So this happened

I work for a global company.  We were recently sold off to new owners, but the overall leadership team remains the same.  They're based in the US.  Yesterday was the first day with new owners.  We had a global town hall. The US leadership team and new owners were whooping and hollering and clapping and cheering and being rah rah rah American.  I was sitting in the canteen with the manufacturing staff here.   Silence and shifty looks and shrugging of shoulders over the whooping and hollering.
We then got a new brand/logo/identity. And they went through how it was developed and what 'it meant' and was so airy fairy.    The canteen suddenly came alive with sniggering.  None of us left that afternoon meeting feeling remotely motivated. 

We had our own onsite leaders give a speech at lunchtime yesterday, full of sarcasm, wit and deadpan humour. Lots of laughter then. 

Such Scottish reactions to the day  

I work for a global company.  We were recently sold off to new owners, but the overall leadership team remains the same.  They're based in the US.  Yesterday was the first day with new owners.  We had a global town hall. The US leadership team and new owners were whooping and hollering and clapping and cheering and being rah rah rah American.  I was sitting in the canteen with the manufacturing staff here.   Silence and shifty looks and shrugging of shoulders over the whooping and hollering.
We then got a new brand/logo/identity. And they went through how it was developed and what 'it meant' and was so airy fairy.    The canteen suddenly came alive with sniggering.  None of us left that afternoon meeting feeling remotely motivated. 

We had our own onsite leaders give a speech at lunchtime yesterday, full of sarcasm, wit and deadpan humour. Lots of laughter then. 

Such Scottish reactions to the day

Have the US owners ever owned a UK company before? Its weird, because of the drinking culture anytime the executives of my husbands department visit the entire team has to go out to the pub after work. But they know not to do the cheesy motivational stuff!

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We'd enjoy a trip to the pub as motivation! 

We've always had US headquarters , so it's not new to us the whooping and hollering. The new owners just joined in to the crap already being spewed.   Whenever they've made it onsite and tried that crap they usually get polite applause and sniggering. 

When EMC and Dell announced they were "merging" <cough>, they did a live stream in the canteen of the announcement with Michael Dell onsite at EMC's headquarters in the USA.

The people there were all happy, jumping, whooping, hollering, trying to take selfies with Michael Dell in the background.  When they got to the point of questions from the crowd, someone asked about how this would the staff due to competing product lines.  The live stream went dead.  Said it all really.

And boy did we have a blast making fun of the happiness in the American crowd.   

And boy did we have a blast making fun of the happiness in the American crowd.   

So what I'm taking from all of this is that very soon I'll be laughing at Americans and their ways?? LOL!! Count me in!

I've been here for almost 11 years and am so used to the Scottish way of working, so when there is something so blatantly American , it does make you cringe.   

The live stream went dead.  Said it all really.

Yikes!!!! 

I've been here for almost 11 years and am so used to the Scottish way of working, so when there is something so blatantly American , it does make you cringe.   

Yet on the 4th of July, I still wear a t-shirt that is literally stars and stripes.  You can't miss me.   

Once a year I feel the need to remind everyone that I'm not shy.  LOL!

I've been here for almost 11 years and am so used to the Scottish way of working, so when there is something so blatantly American , it does make you cringe.   

Yikes!!!! 

I'm still in America and I find myself cringing quite often already.  He he he!

Well if they took us to the pub to celebrate, we'd whoop and holler. I mean. You know.  Really.

We got a tiny piece of cake to celebrate.  In the US site, they went off site and had champagne and canapes and whatnot and got the afternoon off to whoop and holler. #notfair

Well if they took us to the pub to celebrate, we'd whoop and holler. I mean. You know.  Really.

We got a tiny piece of cake to celebrate.  In the US site, they went off site and had champagne and canapes and whatnot and got the afternoon off to whoop and holler. #notfair

Ha ha!! Already a bad start when they don't treat you to libations as well! AND they make you go back to work? Just wrong. LOL.

I've been here for almost 11 years and am so used to the Scottish way of working, so when there is something so blatantly American , it does make you cringe.   

Yikes!!!! 

This I pretty quiet by “American standards” but when I hear others at work being your “typical American “ I cringe a bit.


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I've been here for almost 11 years and am so used to the Scottish way of working, so when there is something so blatantly American , it does make you cringe.   

Yikes!!!! 

This I pretty quiet by “American standards” but when I hear others at work being your “typical American “ I cringe a bit.


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Back in 2009, when WholeFoods opened a store on the outskirts of Glasgow, I went to work there, having been newly made redundant from my wonderful dream job.  All of the staff were locals, but managers and trainers were American and there was a lot of the whooping, hollering, 'get-er-done!' over-the-topness.  It was unbearable.  At meetings and during the training, the Scots were all looking at each other like 'WTF?!' and I was cringeing because although I don't *feel* American, I do *sound* American, and I was desperately not wanting to be associated with any of this embarrassing nonsense.

I lasted 7 weeks.

I used to work for a University.
My particular job classification was split across the uni - there was one of me in almost every department, doing a similar job for that department.
One year there was a meeting where all of the people in my general classification were brought together in the ballroom to have a "training" session.
They brought in, no joke, the campus cheerleaders to "rev up your [insert name of school here] spirit, team!"
I got up and left.

I worked for a global bank while they were responding to a deferred prosecution agreement, and part of that meant many company wide training sessions. They really tried to make learning ethics and reporting requirements exciting and brought in djs and dance floors to one of them. It was the most ridiculous thing I ever encountered!

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