The second force that propelled us North was the Swedish welfare system, the Försäkeringskassan.
In Sweden every parent has the right to take time away from their jobs to look after their child or children. Fathers are entitled to 180 days, or six months. During your maternity or paternity leave, you can resign at any point, and your period of paternity leave counts against your notice.
After consulting with my union for advice on how to handle the matter, and then promptly ignoring what they had to say (the advice seemed at best ill thought out and at worst designed to anger my then employer in Malmö) I decided that I would be as open and honest, although it was quite awkward.
They were a small software house, and during the year I was there three staff (four including me) of a total of ten had decided to move on. It came as quite a shock to the owner of the company, but as I stated to him, this wasn't about my position, although I wasn't really happy there, but my decision concerned my family and the environment we wanted out daughter to grow up in.
I sympathized with his position, and felt like I was letting him down, but I reminded myself how much I'd done for him, including rewriting most of his software development process, and designing and implementing a recruitment and training process. It was a difficult conversation, but I hope I handled it, and my last months there with professionalism.
Being able to take six months off work to look after my daughter has meant that we were able to relocate to our new house, and that I have been able to build a much stronger relationship with my daughter. It has also allowed my wife to go back to work and to find a great position on the emergency ward of our local hospital.
Thursday 29 March 2012
Thursday 8 March 2012
Hit the North part 1
As promised a short synopsis of the last few months and how we left the godless wastelands of Skåne, and hit the north.
It all began just before our wedding, I was idly looking at a web site for estate agents(real estate companies for anyone from the U.S), and saw an interesting house in the town my wife grew up in. It matched all of our criteria: it was the right size, centrally located and pretty.
We rang up and booked a time to meet the agent and have look around the house just before we left town to drive back down to Malmö after our wedding / holidays. On the long drive south, and stopping off at the excellent Kolmården Safari park we talked about the feasibility of making a bid for the property. I'd sold my apartment in London by that time and we had a reasonable amount of money sitting in a bank in England waiting for the right opportunity, so we knew we had the means. After two days of exotic wildlife, perhaps emboldened by the lions and tigers and somewhere between Linköping and Jonköping we decided we'd bid for the property.
We contacted the estate agents and let them know we wanted to be involved in the auction for the house. Whilst wandering around doing our grocery shopping the day before, we'd agreed what our maximum bid would be, and we felt we had a good chance of getting the property. It was hard to try not too hopeful, as we had no idea what sort of budgets our rivals would have and how much over the asking price we'd have to go.
One week later on a Friday evening we held our breath and placed our bids in a telephone auction. Approximately thirty minutes later, we won the auction and had bought a house.
The following two weeks were a real eye opener, the speed at which we completed all the legalities were a whirlwind compared to how long it takes in the UK. All in, I think it took about six weeks to sell my flat in the UK and have the money sitting in my account, and it cost almost a thousand pounds in legal fees. In Sweden, ten days, and not a single kronor went to a lawyer. All of the legalities were handled by the local branch of Nordea, and dealing with them was very straight forward. My wife had to travel up to sign some documents, but other than the cost of a train ticket we had activated the first step of our escape plan.
It all began just before our wedding, I was idly looking at a web site for estate agents(real estate companies for anyone from the U.S), and saw an interesting house in the town my wife grew up in. It matched all of our criteria: it was the right size, centrally located and pretty.
We rang up and booked a time to meet the agent and have look around the house just before we left town to drive back down to Malmö after our wedding / holidays. On the long drive south, and stopping off at the excellent Kolmården Safari park we talked about the feasibility of making a bid for the property. I'd sold my apartment in London by that time and we had a reasonable amount of money sitting in a bank in England waiting for the right opportunity, so we knew we had the means. After two days of exotic wildlife, perhaps emboldened by the lions and tigers and somewhere between Linköping and Jonköping we decided we'd bid for the property.
We contacted the estate agents and let them know we wanted to be involved in the auction for the house. Whilst wandering around doing our grocery shopping the day before, we'd agreed what our maximum bid would be, and we felt we had a good chance of getting the property. It was hard to try not too hopeful, as we had no idea what sort of budgets our rivals would have and how much over the asking price we'd have to go.
One week later on a Friday evening we held our breath and placed our bids in a telephone auction. Approximately thirty minutes later, we won the auction and had bought a house.
The following two weeks were a real eye opener, the speed at which we completed all the legalities were a whirlwind compared to how long it takes in the UK. All in, I think it took about six weeks to sell my flat in the UK and have the money sitting in my account, and it cost almost a thousand pounds in legal fees. In Sweden, ten days, and not a single kronor went to a lawyer. All of the legalities were handled by the local branch of Nordea, and dealing with them was very straight forward. My wife had to travel up to sign some documents, but other than the cost of a train ticket we had activated the first step of our escape plan.
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Blog rebooted
Hello, It's been a year then eh? For a while I felt guilty about not updating the blog I'd started, and then as I got lazier and less motivated, and moods changed (see previous post) I felt less inclined to continue. To cut a long story short, and a story I'll recant over the next few posts, I'll try and bring things up to date, for any one who is interested, used to read this blog, or has stumbled upon it from some link or other.
A large amount has changed, including my location in Sweden (good bye Skåne, see you in hell!), my occupational status, and thankfully, my outlook. Anyhow, it also felt good to try and write something again as a way of getting my brain back in gear. So, that's my aim, we can only pray I have some discipline and some inspiration again.
A large amount has changed, including my location in Sweden (good bye Skåne, see you in hell!), my occupational status, and thankfully, my outlook. Anyhow, it also felt good to try and write something again as a way of getting my brain back in gear. So, that's my aim, we can only pray I have some discipline and some inspiration again.
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