The nanny state

Sweden is a nanny state. Some people there don't like to hear that. It's a humorous, sometimes slightly mocking term for a social system in which the state plays an overly caring or patronizing role. Imagine an overprotective nanny constantly following behind you to ensure you're wearing your scarf so you don't catch a cold or constantly looking over your shoulder to ensure you're eating your vegetables. Now, scale that image to the size of an entire country and its society.

In a nanny state, someone else always looks after aspects of life, often with the best intention of protecting health, safety, and well-being. In such a nanny state, profound psychological effects arise. This constant availability of support and the expectation that a solution exists for almost everything subtly shapes people's self-image and worldview.

In such an environment, individuals often find it difficult to take matters into their own hands, as I have often seen in Sweden.

Then, in other parts of the European and North American world, the Swedish nanny culture led to a certain passivity in thinking and acting. People who grow up in such a system are used to solutions and help from outside. This can lead to them showing less initiative and being less creative in solving problems. They expect someone else to plan and decide for them.

I noticed this peculiarity, especially when dealing with our younger Swedish employees, less so or not with the slightly older ones. This younger generation grew up in a bubble of constant care and attention, reflected in their need for support in almost every situation. It wasn't about support at work - that might have been understandable and expected. No, it was about everyday things, job-related services that they expected from their division managers as if it were their job to handle such personal matters. From booking travel tickets to trivial everyday tasks - they weren't equipped for anything.

A striking example of this was the organization and booking of business trips. This task would traditionally fall under the remit of the HR department or a specialist travel agency. In our case, however, the young employees expected their direct superiors - the division managers - to handle such matters. It was not just a matter of choosing the means of transportation or booking accommodation. They expected support, from planning the itinerary and booking train or plane tickets to organizing transfers and accommodation.

I don't want to deny at this point that there should and must be someone in the company who organizes business trips of all kinds, not least for economic reasons. The only question is who does it and how far it all goes.

The curious thing about the situation was that these services were taken for granted. No official regulation or instruction stated that area managers should take on these tasks. Instead, it was an unspoken expectation from the Swedish work culture and social environment. This mentality led to an additional burden for the managers and a certain amount of frustration. Many area managers felt overwhelmed and inadequately equipped to handle such tasks, which belonged to professional service providers.

I remember a particularly curious incident that illustrates the situation perfectly. One day, one of our (in this case, Swedish) department managers received a phone call. A group of young Swedes who had to travel from the Stockholm area to our operations in southern Sweden were stranded at the train station. They were wholly unsettled and almost panicked.

"We're standing here at the station and don't know what to do. How does train travel even work here?" they asked desperately.

Our head of department, visibly perplexed by the situation, replied: "Well, you just get on the train."

"But how do you do that?" came the almost unbelievable reply. He had to explain to them how to board a train and buy a ticket - something that most people take for granted. It was as if they had never taken a train journey.

The HR department, which would have been responsible for such matters, ducked away and left it to the division managers to deal with this issue. "care." It reflected the Swedish nanny society, in which many young people seem to grow up so sheltered that they are overwhelmed by the simplest tasks of daily life.

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