[Closed] Working with Americans

in the text of it he has referred to both me and himself in the third person

Could that not just be auto generated from whatever scheduling/calendar app he's using?

Thanks for reaching out.

We had an American boss once, he couldn't get his head around going to the pub and having beer on a school night as being a normal thing - he thought he had a team of people with "issues" that needed some sort of "intervention" because they went for a drink after a long, hard day at work...

You touched base riiiight ?

Good, now go meet his family 😀

Legend thinks this thread is racist

We had an American boss once, he couldn't get his head around going to the pub and having beer on a school night as being a normal thing - he thought he had a team of people with "issues" that needed some sort of "intervention" because they went for a drink after a long, hard day at work...

Very similar experience - seemed that going for 'a beer' meant just that to them, not a sesh

AA cards were not so discreetly handed to several of us later that week 😆

Lots of car break downs in the fleet?

I used to work in work in a hotel in Scotland that was popular with 'Mercuns; mostly they were fine but didn't get the humour unless is was really obvious.
What was interesting was their corporate conformity and the culture clash when the European division of a company and the American one were in at the same time. Sceptics all sticking to the agenda and not wanting to stray off, then the Europeans basically dickin around and wondering how early the could hit the bar.
One day I'm talking to this woman who says "I just wanna come see how y'all live" like I was on some kind of reservation living out a traditional Scottish life of tartan, porridge, Haggis and highland dancin...As opposed to T2 Diabetes, heart condition and mild alcoholism, just like the Americans...oh wait.

This guy for example has sent me a meeting request, and in the text of it he has referred to both me and himself in the third person. Rather odd thing to do given that no-one else is invited.

How can you be sure that his nationality was the reason for that?

but didn't get the humour unless is was really obvious.

When my in-laws were last over from the states we showed them Father Ted and I've not seen two people laugh so hard at television!

One experience: a while back, they couldn't deal with the sweary banter. The company in question was a mid western electronics component manufacturer, and they just really had a problem with "piss-taking" with "robust" language (mostly the girls in the office)

You can imagine the memos, the reaction to memos, the further memos...it was endless.

Very similar experience - seemed that going for 'a beer' meant just that to them, not a sesh

This (everything else about the ones I work with is relatively normal, they didn't vote for Bush and support greater gun control laws).

"we're going to the pub for a beer, want to come?"

*check calendar, make sure lift home is sorted, alert girlfriend I won't be home in time for dinner*

"yup"

-an hour and 1 beer later

"right, see you tomorrow"

The 'merecans I used to work with were like machines. They worked crazy hours, every day, and all seemed fully signed up to their corporate agenda, which was like some kind of cult.

Us lot just behaved as you'd expect. Lots of piss taking and generally dicking about, and out of the door dot on five. a lot of the time straight to the pub.

For all this, they never seemed to get any more than us done. In fact, given the hours they worked, considerably less.

Idiots!!

When i have only one beer with someone its usually becasue I don't like them much.

I don't know all 319 million of them of course, but the ones we do are pretty nuts.

We work with another IT outfit in Texas they're the internal IT for this pretty big global business, the UK arm is pretty small so IT support is outsourced to us.

When they took over they reviewed the equipment in the UK and cried it was suboptimal, or perhaps unperfect or something like that - they're not allowed it seems to use negative words so everything has to be spun into a positive - they were using [geek speak follows] 8 month old Intel Core i5 based PCs and laptops with 4GB of RAM - of normal office functions like writing e-mails or using spreadsheets this is perfect, over-kill really if you've got a eye on costs, but no this was all semi-amazing or some shit so they demanded we upgraded them all - Intel Core i7 based hardware with 16GB of RAM, we suspect they did this in case Beryl from accounts wants to play Call of Duty or edit 4k video or something.

Anyway we quoted to replace it all, but our quote was instupendous or something because stuff was waaay cheaper in the states - we explained import duty (to a multinational) would be due, keyboards wouldn't be right and a few other little things like power supplies would be wrong - but they didn't care - they shipped the lot over and got stung for it all.

They also scrapped a perfectly good Server because they insisted all data be held on their server in Texas, which didn't really work so they bought another one, again sourced in the US and shipped here for us to install, again massive over-kill spec.

We estimate they spent about £20k-£30k refitting their new UK office with equipment for a negligible benefit, caused days and days of downtime and drama for their staff, but the real kicker was the server rack.

The old, perfectly good, pretty high-end server was a tower server - the one they shipped over was rack-mounted - we told them this, but as ever they muttered something about it being unmagnificent or something, shouted YeeeeHaw and sent a rack mounted server which spent a couple of weeks mounted on a couple of pallets working before they went a bit nutty with themselves for doing it.

So finally my Boss and I found ourselves copied into 2 months worth of round-robin e-mail about this rack - we tried to read it, but it was a lot of internal back-stabbing and company speak so we politely asked what they wanted from us and got no direct reply just e-mail after e-mail from the 20 or so internal guys on this e-mail so assumed it was all 'FYI' and ignored it.

Finally, 3 MONTHS later this e-mail circle-tug concluded and having finally learned their lesson about our funny 3 pin plugs and whatnot asked us to source a rack - which we did and quoted it -

"no way, that's waaaaay to much"

The then spend 2 weeks e-mail various second-hand racks available on eBay, if only we wouldn't mind driving 300 round miles to dismantle it, rebuild it and set everything up to save them £50 or so.

Anyway, they're pretty much the dictionary definition of reasoned thinking compared the Japanese firm we work for.

[i]seemed fully signed up to their corporate agenda, which was like some kind of cult.[/i]

+1 this. Never seen people so excited about a company video presentation.

The company I work for has a bunch of guys who are a bit more like the UK in the week night drinking but, as binners said, they manage to do a lot less work a day and complain about how busy they are. I think it's more important to seem as though you're working than it is to actually get things done quickly.

10 - Member

The company I work for has a bunch of guys who are a bit more like the UK in the week night drinking but, as binners said, they manage to do a lot less work a day and complain about how busy they are. I think it's more important to seem as though you're working than it is to actually get things done quickly.

In fairness British Corporates can be the same way - the dept in RBS I worked in people would routinely work 7am to 7pm, and even "pop in at the weekend" and all that nonsense - but they worked at a snails pace and/or did SFA all day, it was all about being seen to be committed to the cause.

The worst thing was I saw person after person promoted for "showing the right competencies" as they called it.

I think it's more important to seem as though you're working than it is to actually get things done quickly.

Having spent a good whle working with them, thats exactly the conclusion I came too.

They definitely all fell into to the 'lets have a meeting to discuss it' camp, rather than us lot, who just got on with it, rather than talk about it. Then we could get to the pub 😀

Their work lives are insane. Properly insane- little holiday, long hours, many aren't totally signed up to the concept of a weekend. It's why we live here, not there.

[quote=molgrips ]This guy for example has sent me a meeting request, and in the text of it he has referred to both me and himself in the third person. Rather odd thing to do given that no-one else is invited.

aracer thinks that is a really weird thing to do. molgrips should be very wary of people like that.

The 'merecans I used to work with were like machines. They worked crazy hours, every day, and all seemed fully signed up to their corporate agenda, which was like some kind of cult.

I've asked gherkins about their annual leave entitlements, which tend to be very slim by European standards (e.g. around 10 days a year!).

Some of the answers I got were astonishing. Many of them seemed to regard taking holidays as some kind of betrayal of the company.

Never seen people so excited about a company video presentation.

I worked (as a contractor) in a large Scottish office of an American-owned company.

They used to broadcast speeches from the executives over the PA system. Apparently the American offices stood in deferential silence then whooped and cheered at the end. In the Scottish office everyone pretty much just turned up their headphones and got on with work.

How can you be sure that his nationality was the reason for that?

I'm not, of course, but that seems to fit into the working culture I've observed. And the working cultures are generally quite different, as they are in most countries. Not really racist to observe that.

I've asked gherkins about their annual leave entitlements

I've had to work at my company for two years to gain more than 5 days annual leave. I'm fortunate though that I work from home a week or two a month, so I can get everything done and then cover email from out on my bike.

I worked with a team of Americans for a while. Whilst there's always cultural differences, it's difficult to generalise. We had a couple of guys who were mates from way back, enjoyed the same sort of 'banter' between each other that would be normal here; a Texan guy who was mad as a box of frogs; and a young lad who didn't drink, smoke, swear or anything that could remotely be considered a vice, a situation we put paid to quite rapidly. (-:

They settled into UK pub culture quite easily, though I remember their initial reaction to our suggestion to go to a bar was "what, to get laid?" which if nothing else was optimistic of them.

I've asked gherkins about their annual leave entitlements, which tend to be very slim by European standards (e.g. around 10 days a year!).

I like to tell them about Scandinavian welfare and work entitlements, just to blow their minds.

In fairness British Corporates can be the same way - the dept in RBS I worked in people would routinely work 7am to 7pm, and even "pop in at the weekend" and all that nonsense - but they worked at a snails pace and/or did SFA all day, it was all about being seen to be committed to the cause.

This.
As a foreigner who's worked for several large British corps, including the Scottish one mentioned above, some of the cultures exhibit most of the 'American' stuff referred to above.
See any of the threads on here regarding acceptable working hours/pay for large numbers of folk offering up long working hours for no extra money.

I think the difference is in attitude Vinny. If you're doing all those hours, taking no hloidays, working weekends and signing up to a corporate mission statement, the Americans regard that as demonstrating admirable character traits that should be applauded

Over here everyone would just think you were a bit of a dick!

I think our way is healthier

🙂

what's odd about Kip?
be aware that depending on your response, I may have to hunt you down armed with a set of mole grips.

Worked for an American company for 7 years, in New York for 3 and with Americans most of my career. They certainly have a different work culture and confidence is never in short supply. As for the email that's just bad English.

Whilst there's always cultural differences, it's difficult to generalise

Of course. My father in law loves pointing out these differences and making fun, in both directions.

[i]I've asked gherkins about their annual leave entitlements, which tend to be very slim by European standards (e.g. around 10 days a year!).[/i]

Yes, but the guys I've worked with have far more days - they just call them different things; vacation, family-days etc.

[i]The 'merecans I used to work with were like machines. They worked crazy hours, every day, and all seemed fully signed up to their corporate agenda, which was like some kind of cult.[/i]

Which is something many of us would do if we could be asked to leave this afternoon - with no notice. Also their pensions are often linked to the company they work for and have little/no 'portability'; plus the (loss of) healthcare issues they could face.

My experience of the working in the US is that unless you are at the top of the pile, it's 5hite.

loads here. ive still to meet one i like. strange bunch. one thing i noticed very quickly is that they do not feel the need to say thanks when you hold a door open for them, they dont even acknowledge that fact that you are being courteous. .. Yet they get fabulously offended when you let it slam in their face as i do now...!

My experience of the working in the US is that unless you are at the top of the pile, it's 5hite.

Yeah... company I worked for, all the senior management, and a few privileged key staff were salaried, with an unbelievable salary and package of perks. All us drones (who actually did the work) were precisiely that. Freelance and contract. And left under no illusions that we were second class, if that, and essentially disposable.

Apparently thats pretty standard staffing practice for American corporates

what I found odd was that this was about the time of "breakfast is for wimps" Gordon Gecko...I was expecting ruthless go getting, kill their grannies for a deal, when in reality they were very straight laced god fearing, chino wearing, buttoned down collar shocked by the notion of girls swearing...kinda guys and gals

On a recent conference call a US colleague requested we "aggressively pull on some positive change levers". 'nuff said.

Yes, but the guys I've worked with have far more days - they just call them different things; vacation, family-days etc.

According to the [url= http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2011/ownership/private/table23a.htm ]Bureau Of Labor Statistics[/url], at one years service 75% of full-time workers in the US get between 5 and 14 paid vacation days a year, with a mean of 10 days.

After five years service 73% get between 10 and 19 days paid vacation with a mean of 14 days.

But even after five years service 9% of full-time employees get 9 days or less paid vacation a year!

Meanwhile in the UK we top [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statutory_minimum_employment_leave_by_country ]the table of statutory minimum leave[/url] with 28 days a year.

There is no statutory minimum leave in the USA. It's a strange place at times and their corporate culture is nuts. There are a lot of jobs that advertise for specific degrees that pretty much don't exist in the UK. This means a lot of people have very narrow career fields without the potential to broaden or do other similar but related jobs.
Banter exists - you just have to look for it. I share a healthy stream of insults and sarcasm with a few other chaps and it's all good.

The rest of them are moon-units with guns and they are to be avoided.

Very similar experience - seemed that going for 'a beer' meant just that to them, not a sesh

AA cards were not so discreetly handed to several of us later that week

US culture is based on a gigantic sense of entitlement and materialism, when they don't attain their dreams they, on the whole, resort to either therapy or guns to solve their problems,

Us Brits just drink our problems under the table.

It's based on the myth that if you work hard you will succeed. This is clearly not true!

SOME people get upset about this, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the norm, obviously.

Over enthusiastic presentations and celebrations, 24/7 working culture, assumed "leadership qualities"' sense of global superiority, only the $ matters target / performance basis I agree with.

Yet nearly all my US colleagues who come over and visit us love to get completely ****ered on beer (more so than lager) with us and love to sample any kind of euro/Asian eatery. One chap has fallen so far in love with a micro brewery in a town near one of our offices he deliberately delays his return home so he can drink himself comatose sampling the beer there on a Saturday night then get a Sunday flight.

Bloody hell, there's a lot of big assumptions and crass generalisations here.

I worked at a big internet company with the word America in the company name for a good few years - and obviously there were quite a few Yanks around the office.

Couldn't really generalise about them at all TBH, liked some but others were dicks. Some were swots, others were slackers. Same as the Brits, Aussies, etc.

Over enthusiastic presentations and celebrations, 24/7 working culture, assumed "leadership qualities"' sense of global superiority, only the $ matters target / performance basis I agree with.

Yet nearly all my US colleagues who come over and visit us love to get completely ****ered on beer (more so than lager) with us and love to sample any kind of euro/Asian eatery. One chap has fallen so far in love with a micro brewery in a town near one of our offices he deliberately delays his return home so he can drink himself comatose sampling the beer there on a Saturday night then get a Sunday flight.

That's because the cultured ones have an innate desire to return to a country whos national cuisine doesn't start with burgers and end with cheeseburgers.

Having done a moderate amount of work over in the us I've found them to be grate fun and friendly as long as you stay off of health care, religion and guns. One gun I know has a great saying. I'm not gay but I'd **** you to prove a point. They defiantly have banter and love a little British slapstick. If you want to entertain Americans go though a load of slang. They love it.

Defiantly have a different work culture with long hours and little time off but work environment also seemed very relaxed. You just seemed to be there from07:00until18:00.

What chakaping said in my rather limited experience
The god botherers were much more god botherery than the British variety in that they tried to convert you and preach to you.

Pretty limited experience based on work at a Uni

Not true on the food from Tom. They have quite a varied food culture. Louisiana is the best place I have been for food in the us and is up there with other places I have been internationally.

Food culture, as everything cultural, varies hugely across the country. Things look superficially similar on the coasts to the Mid West but it's really not.

I've found them to be grate fun and friendly as long as you stay off of health care, religion and guns.

I was out there for a few months with work and I found that they were fine even when you talked about those things, as long as you didn't try to tell them they were wrong, although I did get accused of being a socialist once for loving the NHS. Once I'd stopped laughing I explained myself and agreed that it is a 'difficult' issue...

If you want to entertain Americans go though a load of slang. They love it.

This is always a great bet. We have a group of Spams working just down the corridor from us now. We printed off a load of British slang and made up a translation guide for them. We now refuse to help them unless they ask for it 'correctly', for example "cor Bliley, Guv'nor, you couldn't nip out and lend us a hand could you? Cheers!"

In my experience, when in small groups they are usually great people to be around. When in large groups they can be very difficult; especially in a work context. Admittedly, my experience of Americans is primarily with Military types.

The other thing to remember is that we are exposed to a lot of their culture (film, tv, media, food, et cetera) but the only bits of our culture they get exposed to are Downton Abbey and Piers Morgan.

If you want to see a terrible work culture, try Hong Kong. Work every hour available (as it's better to be at work, in a nice airconned office than to be at home, 83 in a room without aircon!). Oh, and if you're ill? Put on a face mask and get to work!

In a previous life, I had a direct report who was in the US and thought he was the big tamale of the world. He wasn't. Not too bright at all, he would pick up on things others were saying and use them as if they were his shining intellect. We (the British, leading siding of the company) noticed this and began dropping Blackadderisms in to our speech. Contrafibularities, pericombobulations etc. We kept this up for some months before he was due to speak at a conference. His conference speech was littered with silly neologisms and we all laughed! 🙂

chakaping - Member
Bloody hell, there's a lot of big assumptions and crass generalisations here.

+ lots!

IME, from working for an American management consultancy, albeit around 25 years ago, the geographical size of the country leads to similarly big cultural attitudes towards work and professional life. I could call the New York or Boston offices at 6 or 7pm local time on a Friday and be absolutely sure that there would be someone there burning the midnight oil and pick up the phone. Conversely, if I made a call to the west coast offices any time from Thursday afternoon to Tuesday morning, I'd expect to hear the answer phone.

East Coast people appeared to have a live to work ethic and the west coast more of a work to live. Which is probably another massive generalisation, but made me want to live on the west coast!

This is very strange thread. American corporate culture is different but has it's positives and negatives. It just takes getting use to. Vacations seen as less important but people get personal days too, so they work a little more than us but not as much as you'd think. Also they get paid generally a little better than us and probably have a slightly better standard of housing and healthcare (if you have insurance obviously). Otherwise most Americans I work with have a good sense of humour too.

Food culture, as everything cultural, varies hugely across the country. Things look superficially similar on the coasts to the Mid West but it's really not.

So what you're saying is, is that they all look like burgers but they all taste a little bit different. 😛

Florida/Louisiana have some tasty looking food, I give you that. Probably the latino influence in the former.

Things look superficially similar on the coasts to the Mid West but it's really not.

True. The food in rural Montana is AWESOME!

We've adopted an American my wife works with.

The words 'pootle' and ''bimble' had her in stitches for days. 'Welly wanging*' nearly triggered a melt-down!

(*encountered at a village fete)

his guy for example has sent me a meeting request, and in the text of it he has referred to both me and himself in the third person

could it be as simple as having his PA send out his meeting requests on his behalf?

Try working for Canadians 😯

could it be as simple as having his PA send out his meeting requests on his behalf?

Maybe, but he has the same job as me so he'd better bloody well not have a PA!

'Welly wanging*' nearly triggered a melt-down!

Worked with a Chinese chap once, called Wai Li Huang (spl?). His choice of Anglicised name? Welly Wang. Utterly brilliant!

Then there was a lovely, beautiful girl I used to work with in Singapore who chose a great Anglicised first name to go with her surname, which was pronounced "Chewah". Fanny. Fanny Chewah.

I met a guy called elton wong once 😀

I had a wee Ming kok, I declined deploying him to Glasgow...

The nearest to a universal truth that I've encountered in American corporate culture is the love of a pointless job title. People work their arses off to make the grade of 'Junior Vice President of Imports'. Then when you dig a bit deeper you find that 'Imports' consists of 4 people and two of those are more senior than the Junior vice President, who is basically an import clerk.

[i]According to the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, at one years service 75% of full-time workers in the US get between 5 and 14 paid vacation days a year, with a mean of 10 days.[/i]

Yes, but as I said 'vacation' and 'family days' are usually two different entitlements.

[img] [/img]

I work in a big-ish US company and spend a lot of time dealign with the US employees. Most are good people, some are idiots, but I class that as a pretty normal worldwide distribution, so I'm not convinced that they are more inclined to that than any other nation.

However, I do find that I become far more British when I spend any time in their company. Words and phrases like "spiffing" and "jolly good" do creep in and I start sounding like a jet-lagged Terry Thomas. I also try to test the limits of sarcasm and irony, but people are starting to catch on to it now so I have to be more subtle.

elton wong

Genuinely crying with laughter 😆

In my experience (a lot) of working with Americans, you have to be very careful how you ask questions in an email.
1 question - fine, 1 answer
2 questions - 1 answer
3 questions - 1 answer!

Drove me nuts until I worked it out: separate email for each question 🙂

Vacations seen as less important but people get personal days too, so they work a little more than us but not as much as you'd think. Also they get paid generally a little better than us and probably have a slightly better standard of housing and healthcare (if you have insurance obviously)

Americans work far more than Brits on average. 'Personal days' are to cover sickness, your own and your kids. Not many personal days in contracts either. Couple that with 10 days leave a year and few observed public holidays and you have almost no time off.
Housing? Bigger houses with more garden, but further apart and more reliance on cars, so there is a trade-off there.
Healthcare is not better. It's more available if you have insurance you can afford. It requires more paperwork, more worry, usually less waiting times, but don't think of transferring to another hospital for your woes. They don't share information so expect to take a multitude of pointless tests to make up for it.
Don't fall ill outside your state of residence. The paperwork will kill you even if the illness didn't.

Spent a lot of the 90's living and working in the States, as with any culture its different, same as with my time spent in Japan and now Hong Kong/Singapore.

They like to talk a good talk, some of them actually back this up, say 75%
Most from the East and West coasts get UK humour and sarcasm
They have corporate jargonists just like we do
They do work hard and have lousy holiday allowance (Asians pretend they do but have a ridiculous amount of national holidays)
There is a definite class system as pointed out above, your either doing well or really trying to do well

I should also add that in the States, and I feel this in Asia also, there is a sense that if you work hard and try you will succeed, something I have never felt in the UK.

I did find the one standout thing in general ~(back in my hotel days) about sceptics was they seemed to think you needed advance warning of any interactions e.g.

"Excuse me sir, I have 3 questions for you" A fairly standard response from the staff was "Sorry, but I'm limited to answering only 2 questions at a time" Some of them genuinely thought you were serious and would look very concerned.

I'll just leave this here:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/america

I think a lot of American working practice stems from the fact they can be sacked with no payout anyday anytime. This leads to crazy hours and a devotion to the corporate mission. Also they tend to be quite religious...what I hate most that as buyers they tend to seek huge amounts of info, engage in very lengthy discussions with no intention to actually buy....

However working with them seems quite odd at times based on the few encounters I've had with American colleagues. This guy for example has sent me a meeting request, and in the text of it he has referred to both me and himself in the third person. Rather odd thing to do given that no-one else is invited.

Even odder when his name is Kip.

Have you joined Winger?

what's odd about Kip?

Oh and a word of warning - if you work in an American drawing office, don't ask for a rubber.

Oh and a word of warning - if you work in an American drawing office, don't ask for a rubber.

What do you get?? Obviously not an eraser....

A Kip is 1000lbs force. An arcane unit used in structural calculations by American Civil Engineers

I worked with a bunch who insisted on using Slugs. ugh.

What do you get?? Obviously not an eraser....

They didn't understand "dropped a bollock" either. Weirdos.

Americans and long hours.

In my (limited) experience of working with our American cousins, they'll never get something done in half an hour if they can spend two hours talking about doing it instead.

They didn't understand "dropped a bollock" either. Weirdos.

Funny thing, language. "Smoking a fag" is always good for a laugh too. In the UK, having a cigarette; in the US, homosexual homicide.

Oh and a word of warning - if you work in an American drawing office, don't ask for a rubber.

An American exchange teacher who worked alongside my dad still found it funny, even after 12 months, every time a pupil asked to borrow a rubber.