In this solo episode of the "How to Live in Denmark" podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish explains why taking time off is a cornerstone of Danish life. She outlines the legal framework that guarantees six weeks of annual leave for full‑time employees, with at least three weeks required between May 1 and September 30, and notes that even the unemployed receive paid time off for job‑searching. Mellish discusses how vacation is viewed as a human right, the cultural habit of using vacation as small‑talk, and the various seasonal breaks (summer, fall, winter, Easter, Christmas, and occasional one‑day holidays). She offers practical scheduling advice, such as avoiding the peak school‑holiday period to save on travel costs, and highlights the “dead zones” when many businesses close (late July, the three days before Easter, the week between Christmas and New Year). The episode also clarifies that newcomers receive no paid vacation in their first year because vacation pay is accrued from the previous year, though they can still enjoy informal time‑off practices like early Friday departures and limited after‑hours email. Finally, Mellish suggests ways to spend free time—family activities, sports clubs, tenant meetings, painting, or home‑renovation—underscoring the Danish emphasis on work‑life balance. Listeners are invited to engage via the podcast’s Facebook page, Twitter, and blog.
Chapters
Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. My apologies that I haven't been podcasting for the past couple of months. I've taken some time off to promote my book, Top 35 Mistakes Danes Make in English, which you can get on Amazon or Saxo.com or in any Danish bookstore. But taking time off is a very important part of Danish life. The best example, of course, is the famous Danish summer vacation. When I first began working in Denmark, people used to start saying around April or May, so, are you taking 3 or 4? What they meant was, are you taking 3 or 4 weeks off for your summer vacation? Now, in the United States, where I come from, even taking 2 weeks off is extravagant. You always have the feeling that if you're gone too long, there may not be a job waiting for you when you get back. In Denmark, a long summer vacation is legally required. If you have a full-time job, you get 6 weeks annual vacation, and you are legally required to take at least 3 of those 6 weeks, sometime between May 1st and September 30th. Even if you're unemployed in Denmark, you get paid time off from looking for a job so you can enjoy the summer. And there's been a lot of controversy this year about whether the newly arrived refugees in Denmark should also get paid time off from their required Danish language lessons. Many Danes consider vacation to be a human right. Any discussion of poverty in Denmark is likely to include an interview with a person on the minimum contenthjælp, sincerely complaining about his inability to afford a vacation abroad. And if you get sick during your vacation, you can even request more time off to compensate for your sick vacation time. That's the welfare state. I hope you enjoy paying taxes to support it. Ironically, the people who pay the most taxes don't always get to enjoy the longest vacations. People who work for themselves, like I do, take relatively little vacation. I took 10 days this summer, and I know other busy self-employed people who took no vacation at all. But vacation is still a very important part of Danish culture. You can always make small talk with a Dane you don't know very well by asking where she went on her last vacation or where she intends to go on her next one. And there's not just summer vacation. There's fall vacation in October and, of course, Christmas vacation. Winter vacation in February, maybe a ski trip. And there are a minimum of 5 days off over Easter, plus some odd one-day holidays speckled through May. That doesn't mean everybody travels every time. You might do a renovation project around the house— most Danes have a passion for fixing up their houses— or spend time in the summer house, or attend some big family event like a wedding or a confirmation or an 80th birthday. Now, if you work on a team with several people, you'll have to agree who gets to take which weeks off on vacation. And choosing your optimum vacation time requires a little knowledge of Danish culture. For example, the last 2 weeks in July are a dead zone for business in Denmark. Many companies close down entirely. If you're able to stay on the job during this period, it's a great time to get some peace and quiet around the office. Commuting is easy. The streets of the big cities are pretty much empty, and you can finalize big projects without being interrupted by meetings. Or you can just clean off your desk and organize your computer. I used to do this a lot before my daughter began school. When that happened, I found my summer vacations defined by the school holidays, just like hundreds of thousands of other parents in Denmark. Danish school holidays usually last about 5 weeks, from late June to early August, and prices for airfare out of Denmark, and places to stay within Denmark pretty much double during this period. So if you don't have kids or your children are too young for school, you can save a lot of money by scheduling your summer vacation in May or September. Your colleagues with school-aged children will thank you. Other times the office will be dead include the 3 days before Easter and the week between Christmas and New Year's. If you're not doing anything else, this is usually a convenient way to get full pay for some pretty slow days in the office. Occasionally, though, some unexpected situation can come crashing down on your head, and you'll be the only one around to handle it. If it does, it's considered poor style to call your boss and interrupt her vacation. Unless it's an acute emergency, time off in Denmark is sacrosanct. Now, unfortunately, if you've just arrived in Denmark and are looking forward to your paid vacation, I, I have some bad news for you. The first year on the job, there is none. Unless you have a special arrangement with your employer, each year's time off is paid for by time saved up the year before. So in your first year, you'll still get the time off, but it won't be paid. Next year, you're covered though, even if you change jobs in the meantime. The vacation money system is run by the central government. But even in your first year in the job, you can start enjoying the Danish way of taking time off right away. You can leave work precisely at 4 or at 3:30 on Fridays. You can avoid working evenings or weekends. And you can mostly ignore business calls after hours and neglect to answer business emails when you're not in the office. Except maybe on a Sunday night. That's a very popular time for answering emails. But with some exceptions, the Danish way is to spend this time off with your family. And if you don't have a family, to spend time with your sports club or your apartment building's tenant organization or to take up oil painting with the inexpensive paints and canvases that always seem to be on sale at Danish supermarkets. Otherwise, you can fix up your house. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. Come visit us on our How to Live in Denmark Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @howtoliveindk. You can also come leave a comment on our blog at howtoliveindenmark.com. See you next time!
