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I think the silence is bought off (mostly with free time). No one wants to rock the boat because their lives (right now) are extremely comfortable. They work very short days, take countless weeks off, no one bats an eye if you miss several weeks a year because you are sick. Even, they are known to do things like what they call, "hitting the wall" and taking years off from work for stress. It happens all the time.

It's not like here where if "Bob" is calling in once a month people are kinda starting to have a negative image of him, throwing him under the bus for never being there and eventually he gets fired.

Conversely too, there is zero recognition or "up side" to NOT do these things. If anything, THAT will get you scorn from your colleagues and higher ups. They even say, "Don't rock our system".

One time my husband had a stomach bug. You know the kind of thing that knocks you out for 24 hours. They literally told him not to come back for the week. We lived in another spot in Europe (not Sweden) and I am not lying when I say my neighbor took leave for nearly the entire summer for hay fever. He spent every day out in his "garden"--all day every day. Every meal. LOL

They don't want to do anything to upset their comfort and complacency. Even when what is coming down the tracks is going to destroy their way of life.