If you wanted proof that the Swedish welfare state is cracking (although it is still much more advanced than the Spanish one), these days the press in Stockholm reports that several public and private institutions are questioning one of the most sacrosanct institutions in this Nordic country: the coffee break at work.
Until now, the so-called Swedish fika was used as an example in PowerPoints of important companies around the world, especially the Anglo-Saxon ones, where the motivational gurus emphasized that taking a break or two with colleagues (usually around 9 h and 2 p.m., but it's very flexible) increased productivity and camaraderie and reduced stress. The coffee (fika), which the company provides free of charge, is accompanied on Fridays with pastries, and is even included in some contracts, where a duration of between 15 and 20 minutes is established.
Along with the four weeks of vacation, the non-existence of overtime (only 1% of Swedes do it) or the additional benefits of some companies to employees (from gyms to yoga classes to skiing classes), the fika break was an essential part of the workplace pride of this paradise we envied in the south.
But, since last January, the cuts have led some Swedish councils and institutions to charge workers for coffee, or to deduct a few dozen kroner from their monthly salary for this concept. We read that there are even regions that discriminate according to the task or status (civil servants do have free coffee, social workers do not, for example). Scissors have reached the health centers, where the traditional basket of fruit and pasta that was next to the coffee machines has been removed to consider them "not essential for the production of treatments".
In the face of the national debate that the Swedes are facing on this issue – perhaps a smokescreen covering the gravity of other, more serious cuts – allow me to claim Latino spontaneity: maybe this coffee break wouldn't be so dangerous if they didn't have it regulated nor advertising so much.
