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Comment by durnygbur | Hacker News Reader

I would love to work in European international corporation acknowledging and respecting different introvert/extrovert personality levels, countless languages, completely different approaches in handling problems and challenges determined by one's origin and upbringing, different needs in socializing, e.g. Nokia at its peak. I dislike the American corporate environment, their soulless "corporate culture" media materials. There is this one American school of "how to become successful" and that's it. Productivity of a generation of Europeans is getting wasted on following some motivational bollocks by people after dozen of plastic surgeries and living in Florida or California.

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> I dislike the American corporate environment, their soulless "corporate culture" media materials. There is this one American school of "how to become successful" and that's it.

Ironically, a lot of people in the European country in which I live feel this way about domestic companies compared to the vibrancy of US corporate culture. Maybe you can elaborate on what you're referring to, preferably with less generalizing of a whole continent of corporate cultures as "European?"

Yeah but european companies dont exist, we re all different.

Im French for instance, and we certainly dont work like the german. For us it s all about the game, the gossips, the fightings. Everyone is the CEO and it s hard to remember we have a job to do end of the day.

In Germany I ve heard things are more...rule following.

I work in China now - it's way more result oriented.

The corporate culture BS we have it everywhere, it s part of the internal marketing we all have to do, and it s not really american: it s a way to try and adapt to a workforce that doesnt only focus on the result but also the way it s achieved. And ofc, it s a shortcut, because beyond the surface there s nothing.

TL;DR dont idealize europe, it s a big place.

This is so right. There is no European culture. Even neighboring countries with similar values (NL and DE) are wildly different with regard to workplace.

I The Netherlands, work stops on Friday around 16:0-ish. In Germany, I had regular meetings at 18:00 on Friday. I honestly thought they were joking.

In Norway the office is desolate after 13:00 on a Friday. Only the youngest and the ones without children stick around till 16:00, and not many of them either.

Interesting. Is this because of officially shorter working hours per week, because of longer hours on the other weekdays, or just some kind of an unofficial practice? How common is this?

As another Nordic, I've seen people gladly leave the office around 15:00 or 16:00 (or earlier for some people if they like to start early) on a Friday, but it's hard to imagine people who are on the clock regularly leaving at 13:00 unless they are real early birds.

Seemed more an accepted and practical practice of trying to beat the traffic to their weekend mountain/coastal cabins. They are just shaving off an hour or two off their normal leaving time, and is somewhat seasonal and weather dependant as well.

I was just always amazed how quiet the office was on Friday afternoons during the years when I went back to working in Norway. Great for me as I got lots done during those hours. Or perhaps not great as I did not have a cabin to travel to...

Anecdotally having a Friday beer o'clock in the office does not work in Norway. Partly as they frown upon drinking at work... and also there is no-one left in the office.

I can't speak for the parent poster, but I've never worked anywhere in Norway where there are that short Fridays. Sure, you could leave at 15, but then you'd have started at 7.

Really really depends on the company. I've heard the saying from Siemens people (which in Germany are regarded more like public officials, less like employees): "Freitag um eins macht jeder seins". Meaning no serious work is to be done after Fr 1300.

That company is on a different level. They have their own high schools and private education. Many executives are 'bred' in-house so they actually never even experience 'real life', but graduate from a Siemens high school and start climbing the corporate ladder straight after.

Yeah German corporations, especially industrial ones, can be really dark and sect-like from the perspective of an outsider. Education, intership, job, housing, insurances, life partner, retirement - everything. An entire life lived for a brand, brand owning a city and owned by a city. How far would one go to defend it as a part of one's identity?

If we're talking IT, don't you have at least some amount of night owls? In most places I've worked there were people that preferred starting their work around 10h - 12h, so an office would be rarely be completely empty even in the evening.

It's not even really consistent within the US. Offices in (say) San Francisco, New York, and Atlanta will have very often different corporate cultures.

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