Working in the UK

One of the biggest surprises of working in the UK is the work environment itself. I think everyone has worked with people that were not from the US back home but these people tend to blend into the US work culture. Once you get out of the US though it is a different ball game. So of it is great and a ton of fun, some of it seriously just leaves you wondering. The first thing you notice is people don’t work much. I mean in volume. Most people in the UK get three weeks to a month of vacation, a ton of personal days, and there are a ton of official - “bank holidays” as they call them. It is amazing and on top of that they generally work around 7 hours a day, sometimes more but not as rule. Now when called on they are more than willing to put in the extra time, and they are pretty focused when they work. Even if most processes are a little cluegy and time consuming.

What is even more insane is what is considered acceptable dialog in the UK. In a meeting with executive management it is not uncommon to hear very crude language. They have no problem letting loose with bloody of course but you will also routinely hear the f-n-himer. It is just the way everyone talks, men and women. Beyond the words they also continuously let fly with sexual innuendo that would make sailors blush. In mixed company no less. Thing that in the US would result in a sexual harassment are opening liners to team meetings. I can not make this stuff up. A simple and example of this is when the client project manager teased in a team member in a staff meeting about his fly being down along with some off comments about his man-hood. However everyone gives as good as they get, the women as much as the men and no one seems to care. It just is the way they interact. Personally I find it quite amusing and think the British are hilarious to deal with.

Similarly we have an Austrian, a Columbian, some Indians, a Mexican, some other Americans, and a bunch of Belgians on the project. The Belgians also are much different to deal with but with for other reasons. They get twice as much vacation as the British and don’t generally like to show up on Friday. This includes the other consultants, which amazes me, in consulting the rule has always been work as much as needed and show up as often as you have to. But they seem to have a general out look that is much different. They don’t like to travel for work and they expect to get the time off regardless of the project time lines. They also think nothing of wearing the same out fit 3, 4, or 5 days in a row. They aren’t unclean, I think they just bring under wear and maybe one change of close in their bags. This is quite different than people who travel in the state. I no I usually at a minimum have a different shirt for every day and normally bring a couple pairs of pants, but whatever. They also seem to get offended and take things personally much more than the British. So watching the crazy Brits tease and harass the Belgians is actually quite fun.

It has been quite fun seeing the different way people approach life and work in Europe. It is too bad the German site fellow out of scope because I could have seen yet another perspective. All I can really say is that while there is some difference between West Coast, Midwest, Southern, and Eastern workers in the States it is not even close to as dramatic as the difference between Americans and Europeans or even as the difference between Europeans and Europeans.