There’s been a lot of chatter online lately about unions pushing for five weeks of annual leave instead of the current four. The predictable response has been a mix of enthusiasm from workers and pearl-clutching from certain quarters about how this will “destroy the economy” or make Australia “uncompetitive.”

What strikes me most about this whole discussion is how we’ve been conditioned to think that four weeks is somehow generous, when it hasn’t budged in over fifty years. Think about that for a moment. Half a century. In that time, worker productivity has skyrocketed thanks to technology (hello, DevOps automation and everything else we’ve built), yet our mandated time off has remained frozen in the 1970s. Something doesn’t add up.

The recent news of Tesla’s sales plummeting by over 80% in Sweden isn’t just another business headline - it’s a fascinating case study of what happens when Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” mentality collides with established Nordic labour traditions.

Looking at the numbers is staggering - from being one of the top-selling car brands in Sweden just months ago to dropping behind companies that sell big rigs. But what’s even more interesting is how this spectacular decline reflects a broader story about corporate hubris and worker solidarity.