Employees’ well-being is therefore a real issue, and while the investment may be costly it pays off in the long term, Danielsson says.

At Scania’s headquarters in Soedertaelje, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Stockholm, the 9,000 employees can keep trim for free at the company’s Health Care Center, a vast sporting and recreation center with 4,400 square meters (47,360 square feet) of gyms, pools and workout rooms.

Families of Scania employees even have access to the facilities for just 300 kronor (32 euros, US$50) a year.

“During economic booms, unemployment has been low and sickness absence has been high,” Sisko Bergendorff, a spokesman for the Swedish Social Insurance Agency says, noting that Sweden employs a relatively high number of workers older than 55, who in turn take more sick leave.

He said sickness insurance was particularly generous and available for long periods in Sweden, though the current center-right government has tightened legislation to curb abuses of the system.

Employers pay sickness benefits for the first 14 days, after which the social insurance system takes over. Benefits amount to 80 percent of an employee’s salary with the monthly allowance capped at around 19,200 kronor (2,050 euros, US$3,215).

Verke suggests that Scandinavians in general are less hesitant than others to ask a doctor to put them on sick leave when it comes to illnesses like depression or burnout.

“In Sweden it’s more accepted to say ‘I’m suffering from fatigue’ or some kind of mental illness or stress so I’ll take some days off,” he says.

Finally, he said that Sweden’s long tradition of cooperation and consensus between employers and labor unions was part of the reason for the “comparatively good working conditions” and explains why employees are “quite happy at work.”

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