In my country 24-hours grocery shops and malls that work from 10:00 till 23:00 everyday is common thing, and when I first came to Finland, I thought that here it's the same, but I made a mistake. Again.
Clothes shop work from 10:00 till 20:00-21:00 from Monday to Friday and on Saturday and Sunday they have shortened days and work till around 19:00 on Saturday and till 16:00 on Sundays.
Grocery shops can start working from 7-8:00 and end at 22:00. There are no 24-hours shops anywhere.
The same schedule is applied to the restaurants. The can be closed already at 21:00 while in my country restaurants work till the last client leaves them.
Knowing all this, I was interested in Finnish attitude to working life and here's what I've discovered.
Although career takes an important place in the Finns lives, fanatical workaholism can't be understood here. It is assumed that you should disappear from the office as soon as the working day ends. Sometimes it’s ridiculous: a person postpones work for tomorrow, even if its completion requires extra five minutes. On the contrary, in my country, when a worker decides to stay a bit at work to end all his/her tasks describes him as a responsible worker.
The average working week in Finland is approximately 37.5 hours, and according to the law, the employer must pay for overtime at a higher rate or redistribute the working load so that employees don't stay up late at work.
Moreover, Finns are very careful about personal time. In their picture of the world, one of the basic human rights is the right to rest, and the employer must respect it. Yes, sometimes this is not very convenient: for example, when on the weekends many cafes close at six in the evening, but the Finns put up with this, because they understand that service workers also want to do their favourite hobby or pay enough attention to the family.
I think such an attitude to your work and to work of other people is right, but it would be really hard for us to get used to such a way of life if our conditions changed.