Work Cultures (split)

FreudianSlipOn

England:

An expectation to be at your desk at 8.50am if you were due to start work at 9am.

A strong emphasis on 'doing your hours'.

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

A pleasure in boasting of working long hours to be seen as busy and important.

Coming into work even if you are sick.

Companies vary in how much holiday they offer. Some give 20 days, some give 25 with an additional day for every year worked at the company, up to a maximum of 30 days.

Some companies abide by the 48 hour maximum working week, some opt out of this.

Some companies are more formal than others.

Work is often left to the last minute to complete.

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

Eoin

I work for a global company so I deal with people from a good few countries, and it's hard to argue with a good few of the comments above; especially the American "face time" ones.

Working somewhere like the call centre in Wales that was on the telly a while ago is my idea of hell, but I don't mind companies organising nights out etc, once it's completely and utterly optional and not forced down your throat. I don't mind the occasional night out with work at all; I'd hate to work somewhere with people who I'd hate to have a pint with.

Ray Palmer

I find it really strange that somebody working in the states says they get 20 days holidays and 10 paid holidays. My Brother in law has been in the same company 15 years and still get only ten days. He can take extra unpaid holidays but that is not holidays as we would see it. I am guessing that is what the person meant by 20 and 10. That is not the same as holidays here at all.

It is worse in the service industry there as your wages mean little and your tips are the important income. So having paid holidays is pointless due to the lack of actual wage. They also don't have the same number of public holidays.


Having worked in the US as a summer intern I can say I was amazed at how little work they did. I was given weeks to do hours worth of work. They stopped giving me work because my supervisor couldn't keep up with checking my work. I then had to review and FIX his work. I actually threw away his work as it was quicker to start from scratch than try and figure out what he was trying to do. In the time I was there quality improved 80%.

The system in the US seems to rely on some really smart people carrying everybody else. It may not always be the case but it has been my experience dealing with them. There tends to be an ideas person who doesn't really understand anything but comes up with the idea and rouses everybody else. Terrible waste can result but I guess great ideas could come out of it. The US seems to believe in this form of business gamble but believe it is innovation rather than gambling which they culturally frown upon.

When you re in such a large economy the odds of a gamble working are dramatically higher I guess so you can see it makes sense to them.

I love the USA but I couldn't live there the society is so unfair and ingrained I find it hard to stomach after spending any time there. I have a friend who has a terrible limp due to a skateboard accident. It wasn't the accident that was the problem it was the access to healthcare that caused his limp to be so bad. They have people do jobs we have machines do because it is cheaper to have a person do it and that person will likely work two jobs to survive.

Eoin

The weird thing is that it's so easy to get fired in the States. People think employers are bad over here, but there is a lot of due process to follow to terminate someone's employment for bad performance. In the States, your stuff is in a cardboard box with the door hitting your arse on your way out before you know what happened.

Phantasos

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

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.

That's why I'm a bit wary of companies like Google and Facebook. Sure, you have little 'perks' in the workplace, but it's all designed to make work your entire life. You come in to work, you have your lunch/dinner/even tea at work, you participate in evening/weekend activities with your work colleagues... you never get away from the place.

I'm sure that sort of structure is perfect for some people, but to me it feels controlling.

Eoin

Phantasos wrote: »

That's why I'm a bit wary of companies like Google and Facebook. Sure, you have little 'perks' in the workplace, but it's all designed to make work your entire life. You come in to work, you have your lunch/dinner/even tea at work, you participate in evening/weekend activities with your work colleagues... you never get away from the place.

I'm sure that sort of structure is perfect for some people, but to me it feels controlling.

That's worse again than the enforced bonding stuff. Free pizza and stuff sounds great, but I'd rather be at home with my family, thanks.

Ray Palmer

Eoin wrote: »

The weird thing is that it's so easy to get fired in the States. People think employers are bad over here, but there is a lot of due process to follow to terminate someone's employment for bad performance. In the States, your stuff is in a cardboard box with the door hitting your arse on your way out before you know what happened.

I remember having to explain what redundancy payments were to an American friend. He understood the idea in factory plants with strong unions but found it very hard to accept it was the law here and companies had to have funds to do this to be allowed operate.

While it is easy to fire certain people in the US there is a fear of doing this with minorities whether that is ethnic, disability, sexuality etc... There was a half blind black guy who the company wanted to fire but they wouldn't because the guy warned them all the grounds he would appeal on. They eventually just paid him off and it turned out he did it in the other places he worked in before.

Kernel32

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I find it really strange that somebody working in the states says they get 20 days holidays and 10 paid holidays. My Brother in law has been in the same company 15 years and still get only ten days. He can take extra unpaid holidays but that is not holidays as we would see it. I am guessing that is what the person meant by 20 and 10. That is not the same as holidays here at all.

It is worse in the service industry there as your wages mean little and your tips are the important income. So having paid holidays is pointless due to the lack of actual wage. They also don't have the same number of public holidays.

This is a really old thread. I am the guy from 8 years ago who said he had 20 vacation days and 10 holidays. Meaning 30 paid non working days a year. It was true then and 8 years later it is true now. Public holidays can vary by state. Where I live now we get 8 public holidays and two floating days. Most people use one the day after Thanksgiving as an example. I have never worked for a large multi-national, always companies from 10 to 150 employees which gave me a better ability to negotiate.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Having worked in the US as a summer intern I can say I was amazed at how little work they did. I was given weeks to do hours worth of work. They stopped giving me work because my supervisor couldn't keep up with checking my work. I then had to review and FIX his work. I actually threw away his work as it was quicker to start from scratch than try and figure out what he was trying to do. In the time I was there quality improved 80%.

In the 15 years I have now lived in the US I have always had positive experiences in my working career with the occasional a$$hole you have to work with but that is all part of life.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

The system in the US seems to rely on some really smart people carrying everybody else. It may not always be the case but it has been my experience dealing with them. There tends to be an ideas person who doesn't really understand anything but comes up with the idea and rouses everybody else. Terrible waste can result but I guess great ideas could come out of it. The US seems to believe in this form of business gamble but believe it is innovation rather than gambling which they culturally frown upon.

When you re in such a large economy the odds of a gamble working are dramatically higher I guess so you can see it makes sense to them.

I have never experienced this myself in all my time here. But I purposely avoid working for the large companies because I know they can be soul destroying. I did have a brief experience working as a contractor for a large corporation but this is when I briefly returned to Ireland and worked for a large US multi-national but the employees were all Irish and the inertia in the company was awful.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I love the USA but I couldn't live there the society is so unfair and ingrained I find it hard to stomach after spending any time there. I have a friend who has a terrible limp due to a skateboard accident. It wasn't the accident that was the problem it was the access to healthcare that caused his limp to be so bad. They have people do jobs we have machines do because it is cheaper to have a person do it and that person will likely work two jobs to survive.

I have luckily enjoyed a very high quality of health care for myself and my wife and kids. While insurance is expensive I have had a pay out very little out of pocket beyond that, including my wife giving birth twice. If I need a specialist I can have an appointment in a week. My parents in Ireland get pretty good general care but if they need a consultant they often wait 6 to 12 months.

I love Ireland and I love the US. I work with some other people from Ireland with my current job and they feel similar. None of us will ever return to Ireland , not because we don't love Ireland but this is our home now. If you want a particular type of work culture you need to be thoughtful in how you approach it and not just work somewhere and then complain about it later.

Ray Palmer

Kernel32 wrote: »

This is a really old thread. I am the guy from 8 years ago who said he had 20 vacation days and 10 holidays. Meaning 30 paid non working days a year. etc...

In Ireland from day one you get 22 days and the 9 Bank holidays. As time goes on your holidays increase. That is dramatically different from the majority of US companies in the US. You got a good package but you know that is far from standard in the US.

Work is different in many companies but the US has terrible employment laws and protection. You have much more rights and protection here.

The fact you can get great healthcare in the US is not questionable the problem is it is massively expensive unless you have health insurance which is also expensive. I have friends in the US who pay more on healthcare premiums than their mortgage. If you don't have healthcare you suffer.

I find the inequality too much to want to live there. I know I wouldn't be at the bottom but knowing it is there and how bad it is would bother me too much. Met some lovely people in the US and just couldn't get how a normal working person could end up in financial ruin for getting sick for a short period of time.

Eoin

Kernel32 wrote: »

This is a really old thread

Ugh, didn't realise this was a 7 year old thread bump; that's annoying.

I've split this thread from the original one, for the sake of those who aren't interested in a thread they posted in 7 years ago.

Stheno

Ray Palmer wrote: »

In Ireland from day one you get 22 days and the 9 Bank holidays. As time goes on your holidays increase. That is dramatically different from the majority of US companies in the US. You got a good package but you know that is far from standard in the US.

Work is different in many companies but the US has terrible employment laws and protection. You have much more rights and protection here.

The fact you can get great healthcare in the US is not questionable the problem is it is massively expensive unless you have health insurance which is also expensive. I have friends in the US who pay more on healthcare premiums than their mortgage. If you don't have healthcare you suffer.

I find the inequality too much to want to live there. I know I wouldn't be at the bottom but knowing it is there and how bad it is would bother me too much. Met some lovely people in the US and just couldn't get how a normal working person could end up in financial ruin for getting sick for a short period of time.

It's actually 20 days, and there is no automatic increase

Bepolite

The US is great for the minority, it's not so great for the majority. I sincerely hope the US culture of work never finds it way here. There are far, far better countries to emulate, if we must.

For an interesting exploration of a related subject google Hofstede