British Work Colleagues

If she was promoted, finding ways to make the department function better might be one of her new responsibilities.  This might have been communicated to her privately, so you wouldn't know about it.

edit: FYI, I just received a PM from someone, who shall remain anonymous, accusing me of being harsh and jumping down people's throats in this thread.

If anyone agrees/disagrees/wants to discuss, go ahead.  I'm open to criticism.

Mods, feel free to move any such discussion elsewhere.

These things are relative. I work for a non-profit and the bureacracy is ridiculous. I often go into the office and want one of those Kafka-esque bureaucrat rubber stamps because all I seem to do is pointless paperwork (and sooo much of this isn't done electronically). On the other hand, this b-s also exists in the States. In a more degraded form of life, I was a subcontractor for Citibank in NYC for a short time, and you couldn't believe their wastefulness and general thumb up their bum. The place made money because of its size, but it was very badly organized in the 1980s. I then worked for Chemical Bank for a longer period of time and it wasn't much better. The only way they could make the place more efficienct was by merging with other banks to slash and burn staff.

But there is some truth to a cultural cliche. Europe and the UK works on cultures of consensus, while the US favors one of individual action. Change happens equally fast in either society, but it just seems like it happens more in the US because we like to talk, talk, talk about how adaptable we are. Europeans tend to just get on it with it and let the self-promotion go by the wayside.

Well, I think we talk about differences because we're a mixed group of mostly Americans and British. If we were talking about work practices for the sake of work practices, the observations might be taken to a let's-talk-about-work forum.

For many of us, we've worked (and lived) on both sides of the pond, and yes, notice differences.

It's getting a bit too PC to have to justify all of our comments by being pushed and prodded on every thread to add a disclaimer that we're not meaning that Brits are doing anything wrong. Can we lighten up a little?

I've chosen to live here, I love it here, I have British citizenship, I have no desire to live back in the US...but there are differences. And this is a forum that should allow us to talk freely about them without being policed about it.

Regina, please don't apologize for bringing up an interesting topic. And yeah, we all have those days when things get to us. I'm thinking that you really just wanted some validation...call it a sanity check...to see if other places did it the way your new boss was dictating. I hope your questions were answered.

The only thing that I've noticed is -- and not to mean this as a general sweeping comment -- is -- the places that I've worked here in the UK (3 in total) all seemed to disregard my EXPERIENCE in the US.  It was as if they just didn't SEE that I've done that same work in the US --but not here -- therefore it doesn't count. 
Example - when I worked in the US - I had alot of customer relations -- I was the first point of contact for people -- so I had to be a GOOD example for the company -- my old boss -- went out of his way to try and EXPLAIN "good customer service" -- WTF?!  (Yeah --this is the same guy who would scratch his balls in front of me! -- so maybe this isn't really a good example)

At my new job -- one woman in my office seems to think that I've popped out of a BOX -- the way she explains things is like she's explaining it to a CHILD.  I finished one report even before she had "time" to explain it to me -- and when I showed her --  -- the look on her face!  PRICELESS!

Another thing is -- I have the same thing in this new office as what Kellie8yearsUK said -- there's a list in the TEA room how everyone likes their cuppa -- and I've been added! 

LOL! You must have been quite chuffed to see your name on that list, DUC! For me, I think that would have been a very proud moment..."I have arrived!"

(Or, as Sally Field once gushed, "they like me, they really like me!")

I do think the tea thing is really really sweet.

Some of our friends work for a charity that sends aid to third-world countries. The company asks that if they bring their own coffee in, to please make sure it's fair trade.

There is a mass exodus at my work at 10.10 every day for the staff room for tea and coffee. Its amazing. So far, i've only made it once

At my new job -- one woman in my office seems to think that I've popped out of a BOX -- the way she explains things is like she's explaining it to a CHILD.  I finished one report even before she had "time" to explain it to me -- and when I showed her --  -- the look on her face!  PRICELESS!

Ooooooooh!  You've hit the nail on the head.  That is EXACTLY why I hate my job.  I was actually reminded to put the correct address label with the correct letter -- like, the address label for Mrs. Jones goes on the envelope with Mrs. Jones' letter in it.   No!  You're kidding!  Could you explain it to me a few more times?!   

Geez.  Can't wait to get to work today.   

Thanks to everyone for posting, and reacting to what we've all written.  It's the dialog that people reading here generally benefit from.  HME and Sweetpeach, it's true, I posted some sweeping generalizations about the differences in our cultures.  But I promise you, I didn't make them up, and offered them only as a general indication of differences.  Thank you for reminding us/me that we're all individuals and that we should all look at individual situations as made up of many factors, one of which - is cultural differences.

I haven't visited every town in the U.S. or U.K. and I haven't worked for every employer in both countries either.  Even if I had, there's no way to incorporate copious individual experience into each post.  My observations were based on my limited experience, and coursework, looking at cultural differences.  If anybody is interested in other "Sweeping Generalized Differences" between cultures.  I recommend the following book.

OXFORD GUIDE TO BRITISH AND AMERICAN CULTURE edited by Jonathan Crowther and Kathryn Kavanagh, published by Oxford University Press, 1999 ISBN 0 19 431333 6

It's kind of basic (belive it or not), but covers broad topics of cultural differences really well.  If anybody wants specific references for journal articles talking about differences in business culture, feel free to contact me back channel and I can provide those too.
 

Just my 2p - but this small firm of solicitors I work for here in the UK is pretty much almost exactly like the world-wide firm of lawyers I worked for in the US.  Maybe it's because of my field I don't see much of a difference?

Except that the law clerk that I work under actually makes tea for me...

Just my 2p - but this small firm of solicitors I work for here in the UK is pretty much almost exactly like the world-wide firm of lawyers I worked for in the US.  Maybe it's because of my field I don't see much of a difference?

I would think it has more to do with the field you work in than anything else, at least in the private sector.

As for those who complained about employers treating you like children who don't know anything, do they treat all new employees that way, or do they specifically make comments about you being American and not knowing how to do things?

I have been in situations in the US where I have had to be an anal supervisor (Put the correct label on the correct letter. Here, I'll show you. Let me stand over you and watch you.), because I've experienced people doing these things incorrectly, and as a supervisor, I've gotten the blame for the results.  Now, fortunately, I work for a place where they wouldn't hire someone who couldn't figure out how to put a label on an envelope.

Whenever I tell my  best friend, "I never want to work/live there, because it's crap" she always replies that everywhere is crap it is just down to what kind of crap you can tolerate and what you can't.  Like Lisa, I wouldn't want to move back to the US, even if we could, because the working style there is exactly the kind I can't tolerate (i.e. few vacations, patchy and expensive healthcare, federal cuts of the areas I work in...) 

There are things I dislike about working in Britain as well--for example the pay in my field is about 1/4 of what I would be earning in the US and gov't policies around health change about everyday, making more work for everyone.  But I can tolerate these things.

(By the way, I love the tea thing too!!)

I have been in situations in the US where I have had to be an anal supervisor (Put the correct label on the correct letter. Here, I'll show you. Let me stand over you and watch you.), because I've experienced people doing these things incorrectly, and as a supervisor, I've gotten the blame for the results.

I was a temp in the US in the few months before I moved to the UK and they treated me like that at first. I'd been a temp before so had come to expect the "assume the new temp doesn't know how to do anything without specific instructions" attitude. They quickly learned that I was perfectly capable of answering phones and using a computer all on my own. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I think that some people are such poor workers that their supervisors have to stand over them and watch them.  Actually, in that temp job, they asked me to train one of the permanent staff in how to do a mail merge. I wrote out specific detailed instructions and walked her through it twice, and she still didn't get it. Then I understood why they asked *me* to show her--they'd all given up trying! 

Except that the law clerk that I work under actually makes tea for me...

Now that is cool!  The Head of our Department always offers as well, I like that a lot!!!

As for those who complained about employers treating you like children who don't know anything, do they treat all new employees that way, or do they specifically make comments about you being American and not knowing how to do things?

Well, we've had two new employees since I joined, and they've both just been left to get on.  I can't really say that I'm treated like a kid because I'm American, but I don't think it helps.  I think maybe they've had people in the past who needed constant supervision, but after eight months, you'd think they'd have figured out that I'm not a complete imbecile!  I just took this job for something to do...I can do more and am certainly overqualified, and I thought they knew that when they hired me.  Guess not.   

Regina, please don't apologize for bringing up an interesting topic. And yeah, we all have those days when things get to us. I'm thinking that you really just wanted some validation...call it a sanity check...to see if other places did it the way your new boss was dictating. I hope your questions were answered.

Thanks, although I still fee bad about the WAY I posted my gripe..I should've been more diplomatic and hope I didn't offend anyone! That's the last time I post something while I'm angry, I promise! 

I think another problem I'm facing - and it's a problem I simply have to get over - is the fact that I work with a lot of 20-year-olds (I'll be 40 this year, eeek!) When I was in the US I always worked with people who were close to my age, now most of my coworkers are around 15 years younger than me...AND they're all a higher level than me. I chalk that up to my late start in the company, I haven't had a chance to work my way up yet. Anyway, the "full of herself" person (who told me to work her way) is one of the young people so that didn't help. But like I said, that's something I just have to accept and overcome. *sigh* I guess there are office politics no matter where you work!