How Baked Goods, Chitchat and Coffee Could Reinvigorate Work Life
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Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, February 9th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Let's admit it. The workday can seem extra long sometimes. I'm in front of this computer all day. I hardly ever talk to my coworkers. They're all staring at their computers. They're all really nice people, but I don't even know what's going on with them. It feels like we all need to take a break.
What is fika and why are U.S. workplaces experimenting with it?
A collective coffee break. In Sweden, there's a name for that. Fika. And some say it can boost productivity.
It's different than just you and I taking a quick coffee run to Starbucks and grabbing something and coming back and just talking about work while we're doing it. FICA in the workplace is really a conscious stepping away from your desk, stepping away from laptops and cell phones and going to a space that has nothing work-related.
So, does it work? We'll talk to Wall Street Journal reporter Anne-Marie Shaker after the break.
To get more productivity out of employees, some U.S. workplaces are taking a page from Sweden and scheduling breaks called FICA. Wall Street Journal reporter Anne-Marie Chaker joins me. Anne-Marie, what is FICA?
Fika is a traditional Swedish coffee break. It usually happens mid-morning and then mid-afternoon. Some Swedes take two a day, some one. It's an elevated coffee break where anything life-related is discussed. It's very human and it's a very humane way of connecting with others. So it's a social thing, but it also happens in workplaces, which is what the story was about.
So what happens during FICA in the workplace?
It's different than just you and I taking a quick coffee run to Starbucks and grabbing something and coming back and just talking about work while we're doing it. FICA in the workplace is really a conscious stepping away from your desk, stepping away from laptops and cell phones and going to a space that has nothing work-related around. And it's talking about everything but work with your coworkers. So in FICA, barriers come down. People don't look at one another as part of a hierarchy. They look at one another as human beings.
How is workplace fika different from a regular coffee break?
And it's really just a free space to talk about your kids, your life, your hobbies, what inspires you. But the key thing is work generally doesn't come up. And it's a really kind of special time that doesn't get blown off. In FICA, it's really culturally regarded as this special time that you don't miss.
So you really are asked to detach yourself from your phone and everything else you have that's work-related.
From your phone, from everything that's work-related. And it's a really almost respectful space to connect with others as humans.
Is it just coffee at these meetings?
It's more than coffee. It's, I would say, light fare. And that could be savory. It could be sweet. There are traditional sweets that people bring. Often in these workplaces, people like to bake and they take turns baking at home and bringing something in. There's like a coffee bun that's very traditional and other pastries that are seasonal. And then some spreads I've seen have raw vegetables or like more savory spreads. It's lighter than a full on lunch, but a little bit more special than just like donuts on the desk kind of thing.
Now, coffee breaks at work aren't new, but is FICA something new?
It's definitely not new, and it probably stemmed from times when people worked in agriculture or in factories and really needed a break from physical work. I've heard that. theorized that was one of the reasons that FICA started in the workplace was from the physical labor movement. And it just grew into different classes of work culture. So it's a long standing tradition in Sweden. And more recently has come to the US, kind of started by Swedish companies that come U.S. side, they introduce the concept into the U.S. workplace, which gives it a sort of element of cool. And especially at this time when people are looking to connect in all kinds of new ways, it's really become a little bit of a thing here.
You spoke to people in the U.S. who have held FECAs in the office.
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