“Any Finn applying for a job in a Finnish company would expect that there is a sauna.”Įarlier in Uitto’s career the sauna was also often used as a place to do business, he says. Nokia has an in-house sauna at each of its three sites on Finnish soil. It’s only you and your thoughts and your words and the same applies to the other person, so it’s much more human being to human being and all the unnecessary decoration is gone.” Here, ex-presidents and other leading figures mingle in the nude with fellow sauna-goers and have the chance to jump off the pier and plunge into the sea - even in winter, when a hole is sawn through the ice.įinn Tommi Uitto, senior vice president of global product sales, mobile networks at telecommunications multinational Nokia, explains, “In the sauna there are no titles, no clothes. Thanks to an invitation from his boss, Minnaert has also been to The Finnish Sauna Society’s members-only club near Helsinki where traditional wood-burning “smoke saunas” are set among silver birches overlooking the Baltic. When you go back inside you feel really revitalised.” “It’s nicer in winter because it can get to minus 30 degrees Celsius outside on the terrace.
“It’s a bit like going to a bar but with less drinking and in a sweaty environment,” he says. He and his team spend between one and three hours in the sauna each week and while they don't formally conduct meetings, they do talk about work and, sometimes, end up with good ideas to pursue back at their desks. It’s kind of frowned upon if you do wear a towel or swimming shorts,” adds Minnaert, 30, a senior character technical artist.Īfter three years, however, he’s grown at ease with the Friday evening ritual of a sauna with colleagues, where it's also common to sip a beer and then step outside onto the open-air terrace sans clothing. The company’s studio and offices in Espoo have a rooftop sauna. “It was a bit of a stepping stone to get over,” says Kristof Minnaert, a Belgian who moved to Helsinki in 2013 to join the staff of game developer Remedy Entertainment. Even so, for non-Finnish newcomers, the first session in the log cabin with colleagues might not be quite as relaxing as it’s meant to be. Unlike Germany, where saunas are mixed, the Finnish tradition is that - outside the family circle - men and women visit the sauna separately. Have you ever been baffled, shocked or bewildered by a different country’s cultural norms? Share your story with us here.