In Sweden there is a real tendency to avoid conflict. If you have a problem with something or somebody then you don’t go directly to that person and try to solve it; instead there is a different and much more roundabout way of doing things.

For example, if you have had a fight with somebody or you aren’t pleased with somebody’s actions at a work place then it is a common occurrence for the unhappy person to go around talking about the person they are upset at, but not directly addressing the problem at hand, face to face with the person in question. This creates a lot of ill feeling that people go around being upset about, and instead of actually solving problems that aren’t that big to start with, the problems cause a lot of stress. They also end up having a lot of people that they aren’t on good terms with and go to a lot of trouble to avoid.

The same often goes for eating food in restaurants. If food is for some reason not satisfactory then a lot of Swedish people would rather continue eating the food than talk to the staff about it. “It isn’t a big deal anyway” is a common answer when asked why they didn’t talk to the staff about what wasn’t satisfactory.

Another common situation is when given back the wrong amount of change in a shop, if it is only a matter of a couple of crowns then people let it go.

One might question why anybody would do such things… If you find something wrong with the food you have paid for then why shouldn’t you talk to the staff about it? This is just another example of culture differences, those differences don’t always have to be logical or understandable, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would say that it has to do with avoiding the uncomfortable or embarrassing feeling you put yourself in and the people you are confronting.  Why put yourself in this situation if you can avoid it?