So, we’ve all heard of seasonal depression. 

We’re advised to take vitamin D and drink cod liver oil to fight it (if you’re looking for food to complain about, we can start there), and Danes will lay out nude in nearly freezing temperatures just to get a bit of sunlight on their skin. 

But truly, the most depressing moment of the year – worse than during the winter – is the first day of work after your summer holiday.

I don’t think that’s a particularly Danish phenomenon. Who among us wouldn’t rather be drinking wine on a gleaming Mediterranean terrace than attending a third meeting on why we’re having so many damned meetings? 

Listen, I’m from the US, so I see a lot of privilege and luxury in the Nordic lifestyle.

And there’s certainly some truth in that, which Danes would do well to remember – especially when complaining about the quality of their paella or the size of their hotel’s swimming pool to their international friends. 

But from the other perspective, it’s not that Danes are over-privileged. It’s that the US has such criminally stingy work conditions that anything resembling a reasonable work-life balance seems like a fantasy. 

When you look at the standard number of paid holidays in different countries around the world, the US ranks right at the bottom, and Denmark is comfortably in the top third (though, notably, not even in the top ten). 

And when you compare the average number of hours people put in at work every week, the figures are even more concrete. Danes work an average of 29.5 hours each week, compared to 36.4 in the USA. 

But wait, I hear you asking – this still doesn’t explain why your Danish colleagues are so miserable. Aren’t Danes famously the happiest people in the world, in large part because of their collective agreements and cushy work arrangements? 

I once heard someone say that Danes aren’t the most happy, they’re just the least unhappy. They simply have less to complain about. 

So if their flight is delayed, or their car rental didn’t have the exact BMW they wanted, or they couldn’t find any good rugbrød in Zanzibar – what luck! – they get to complain. And that is truly a universal pleasure, even if it may seem undeserved. 

So, next time your colleagues launch into another rant about needing even more time off, I give you permission to roll your eyes, ironically exclaim “hold da helt ferie,” and change the subject.

But take whatever anger you’re feeling and redirect it where it belongs: the appalling work conditions of the US.