Sweden lets employees to take six months off to start their own business

Sweden has a surprising rule for its employees to take six months off to start their own business. one of the series of rights i.e. Right to Leave to Conduct a Business Operation Act, allows employees to take time off from their study or care for a family member. This unusual rule has made the country’s capital, Stockholm, Europe’s startup capital, second only to California’s Silicon Valley for a number of unicorns that are produced per capita.

Spotify, one such Swedish startup was set up in 2006, has now a market of $24.5 billion. Another startup named as Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, acquired by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion and Skype, which was acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion in 2011. An employee who is working as a full-time employee can take six months off to apply for the unpaid sabbatical. As far as employers are concerned, the employees’ request can only be turned down by them if the employee is vital to the business operations.

Also, among many other countries, people are now paying attention to building a business venture outside of their regular working hours and then put their energy and free time to make it grow. In this way, an individual’s spare time, spare capacity, and spare resources, all get completely used. It includes all kinds of work such as delivering takeaway food, becoming a taxi driver, or making your own crafts. As stated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there have been 16.5 million Americans working in the gig economy.

In the Nordic states, free education and health care are a part of a tax-funded welfare system with correspondingly high rates of tax. Within the labor force, there are high levels of unionization, low levels of corruption, as well as a free market economy. Also, there is much focus on support of people when it is required that enables them to prosper and ensure equality. In Sweden, all parents are entitled to get 16 months paid parental leave which gives them the benefit to receive 80% of the salary.

The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness report has indicated that innovation is crucial for countries around the world but most of the states are failing to make it an engine of growth. For most of the countries, the innovation capacity is limited countries like US, Germany, and Switzerland have been named as the innovation powerhouses.