If you’ve been in Switzerland for a while and work with Swiss colleagues, you’ve probably already experienced this. A colleague announces that he’ll be away for three weeks because he has military refresher courses. Not the Spanish military service, which was abolished in 2001, but a periodic obligation that continues in Switzerland throughout the working lives of male citizens assigned to the reserves.
In Switzerland, there is no professional army in the usual sense. The system is known as a militia army: soldiers are civilians who undergo their initial training and then return periodically to maintain their readiness. During these periods, the state compensates them with an income replacement allowance, and their employer cannot refuse to allow them to take time off or penalise them for their absence. If you are a Spanish national without Swiss citizenship, you are not subject to this obligation. If you have Swiss employees, however, you do bear the cost indirectly.
What is often puzzling is the matter-of-fact way in which the situation is handled. A colleague goes away for three weeks, the team reorganises itself, and when they return, it’s as if nothing had happened. In some contexts, the skills practised during these periods – management, leadership, working under pressure – are abilities that some people later carry over into civilian life. It is not something they hide or make a big deal of.
Spain and Switzerland are very different countries in this respect. Spain abolished compulsory military service more than two decades ago. Switzerland maintains a system that forms part of the country’s identity, although the debate over its actual usefulness continues. It’s one of those differences you don’t see in brochures about Switzerland but which you come across one Monday in September when your colleague doesn’t turn up at the office.