Finnish engineers have a slightly different perspective on limitless work than their Nordic colleagues. Finnish engineers feel that limitless work increases their productivity more than their colleagues in other countries do.
This was one of the results of the survey conducted by the Nordic co-operation organization between trade unions, Association of Nordic Engineers ANE. The survey, conducted last winter, asked engineers from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland about their thoughts on limitless work. ANE represents more than 500,000 Nordic engineers who are members of a trade union.
In the survey, “limitless work” was used to refer to work that people can do in a time and place of their choosing. This kind of work has recently become more commonplace due to digitalization, globalization and services that are open 24/7.
Engineers in all countries had mainly good or at least some kind of possibilities to organize their working hours according to their personal needs. However, most workplaces had no guidelines on when and how employees should be available.
The survey also looked into the respondents’ views of the future, such as how limitless work will affect the balance between work and free time. Finnish respondents were clearly more pessimistic than others when it came to the question of whether the relationship between work and free time would be more balanced three years from now.
When it came to the climate impact of limitless work, the respondents saw that emissions would go down in the short term as people would not need to commute, but they found it difficult to say anything certain about the long term.
A total of 1,261 Finnish engineers responded to the survey, representing Engineers Finland. Engineers Finland is a joint association between TEK, the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland, and their Swedish-speaking sister organizations Tekniska Föreningen i Finland TFiF and DIFF Ingenjörerna i Finland.