[ours01]

I work in Switzerland and have quite a few female coworkers, to include a female boss who is Scandanavian. During one of our end-of-day unwinding conversations, she started telling me about a sauna club in a town near me on the lake that has a Scandanavian president and how many members go there on weekends after cross-country skiing. Then she went on about some of the other saunas she goes to sometimes, to include one I often go to (not a club, it is open to the public after paying admision, but only open in the winter). Then I realized I had seen her years before, probably when she first arrived and I didn't know who she was, and simply thinking that by the way she conducted herself in the sauna, she (an attractive blonde a couple years older than me) must be Scandanavian. So, that was kind of interesting, and I don't know if she remembered me out of the sauna full of people (many of whom were male, of course), and, given her demeanor, I would not be embarrassed. She is a very matter-of-fact person.

Another coworker I recognized - but who I don't think recognized me - was a much younger lady who is of Mediterranean ancestry but a German citizen. So, she is pretty used to saunas (I assume) and I should not have been surprised to see her there. She was an aide to my boss at the time (a guy who has a history of having attractive but ultra-efficient aides), and quite efficient and attractive, but it was still a bit surprising to see her nude and see how attractive she really is. Very nice - shapely body without being over-exercised, really nice, buoyant breasts with medium-sized medium-brown areolas, and her very bright smile. It was just nice to watch her walk around.

Now, this does not count coworkers or friends I have taken to this or other saunas. I have been lucky enough to introduce more than a few people to this nice practice, and it has been the start of a romance in a few cases. I do remember going to a sauna owned by a Finnish guy in Panama (the sauna he built behind his house) and he had invited us over for sauna and dinner. So, of the 3 invitees, two of us went in teh sauna - I think the other guy was a bit embarrassed either about the whole sauna thing or maybe because he was fairly overweight. We would not have cared, of course. So, this is where I learned that the Finnish standard for a sauna is different than the central European (especially German/Austrian) standard. The latter like absolute quiet. The Finns basically have a disco inside - music, talking, drinks, etc. Very different - which for me is fine. So, that was not a case of "running into" someone I know, but really of doing sauna the Finnish way, which is, "we all work together, so lets go to the sauna together, drink together, etc." I remember reading that Nokia faced problems back in the 90s when it was internationalizing its staff. Being Finnish, there was a company sauna and lots of people - including the key managers - would hang out in it at the end of the work day. Naturally, as described above, lots of conversations occurred and a fair number of work-related decisions were made. But the non-Finns were not so comfortable in the sauna and felt like they were missing out on face-time with their bosses or that decisions were being made in an atmosphere that was not welcoming to them. So, Nokia had to change how it did things or face labor problems. That may explain how they went from being a mobile phone leader to being a footnote in the technology world. :-D

So, yeah, seeing boss and coworkers naked in the sauna only helps to reinforce the idea that when you strip someone of everything, then you see who they really are, literally and figuratively.