A joint working group for Nordic
telephone networks was established as early as 1969. In 1981 the
world’s first fully automatic mobile telephone system was born: NMT
(Nordic mobile telephone system).
In 1992 the mobile telephone system was digitised and called GSM.
Telephones became smaller and smaller but contained more and more:
cameras, calculators, games and music. Nokia became the world’s largest
mobile telephone producer and long led the technological
development.
“Nokia created the smartphone, but when the mobile world went
constantly online the Finnish mobile giant lost its grip,” writes
Carl-Gustav Lindén who has been following Nokia for many years.
The problem, many say, was Nokia’s ageing operative system. As a
result the company decided to cooperate with Microsoft.
“Now the whole of Finland is holding their breath, waiting to see
whether this change of direction will pay off.”
Meanwhile thousands of jobs have been cut – but this also means
opportunities. Many new companies will be formed. Mobile telephones
have become an arena for the race to create apps, the small additional
programs which are often used to open the door to the large computer
systems. Swedish Decuria is one of the many companies which are now
building mobile apps. This will influence working life in untold
ways.
The competition for the best system developers is very tough. It’s
not only about money, but about being able to combine work and life.
The workplace should be fun, there should be good perks and each
individual gets his or her own development plan, writes Gunhild Wallin
who visited Decuria’s offices in Stockholm’s Old Town.
“We want to be a dream workplace,” says Decuria’s managing director
Elin Lundström.
These are sweet words to Palle Ørbæk’s ears. He heads the Danish
Research Centre for the Working Environment and has seen stress become
one of the greatest problems for the whole of Europe. But the reasons
behind stress are complex. It is not only a working environment
issue.
“The 24/7 society is growing. So when we say our workplaces are
stressing us out, this often mirrors that the sum total of work related
and private stress factors has grown,” he says in Marie Preisler’s
portrait.
