Have you heard of 'Fika'
The Swedish culture has a tradition called 'Fika'.
Fika is often translated as "a coffee and cake break", which is kind of correct, but really it is much more than that.
Fika is a concept, a state of mind, an attitude, and an important part of Swedish culture. Many Swedes consider it an essential thing to make time for Fika every day. It means making time for friends and colleagues to share a cup of coffee (or tea) and a little something to eat.
In a corporation, it is practiced as a way to know what is going on within the organization right from the intern to the people who are in top positions.
I think Fika started out as a way to just take a break but with more people participating in it in large amounts for half-hour or so, this break came to mean more than what it is.
These breaks are reduced in our life after covid as we are busy with work and managing our home which reduced the chance of forming a feeling of togetherness, discussions, the united feeling that we together help more, and the bonds that form in the workplace.
I am often asked the question do you like working from home or working from the office as I have been going for some time. Although I answer that working from home is better. In some ways, I feel working from an office has its own good things.
One instance I can tell from personal experience is from the time I was doing my internship at Infosys, Mysore. We used to have coffee breaks at around 10 am and 3 pm. During these breaks, a group of my newly formed friends used to go together and have tea, and coffee and talk about our colleges, our hometowns, and other things along with introducing new friends of friends joining. These breaks turned into a place where we used to let go of our worries, and talk about anything but the work and learning we did.
From these breaks is where I have formed some wonderful bonds that albeit short, are definitely memories worth remembering. If you want to read more about it —
Check this article: It's been 2 years
It’s Been 2 Years... | Melvin Raj
So, if having a coffee break like Fika's in our life while staying at home and working is hard, we can modify it according to our situation and maybe take a walk to the chai dukaan at the street corner, or if that's also not possible, have breaks at any place far from work for a while.
Thank you for reading.
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