to leave work early, will not be sneaking out 'to go to a meeting', or feigning illnesses. Instead, they will straight-forwardly inform their bosses that they will be attending a party an hour north along the coast, and that they will need to leave work early to prepare. Their bosses- if they haven' already left themselves for the same reason- will have been at ease with this. The Danes have a refreshingly laid-back approach to their work-life balance which, as we will see, has indeed some major negative consequences (sometimes you do really need to buckle down and do some work: during a global recession, for example.)
For instance, more than 754,000 Danes aged between fifteen and sixty-four- over 20 per cent of the working population- do no work whatsoever and are supported by generous unemployment or disability benefits. The New York Times has called Denmark "The best place on earth to be laid off", with unemployment benefits up to 90 per cent of previous wages for up to two years (until recent reforms, it was eleven years). The Danes call their system flexicurity, a neologism blending the flexibility Danish companies enjoy to fire people with short notice and little compensation, with the security the labour market enjoys knowing that there will be ample support in times of unemployment. (pp.18-19)
Danskhed- The Paradox of Danish Identity
Parochialism (a tendency of secular nationalism) remains the Danes' defining characteristic throughout the years, but their radically recalibrated sense of identity and national pride has created a curious duality best described as a kind of 'humble pride', though many often mistake it for smugness.
To illustrate what exactly Danskhed is, let us consider the following example: assuming that you know nothing about their country, within the first five minutes or so of meeting a Dane they will usually say something along the lines of "This is just a little land. We are only a little over five million people; we're pretty much all the same.' They will probably add that they have no mountains or waterfalls, and that you can cross their country by car in four hours. But after a while- you will begin to detect the steely pride beneath it all- that's when they might casually mention their world-leading wind turbine industry, the absence of poverty in Denmark, their free education and health systems, and generous benefits. They will tell you how they are the most trustworthy and equal people in the world, how they have the best restaurant in the world. You shall then see the schizophrenic self-image that the Danes have about themselves. (pp.27)
What makes Denmark the happiest country in the world?
-Does economic equality equates to happiness?
Some held that economic equality leads to societal success. For example, according to Joseph Stiglitz, the Gini Coefficient is the silver bullet which goes directly to the heart of not just how equal a society is, but how happy and healthy its people are likely to be. It is, if you like, the very sum of human happiness.
The arguments follows that greater economic inequality has a direct correlation to just about every social problem that the West faces, from obesity to crime, drug abuse, mental illness, depression and stress. Crucially, it isn't the absolute levels of poverty and wealth that are the issue, but the differentials in income levels from the lowest to the highest in each country which are the crux of the matter.
On this, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett drew a most radical conclusion that inequality breeds stress not just among the poor, but also among the rich alike; the more unequal a society, the less benefit is obtained from an individual's wealth. The stress of inequality does not just breed envy, it breeds problems such as depression, resignation and physical symptoms including premature aging that affect the entire population. In other words, the wellbeing of individuals, rich or poor, is mutually dependent.
While Denmark is often seen as a paragon of equality, the top spot of the global Gini rankings is usually held either by Sweden or Japan. If Gini is the best indicator of income equality, and if income equality is the key ingredient for a social utopia, then how come it is the Danes, not the more equal and more successful (by most parameters) Swedes, who are regularly held to be the happiest people in the world?
-The problem with happiness research
In the book, Richard Wilkinson warned us about the subjective nature of happiness research, "I don't really think measures of happiness internationally are necessarily very dependable. For instance, for an American to say they are not happy sounds like an admission of failure, but for a Japanese person it sounds like bragging to say they are, so I think one has to be very careful. We find there are systematic problems with subjective measures related to inequality. How people use the word "happy", for instance, or how they present themselves. I don't think these surveys mean nothing, but I wouldn't put a great deal into them. All of our measures are objective, like death rates, obesity and so on."
On a side note, it might well be the case that these kinds of polls has become self-perpetuating. The Danes are now well aware that the world considers them to be the happiest people, so perhaps this knowledge, along with the pleasure and pride they justifiably feel in having such a reputation, influences the way in which they respond to these quality-of life surveys.
-How about health, then?
Wilkinson as well as other experts detest that you get a much more accurate picture of people's wellbing by analysing the state of their health than asking them if they feel happy or satisfied. Unfortunately, the Danes score notably badly in terms of their health. According to a recent report from the World Cancer Research Foundation, they have the highest cancer rates in the world (326 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 260 in the UK, in the 12th place). They also have the lowest average lifespan of any of the Nordic countries, and the highest levels of alcohol consumption, ahead even of the famously boozy Finns.
- So, does it have to do with trust levels and social cohesion?
The Danes are arguably the most sociable people on earth. According to the Danish think tank Mandag Morgen, they belong to more associations, clubs, unions, societies and groups, and have larger social networks, than any other nationality- 43 per cent of over-sixteens belong to something or other. On average, each Dane has 11.8 people in their personal network, compared with 8.7 per British person. There are 83,000 local and 3,000 national societies and associations in Denmark- on average every Dane belongs to three.
These clubs, associations and societies are one manifestation of the Danes' remarkable social cohesion. They do seem to be very much more tilknyttet or 'tied together' than the rest of us. You will be familiar with the concept of 'six degrees of separation'- the idea that the world's population can be joined together by six relationships. Between the Danes, the degree of separation is three, perhaps fewer. When two Danes who do not know each other meet at a social gathering they will take, on average, no more than eight minutes to discover either a direct mutual acquaintance, or at the very least a friend-of-a-friend connection. More than three degrees of separation is genuinely rare.
All of the Nordic countries have high levels of trust, but the Danes are the most trusting people on the planet. In a 2011 survey by the OECD, 88.2 per cent of Danes expressed a high level of trust in others, more than any other nationality. 96 per cent of them said that they knew someone on whom they could depend in times of need. The Danes even trust their politicians, one measure being 87 per cent general election turnout.
Back in the nineties there was an experiment done where wallets were left around in various cities and they counted how many were returned. And the cool thing is that in the places where more people say they can trust others, the more wallets were returned. They did an experiment with about forty wallets and the only two countries where all forty were returned were Norway and Denmark. You may think that this was too good to be true, but TV2 [a Danish TV channel] did the same experiment again four years ago in Copenhagen Central Station, and they literally could not even leave the wallets- people instantly pick them up and come running after them, so they had to give up!
Best known for "hygge" in recent years, enjoying cinnamon rolls bites while strolling along the streets of Denmark has always been on my bucket list. Not to mention visiting the colourful houses in central Copenhagen and riding a bike to wherever I want to go. Having known Denmark of its downside, it seems to me that one shall better look at the country through another lens.