Over the course of an average 40-year career, the Finnish workhorse clocks up 70,000 working hours. In that length of time, you have plenty of opportunity to reflect on work from many angles, especially since for half of working Finns, work is the most important source of self-esteem. The most important statistic describing Finnish work says that for 90% of Finns, the meaning of work is tied to good relationships and friends at the workplace. In plain language: workplace humour.
When Finns talk about work, the topics usually fall somewhere between constant exploitation and co-determination talks. Regardless of whether work is actually fun and safe. My theory is that our agrarian and logging-camp gene pool hasn’t kept pace with development, and our work stories are still playing the same old minor chord our forefathers left us while ditching the swamps. When a Finn talks about workplace humour through this lens, it’s no wonder that Finnish humour in general is rather peculiar and exotic.
A good example is a video that did the rounds on YouTube a few years back, where summer workers at a local grocery store set up what was probably the world’s largest retail domino during inventory. Even though the video was quite defiant in its own Finnish way, it used humour to handle the chain’s brand very cleverly. I always remember that video when I visit that chain’s stores, and I find myself wondering what kind of mischief the boys in the back room and dispatch are plotting this time. This was the same style and feeling we wanted to tap into when we made Dimex’s corporate video.
Every example of workplace humour in the Dimex corporate video is borrowed straight from real life. That’s why the antics in the video are much more authentic than scripted sketch comedy. Taking a lighter approach to these work-related situations brought a new angle to presenting workwear that fit Dimex’s character perfectly. After these little mood pieces, that 70,000-hour slog doesn’t feel nearly as joyless.
With these images and vibes in mind,
-Antti Mäkelä / Unoam
