Finnish work culture - “Management by Perkele”

“Mennään eikä meinata!”

Photo by Mikita Karasiou on Unsplash

In this week’s Figuring Out Finland newsletter we will look at:

1. What the hell is Management by Perkele?

2. Key aspects of Finnish work culture

3. Four things to focus on in the office

4. Lessons from my own experiences of working in Finland

5. My stupid mistake of the week

6. Feedback

What the hell is Management by Perkele?

To understand the concept of Management by Perkele, we first have to understand the word perkele. 

The word literally means “the devil” and, according to Wikipedia, “was originally imported from Baltic languages supposedly transformed from the Baltic god of thunder as an alternate name for the thunder god of Finnish paganism, Ukko.”

In simple terms, perkele is a mild expletive, a swear word used in numerous situations in Finnish:

You spill your coffee - “perkele!”

It starts to rain while you are out with your dog - “perkele!”

You forget to attach a file in an email - “perkele!”

There are a million uses for perkele, and the beautiful thing about it is the R in the middle.

The letter R in Finnish is rolled, meaning it is pronounced by rapidly flicking the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth.

Subsequently, you can extend this rolled R in perkele according to your level of annoyance, as follows:

You spill your coffee - “Perkele!”

Finland loses to Sweden in the Ice Hockey World championships final game - “Perrrrrrrrrrrrkele!!!!”

You get the point - any level of annoyance and perkele can be used.

Management by Perkele, therefore, refers to the now relatively outdated management style in Finland where decisions were made and objectives met by the manager simply stating what will happen punctuated by a well-rolled perrrrkele at the end.

The expression originally comes from Sweden and refers precisely to this Finnish leadership style.

It contrasts sharply with the consensus decision-making style of our dear neighbours to the west where the manager ensures that the opinions of everyone involved have been taken into consideration before any decision is made.

Management by Fika, perhaps?

Key aspects of Finnish work culture

Management by Perkele is a clearly outdated management style, but you can still sense it in some of the unspoken expectations of many older Finnish managers and indeed in Finnish society in general.

Finns appreciate determination, quick decision making, and just getting on with the task at hand (perkele).

You can hear it best in the phrase mennään eikä meinata, which translates to “let’s just get on with it.”

So, even though there is much more discussion and consensus-based management in Finnish companies nowadays, at some point there will be the desire to stop talking and just get on with it.

The reasons for the emergence of Management by Perkele can most probably be found in the generation that came of age after the end of the war.

The post-war rebuilding of Finland and its transformation from an almost entirely agrarian economy to a modern state fell on their shoulders.

There was little time for discussion and consensus when the Soviet Union had taken large swathes of land from Finland and was maintaining a physical military presence just 50 km from Helsinki on the Porkkala Peninsula.

Finland was poor and under threat. It needed strong leadership and quick decision making.

That generation was in its final years of leadership when I came to Finland in the late 1990s.

I have seen a clear change in the work culture in Finland in the 25+ years I have been working in the country, but I don’t think the work culture has kept pace with the demographic changes in Finland during the same time period.

Demographics in Finland have changed enormously in the space of one generation.

Finnish workplaces and Finnish society have gone from being populated almost entirely by Finns in the mid 1990s to the multicultural society we live in today.

That is very fast in terms of cultural and societal change, and this is precisely where the problems occur.

It is pretty fair to say that Finns over the age of 40 grew up in an incredibly homogenous country.

A small population and a social welfare system that could efficiently track everyone and everything made for a standardisation across society that is pretty much unrivalled in the world (except maybe Japan).

Finns know exactly how things work, where to go, what to do, and how to get things done.

They also know what is expected of them.

And for a long time there was virtually no help or advice for newcomers to Finland simply because it was not deemed necessary.

This has only started to change in the past few years.

We foreigners arrive in Finland with our own cultural traits, habits, expectations, and best practices, and they are different from the Finnish standards.

This shows up most of all in the workplace where we work shoulder to shoulder with Finns.

The Finns know what is expected of each other; we foreigners don’t.

Four things to focus on in the office