Work Cultures

damnyanks

Was curious as to peoples observations / expieriences with different working envirnments and what not.

I'm not terribly expierienced but from what I've seen American and Asian (Primarily Indian) based workers put in the hours. How effective they are I don't know, but they will usually be the first in last out. For me personally I'd say they were pretty ineffecient with their time but perhaps thats just lazy man's denial

Was considering going to the states after I graduate until I found out they only get 10 days holidays :eek:

I did a placement year and found myself working 40 - 80 hours a week (Usually 60). When people told me I'd work that much I freaked out but once I started doing it I found it fine, even fun. The 40 hour weeks were the boring times!

The french god love em and their 35 hour weeks! When I worked in Ireland everyone was out the door at 5pm on the dot.

amen

having worked within the USA and Ireland for both state, semi state and private enterprise I have found a few generalities.
In general state/semi states work to rule finish on time and out the door at finish time or if they stay late then is paid overtime. Some places workers were very good and did good work during the day others just the bare minimum.

As for USA workers in generall they work long hours but their productivity is dreadful. I'd rather have an Irish worker working half the day then an American working a full day plus extra.

One thing I noticed was the in American workers who grew up outside of America are generally better workers!

Stephen

What industry do you work in with your 40-80 hours a week? I rarely ever go above 40, and am in IT.

Alun

I know someone who worked for a large US based company's offices in Germany. The German staff were, as you'd expect, very diligent, tended to stick to 'normal' working hours and spent a lot of time thinking things through with lots of meetings etc., and only when they were certain of what they wanted to do, would they go ahead and do it. As a result, they generally produced a product or service that worlked first time. The Americans, on the other hand, would bluster around like bulls in a china shop, changing their mind every other day, working all hours god gave them and looking down on people who went home on time, and holding interminable brainstorming sessions, only to completely change direction again. It was all about being seen to be doing something, rather than actually being productive.

My friend reckons that in the end, both groups would actually come up with the goods by the time their respective deadlines were up, but the American's had probably expended at least twice the effort in doing so.

I have to say that my brief exposure to the American working culture has been broadly similar .. lot's of bravado and bluster, but little actual productivity.

MonkeyWrench

I've worked in alot of countries but mainly professionally in USA, Canada, UK and Sweden. I'd have to agree with the statements about the US style of working hours, they generally seem to put in alot more time but are not any more productive as a result. It seemed that their main way to move up the ladder was to work into the late hours of the evening but all they would be doing during the day was chatting to people in the cubicle beside them for hours on end. The canadians seemed similar to us in a way, get the work done in the hours allocated and generally hit the door at 5 on the dot or work up their flexi hours to the minimum. I work in an office in the UK at the moment and the only people left in the building seem to be indian and pakistani folks who stay late. The Swedish seemed the most disiplined out of the lot, they would work late hours but would be also very productive all the time during the day and were very detailed in all areas of work. One thing I found bizarre was that the office was an open plan area with tables you could raise up almost to shoulder length. These people would actually stand all day at their desk, myself and a couple of other irish lads were the only people that used seats!

damnyanks

Stephen wrote:

What industry do you work in with your 40-80 hours a week? I rarely ever go above 40, and am in IT.

Was in the finance industry doing project management

daveirl

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Kernel32

I have been working in the USA for the past 8 years. I have 20 days vacation as well as 10 days paid holidays and that's been pretty much the same since I started working here. I work 35 to 45 hours a week and have rarely had to work more than that unpaid. I love working here. Most people have a great attitude to success and achievement and encourage each other to be successful.

daveirl

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Kernel32

My point is that I get just as much time off as the vast majority of people in Ireland. My other point is that the United States is a fairly economically successful country, wouldn't you agree?

daveirl

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BossArky

My first job after Uni was in France working in IT. Any hours over the standard 35 went into an overtime counter. When I left they paid me for six additional weeks I had unknowingly clocked up in 18 months.

ToxicPaddy

I work in an American company here in Ireland and what I've found is this:

US workers tend to talk a lot about a lot of things, meetings about everything, throw wild ideas around all over the place, spend 60 - 80 hours a week in the office and dont get half the work done that most Irish people do in a 40 hr week, their efficiency is terrible in general.

The problems arise when longer working hours are actually required due to deadlines coming up, they have usually spent so many hours doing nothing that they miss deadlines or end up working 100 hrs in those weeks.

They also spend a hell of a lot of time ringing their mates back home during the normal working hours.. :rolleyes:

There are one or two exceptions to the rule, however the majority tend to be like I've just described.

There are a few foreigners working here, mostly from Europe but some from further afield and all of these tend to be fairly efficient and willing to put in the hours when required.

Most Irish people here tend to do whatever is asked of them fairly efficient and put in the hours when required.

Tox

Wanderer2010

FreudianSlipOn wrote: »

England:


A culture of socialising and forming deep personal relationships at work, after work clubs and get-togethers. Work and home life become intertwined.


Getting the drinks order right is often more vital than getting your work done correctly.

God I hate this in workplaces. Im loathe to share my personal life with a crowd of strangers with whom the only thing I have in common with is a building where I share 8 hours a day with them. Im not some anti social person who hates workers but in my eye, work is for work, yes you can be pleasant and have the odd laugh with people you work with but what you do outside the workplace is your own business; sadly too many workplaces are all about forcing others to have drinks, nights out just so they can fill their empty life with gossip about why John/Mary doesnt go out much or drink etc.

A workplace culture where you are expected to be buddies with your boss or fellow workers is the worst one of all in my view. Let people do the job they are paid to do.