

The start-up scene that is changing Norway - runarb
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24912717

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bowlofpetunias
As usual, the working culture in Norway is most likely heavily overstated to
contrast with the (counter productive) Anglo-Saxon way of doing things.

I cannot speak for Norway, but since my country, The Netherlands, is known for
working even less hours, I seriously doubt the situation in Norway is very
different.

Although those hours may be normal for the ordinary office and factory worker
(and thank god for that), there is absolutely nothing abnormal about
entrepreneurs, self-employed and people at start-ups working different and/or
longer hours. (And even then most of them actually don't.)

We are neither lazy nor anti-entrepreneur. We just have decent labour laws to
protect those for whom a job is just a job, which is 90% of the population.

But nothing is stopping the other 10%. Please note that this article
suggestively heads a paragraph with 'Golden handcuffs' (including the
quotation marks), but fails to reproduce any such quote, or any evidence of
any kind of limitation.

It's just the typical desperate attempt to suggest that there must be
something wrong that needs to change about prosperous countries where people
work considerably less on average, and are happier and healthier.

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purringmeow
I could never work the hours some people here are putting. I mean, cmon - 12+
hours a day?

Not that there should be laws stopping people from working that much, but I
would hate for Europe to become like the US in that regard - almost no
employee protection and long hours(50-60h weeks) becoming a standard.

And that's coming from someone who's libertarian in many aspects :)

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hipsters_unite
Absolutely. Work a day job and freelance etc., on the side, but I'm free to
drop the extra work if it gets too much and just live off a decent day job.
Here in the UK it's tending more and more toward the US model, and I'm not a
fan at all... luckily work for a small company that respects their employees
:)

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eliot_sykes
The luggage company mentioned in the article has an interesting name.

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patrocles
"New graduate Mette Schjelderup has just joined her young husband's business
Douchebags, a sports equipment luggage company that was launched last year,
and already sells its products in 300 stores across 20 countries."

lol. I mean, what else would you call sports bags?

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zerr
Taxes - that's what needs a change.

While Norway can be a good place to be born and live permanently, it is really
a bad destination for a foreign talent who might want to work for a couple of
years and leave the country with the significant amount of savings.

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reustle
I'd go back to Austin to build my next startup if they fixed public
transportation. I can't stand cities that require you to own a car.

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sputknick
Why don't more maker spaces and co-working spaces combine like this? It seems
like a natural meshing of cultures. In DC we have co-working spaces, and a
maker space (coming soon) but they are roughly 30 minutes apart.

