
Sweden allows every employee to take six months off and start their own business - mikro2nd
https://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-lets-employees-take-six-months-off-start-own-business-2019-2
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frano
This was posted before in a different form, but I think the discussion became
a bit one sided and went off on a tangent. So there is a few point I would
like to make about this practice in Sweden:

1\. As the article states this is an old practice. There used to be an even
better scheme around 10 years ago when you could get unemployment for a year
by having someone unemployed replace you.

2\. The primary benefit, since is not paid, is that you can keep you
employment i.e. you can't be fired. But for every year this is less of a given
as more and more people have temporary employment, work as contractors, at
smaller firms where different rules apply or are granted lesser rights under
the law.

3\. In Sweden you are required to be loyal to your employer. Which means you
aren't allowed to start a competing business while being employed or for some
time after and retain your rights. Which also means you can't for this scheme
either. This makes the whole thing useless for most people in technology.

4\. Living costs, and centralization of society, are off the charts in Sweden.
You will be bleeding money fast unless you are already rich.

So I think there is very little real benefit to this.

Edit: Pretty lame to mark this story as a dupe though, now this comment is
pretty much meaningless since the primary motivation was discussing the issue.
I guess the "middlebrow dismissal" would have been a better idea.

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roenxi
The stand-out detail is 6 months _unpaid_ leave. Sounds like a pretty
reasonable idea; if an employer can't cope with that they probably have a
resiliency issue with their staffing numbers anyway. The upside of a lucky
startup is clearly much greater than the potential drain on the economy, and
the incentives don't seem unsound.

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rorykoehler
This just plays into the hands of big businesses at the expense of small ones.
What if the company is 25 people and 6 decide to take the leave at the same
time? No way they could handle that.

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roenxi
I don't expect a 25 person company is paying well enough that 20% of their
workforce would take 6 months off unpaid all at once. In the unlikely event
that it does happen, use their salary to hire short-term replacements.

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illuminati1911
Except no one wants to have short term temporary job.

Also it’s not just the percentage of employees on leave, but also about their
position.

What if this happens in a startup of 10 people (where they have 2-3
developers) and the person taking the leave is a developer?

Company loses 33-50% of its R&D capacity for the next 6 months. That can have
catastrophic effect on a startup.

~~~
icebraining
> Except no one wants to have short term temporary job.

Sure they do; that's what contractors often are. I've spent eight months
working in Belgium plus three in Luxembourg. It's a great option if you're
from a EU country with lower salaries and don't want to permanently migrate,
but want to build some savings (plus local employers seem have some fetish for
people who worked abroad).

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programLyrique
There is the same kind of unpaid leave in France to create a company, but it's
for one year (and possible to extend it for one more year):
[https://www.service-
public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2382](https://www.service-
public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2382) (in French)

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plogik
Swede here. I had no idea this existed. I know it is allowed to take a leave
for studying but not for starting a company. So i learned something! Anyway, i
don't think this is such a big risk here in Sweden because very few take the
opportunity for doing stuff like that. Running your company i generally
frowned upon in many areas still here.

Disclaimer: could not read the article, doesn't allow adblocker.

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travisoneill1
> Running your company i generally frowned upon in many areas still here

So who runs the companies that everybody works for now?

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vezycash
This will reduce the fear of, "I've got mouths to feed. What if it doesn't
work out?"

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mherrmann
How? The sabbatical is unpaid.

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numbsafari
Because you are guaranteed to return to your existing job. Sure, you’ll need
to use savings for those six months, but you know you can go back. That’s not
nothing.

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speedplane
I’m curious how they enforce the policy of allowing you to keep your job after
you’ve left for six months. What if the position you previously had is no
longer needed or has been replaced by automation? Would they be forced to
rehire you for a period to satisfy the rule with the intention of letting you
go later?

This doesn’t seem like a good long term solution. A better one would be
several weeks off, then half time work for several more months. It allows you
to keep you head in the game, make money, and take care of your kid.

~~~
lucozade
> Would they be forced to rehire you

The employees aren't unhired, they are on leave. And yes, the employer is
required to return you to your old position, or a very similar one.

> What if the position ... is no longer needed or has been replaced by
> automation?

Then they return you to a similar position and/or run less efficiently than
they may have done otherwise.

I don't see this as particularly different from similar issues you get with
parental or education leave arrangements. There are sometimes edge cases that
complicate things a bit but any reasonably sizeable organisation can usually
deal with them without too much bother.

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travisoneill1
I have to assume that there is also a policy to prevent firing them as soon as
they get back from leave, or else the whole thing is useless. I also have to
assume that a replacement hired has the same rights as the employee who took
leave. So there could be successive waves of sabbaticals.

This policy would instantly destroy Silicon Valley. I can picture companies
with more employees on leave to start startups than actual working employees
of the company!

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merricksb
Discussed a week ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19103557](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19103557)

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mac_was
Does it protect the current employer from employees ‚borrowing’ ideas and
leads?

