“I worked in the Netherlands with teams of mainly Dutch, Germans and English. My English colleagues would sometimes complain that the Germans and Dutch were "rude" or at least not as polite as they should be. This was probably the result of differences in the use of the English language where the Dutch and Germans are less familiar to make frequent use of "please" and "thank you" but might have been a bit more direct in their communication style which could have been perceived as less polite by the British colleagues.”
“When having lunch in Poland initially my colleagues thought it was strange when I went for a walk on my lunch break. It’s like if I wasn’t being professional since they don’t understand why people would stop working for “so long” and then come back to work again. Mainly it was because I was away from the office like 1h every day. They don’t have lunch breaks and didn’t understand why would someone stop working for an entire hour and then come back to the office again to leave “later”…”
“In my opinion or experience, other countries have another way of working / another way of prioritizing things than Germans. Other countries are often more “spontaneous” ... Less planning, more flexibility in doing things."
“When working with Italians, it is quite difficult to get a straight answer, usually when the answer is not very positive or flattering. It tends to make discussions a bit too fuzzy for me and I may appear a bit too intruding when I try to look for the right answer that I need.”
“Working for a company in the UK is not considered to be a job for life. I think in Spain there is an aspiration and the job is considered more long term.”
“In the Netherlands, there is a strong sense of work-life balance, short time lunch plus leaving the office early (around 5 or 5:30) and often whole weeks of holidays spread along the year (including winters).”
“Hungarians work a lot with many overworking hours. They think if they work hard they will become a better worker. Many often they forget to have lunch. In other countries working within the official working hours are more strict.”
“In Switzerland delays are not acceptable. After one minute you are late, and if a meeting is planned to finish at 10 am you can leave without any excuse, even if the meeting is ongoing.”
” While working in Brazil last year, I had to face a few cultural differences which I found challenging. Firstly, time management was different compared to what I was used to. Meetings could start later than originally planned and last longer, which made it difficult for me to organize my daily work. Moreover, it was common to talk about different topics at the same time and I had the feeling that the meetings were not as efficient as I would have expected. “
“In Anglo-Saxon countries, work-life balance is much more respected. People go home at 5 pm – fewer breaks during the day shorter lunches: the same amount of work is done in a shorter amount of time”