Abstract
Research has identified that university academics (both research and teaching staff) worldwide are among the occupational groups with the highest risk of stress-related disorders along with classroom teachers, health care workers and emergency service personnel (Poalses & Bezuidenhout, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(2), 2018). Even in Sweden, a country with regulated working hours, conditions and holidays negotiated by the country’s trade unions and overseen by the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Health and Safety. Retrieved December 2, 2017 from https://www.av.se/en/, 2018) seem not to have been enough to stop the growing trend of academic burnout. A cherished tradition in Sweden and part of Swedishness is known as Fika. The rationale is to provide a space to socialise, share and discuss things other than work over a cup of coffee.
This chapter is based on my personal experiences as a senior executive of the Occupational, Health and Safety (OHS) team at a major Swedish university and interest in health and well-being among academics.
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
—Albert Camus
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Uusimäki, L. (2020). Beating Stress, the Swedish Way: Time for a ‘Fika’. In: McKay, L., Barton, G., Garvis, S., Sappa, V. (eds) Arts-Based Research, Resilience and Well-being Across the Lifespan. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26053-8_15
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