
When a cleaner finds 5 euros at a Finnish office - villevhtr
https://finland.fi/life-society/only-in-finland-a-story-of-banknotes-post-it-notes-and-social-media-posts/
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Traubenfuchs
This is clearly an artificial, manufactured viral marketing campaign. Hash tag
added for extra cringe. Ridiculous.

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Teever
Totally. This was my first thought when I skimmed the article. Now I wonder
who is paying for it, the Finnish gov't or the company mentioned in the
article?

I speculate that it may be part of a PR campaign from the government to draw
skilled people from the US. It seems to coincide with recent comments about
the American Dream by the Finnish PM.

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Traubenfuchs
The website is sponsored by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland...

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Teever
lol, well that's what I get for skimming...

At lease my interpretation of the article was correct, I guess.

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leke
I've been living in Finland for the last 20 years, and this story is pretty
accurate. I've dropped a wallet to have the finder hand it in to the nearest
supermarket, who then contacted me to pick it up. People typically write their
names or phone numbers on bus cards, in case something similar happens. Lose a
phone? Go to the police station. It's usually been handed in.

If you lose something, you can expect to get it back, unlike what I've found
to be the case in my home country (UK). People just tend to look out for each
other here.

~~~
chantelles
My partner is Finnish and so I stay a few weeks every year for years. I am
Canadian and the cultures are very similar (northern, low population density,
WASP-y, racialized immigrant hating - eg calling the dialect of Finnish
refugee immigrants speak "bacterium").

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jedberg
My first time in Finland was last May (incidentally to give a talk at Smartly
in the very office featured in the photo).

I love Finland. You can tell from the moment you arrive that the entire
country cares about the welfare of everyone there.

It started when we got on the train from the airport. We were told that not
only do kids ride public transit for free, but anyone pushing their stroller
does too. Talk about supporting families!

And then when we got off the train in downtown Helsinki, what I didn't see
anywhere were homeless people or beggars. I only saw one person who talked as
if he had mental issues, but even he looked well cared for -- he had decent
clothes and looked like he had a healthy diet. My guess was that he was living
in a shelter and had competent mental health care.

Not having to tip servers was great, especially knowing they were making a
living wage.

Overall 10/10 for their society. If it weren't for the weather and winter
darkness, I'd totally live there if they'd take me.

~~~
baddox
How easy is it to immigrate to Finland and enjoy these advantages of Finnish
society? If it’s easy, then I wonder why more people don’t do it. If it’s
difficult, then it feels a little disingenuous to praise a society for
privileging the people who just so happen to be born there.

Obviously I’m not discounting the notion than certain societies can treat
people better than other societies. I’m only trying to point out that given
good treatment to members of a society is a pretty useless measure to judge a
society unless you also analyze how people an _become_ members of that
society.

~~~
socialdemocrat
Not sure about Finland but my native Norway pops up in these kinds of
discussions frequently as well. Moving to Norway is in fact relatively easy as
long as you get a job which requires some kind of higher education or special
skill. You cannot move to Norway just to flip burgers. But you can move to
Norway as say a sushi chef or geologist. I would expect Finland as a fellow
Nordic country to be similar.

The reason we are not overrun with people moving to Norway is simply that
people don't actually know Norway is fairly easy to move to. I have spoken to
many foreign professionals here and while most of them originally had positive
attitudes to Norway, pretty much none of them had believed moving to Norway
was even an option.

It was often entirely random reasons why they ended up in Norway, such as
getting hired by a Norwegian company at a foreign branch.

To most people contemplating emigrating the only countries that exist in their
heads are the US, Canada and Australia.

Also especially people from poorer countries who decide to emigrate are
extremely ambitious. They want to make a lot of money and shoot for the stars.
Nordic countries are not really a place for such people. Ambition and making
lots of money is not central value in Nordic societies. Nordics is all about
work-life balance, moderation etc.

While Norway e.g. is one of the worlds richest countries you will not find any
Rolls Royce, Bentley's or 200m tall luxury hotels. The wealth is sort of
hidden in child-care facilities, humane prisons and stuff that isn't very
glitzy. If you want to show off that you made it, then you are in the wrong
place if you aim for the Nordics ;-)

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tallanvor
Norwegians pretend they don't care about a status symbols, but the reality is
very different. You'll see many high-end cars and people walking around with
designer bags and clothes, even teenagers. For a month prior to the 17th of
May you'll also see teenagers spend obscene amounts of money fitting out a bus
to drive around the city drinking and annoying everyone with horrible music.
--It may seem normal to you, but it really is a rather ostentatious display of
wealth.

~~~
socialdemocrat
Of course, people care about status all over the world. We are not an entirely
different species. It is a question of relative difference. Compared to how
wealthy Norway actually is, there is relatively little display of wealth.
Compare to something like Hong Kong, Moscow or the Gulf States.

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dazc
'It’s strangely fitting ... because it seems to be a case of social media
visibility springing up organically, without preplanning or algorithms.'

Not sure about the preplanning though?

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jdkee
It would be nice to live in a high trust society.

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zweep
Beautiful. And, let’s give some honest thought about whether if you added a
bunch of people from low-trust societies to the mix at the office, whether
such behaviors would endure.

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tenant
Your comment prompts images of minefields and parapets in my mind

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systemtest
> I guess this is your tip now. You deserve it!

Found the American. Just as a heads up. We don't tip the cleaner. Or anyone
else. And while Finland doesn't have minimum wage, collective agreements
specify minimum pay rates so the cleaner will always be paid a liveable wage.

~~~
versale
Actually I was offered to give a tip at "O'Leary's" in the IsoOmena mall
(Espoo) when paying the bill with my Visa Electron. It felt awkward and I've
been avoiding the place since then.

~~~
vhakulinen
More and more places are "offering to give a tip" at least in Helsinki when
paying by card. The machine asks if you want to give some or not.

Its... weird.

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maeln
This as been happening in France also. We were also never giving tips before
because there is a minimum wage but now, almost every bar & restaurant do it.

I wonder if it is not some form of US cultural influence. We see people
tipping in series, films and such and start to do it to.

~~~
fit2rule
The credit card machines are probably set up to prompt the waiter for a tip.
This is a common feature on POS systems, regardless of whether its sold in USA
or Turkey.

~~~
Symbiote
Naturally all the machines support it, but it's up to the owner of the
business whether to enable that feature or not.

~~~
fit2rule
Many don't even bother to turn the feature off ..

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dvfjsdhgfv
Am I the only one who finds it awkward? I mean, if this was €100, then maybe,
but this is €5, I leave this kind of money around my desk regularly and nobody
cares - why on Earth would you bother posting this kind of stuff on social
media?

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paganel
Because many people wrongly assume that those people who happen to be lower
paid (in this case, a cleaner) also have higher chances of being “thieves” or
of having lower moral standards, and as such it comes as a surprise to them
when they find out that cleaners (for this example) are just like everybody
else. I find it incredible classist, but I don’t think that’s anything much
that can be done, this attitude is too entrenched on both sides of the
political spectrum.

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mxcrossb
It’s interesting that the point of the _article_ seems to be “look how
trusting Finnish people are of others”, and yet the take away from the _story_
might be “Finnish people were surprised by the trustworthy behavior of a
cleaner”

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ganzuul
It's an anecdote, but my mother was certain a cleaner she once had over after
winning a gift card for such had stolen something. After a few years she found
the thing.

Not her normal behavior. She is usually much too trusting. Apparently people
are territorial.

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my_user_name
> Only in Finland

More like "only in a corporate environment with CCTV"

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Symbiote
That seems unlikely in Finland.

Maybe on the entrance and exit, but not in the office itself.

