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Comment by diggan | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand, even if you fuck up really badly economically in Sweden, you have a lot of protections and safety nets that can catch you, so with that in mind, people should be more willing to take risks, as you'll still be able to afford going to the hospital and such.

But that doesn't seem to translate to reality, sadly.

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I dont get it, what risks do you take when you work at tesla compared to volvo?

Being miserable everyday because you have a shitty job that might pay more in the end?

If you're at Volvo with a collective bargaining agreement that probably makes it harder for Volvo to lay you off or fire you.

If you're at Tesla without a collective bargaining agreement that probably makes it easier for Tesla to lay you off or fire you. Those are risks.

> If you're at Volvo with a collective bargaining agreement that probably makes it harder for Volvo to lay you off or fire you.

I've never seen that stop Volvo from mass layoffs when sales are bad?

But sure, unfounded firings seem to be rare.

I dont know swedish law, but from quick glance collective bargaining agreements may give longer notice period, but doesn't protect you from being fired?

Not an expert either. But I think you have fairly strong protections in the law from getting unjustly fired. The union agreement will give you extra protection on top of that, but I think the biggest thing in your favor is that the union lawyers will sue the company for you and represent you in court.

You can get fired for bad behavior or abysmal performance. Not easy for the company to do, takes a lot of documentation and warnings.

But layoffs is a completely different matter. If the sales go down, people will get laid off. Maybe they'll get better terms, but Sweden isn't France where the unions will force companies to keep tons of people they don't need.

That's something I've wondered about for a while. Why?

I think risk avoidance is just a cultural part of Sweden/Swedes. As a Swede I can definitely feel a difference in how Swedes approach life compared to other parts of the world. Slow, steady and "lagom" is usually the socially acceptable way.

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