“When a new Russian colleague start working in my team and she couldn’t understand why we talked to each other without using formal vocabulary (even with our manager) because in Russia they always speak very formal with all the work colleagues, managers or clients (in Spanish she always used “usted” instead of “tú”).
“One in particular who is Slovakian is a very bright and capable individual, but her respect/fear for hierarchy and being timid around senior people is holding back her career as she is uncomfortable with being assertive.”
“In Hungary, several years ago, presenting a project during several hours without one comment by Hungarian, who were feeling not authorised to ask a question to a guy coming from corporate”
"Cultural difference, which I have experienced, was for instance between Eastern and Western part of the Europe. Not only in the personal, but also work life. Particularly, the work life, which I experienced during various job rotation. For Eastern countries, hospitality and gratitude is much more common (of course it also depends on individuals and my intent is not to generalize anything, but this was my impression). And more eastern you go, the people used to be more open. Let me give you an example: Ordinary workplace with offices and several colleagues. Usually, when someone new arrives to this environment, or leaves the work, or when so
“Iranian people are extremely nice and diplomatic, avoiding conflict and trying to comfort everyone, as opposed to Croatian “Balkan” people in general – latter are more direct and sometimes are (verbally) perceived as yelling when they just want to make a point clear.”
“When a new Russian colleague start working in my team and she couldn’t understand why we talked to each other without using formal vocabulary (even with our manager) because in Russia they always speak very formally with all the work colleagues, managers or clients (in spanish she always used “usted” instead of “tú”).
“Usually in Croatia, when there is a presentation held in front of audience, speaker is rewarded at the end with loud applause if he was good. In Austria, speaker is rewarded with knocking the table which may sound really strange in Croatia.”
“Discussions and conversations in Serbia are driven in a very emotional way, accompanied by lots of yelling and swearing”
“I have definitely experienced very different work mentalities when doing the international job rotations within the trainee program. In some countries (AUSTRIA) people were very keen on always being on time, coming to work early and staying late whereas in other countries (CEE) it was much more focused on trying to enjoy work and have a good work life balance.”
“In Budapest, I was one of the only foreigners in the company, I could see the difference of management style. There was no team-meeting to keep the employees up to date and to give and get a feedback, lack of trainings, and the once- per- year meeting with the manager was done “only because HR require it”. In consequence, employees do not know what happens in the department, they all report to their manager without communication between them, creating a real lack of initiative, pro-activity, and entrepreneurial way of thinking.”