I spent a year working in Melbourne, Australia a decade ago. I loved pretty much everything about the experience, except one thing: the "she'll be right, mate" attitude. I saw a fair bit of complacency. Strange experience.
Being an Australian who worked in America for a bit, I felt like there was a facade of exceptionalism that was in fact just the same "she'll be right" attitude in different words. Everything was always "the best thing ever" or an "awesome job" even when it really wasn't. Different term but same outcome.
It's hard for me to mention concrete examples now (it's been a while), but I felt a general lack of wanting things to be better which felt really weird.
I feel like 80% of what I've done in my work life (still living and working in Australia) has been trying to convince people to care about doing things better!
I feel like may be a bit of a generational thing around here? Seemed to be a lot of older managers and engineers who were very set in their ways, but it does seem a bit less so for younger people. Of course there are exceptions, happily I now finally work with more people who want to improve things and do things really well than I have for years and a couple of them are in that older generation.
Mundane releases and improvements were presented with huge enthusiasm and fanfare.
As an Australian, I struggle at times with Europeans et al who attach so much importance and stress to such insignificant things. Hence, she'll be right mate.
I don't think "she'll be right" is hemmed in in complacency, it's just an acknowledgement that there are more important things to worry about.
Uptight foreigners (usually American or European) are incensed by the attitude.
And to be honest, there are far worse corporate behaviours and attitudes in Australia than "she'll be right"
Doing the bare minimum, with not a lot of TLC.
It makes for excellent work environments if you derive your joy and fulfilment from activities outside of work, but can be immensely frustrating if you want to deliver on quality (or expect quality delivered).
It's also well-known as 差不多 (cha bu duo) in the Chinese-speaking world.
If your bathroom faucet is leaking but it’s a drop an hour, she’ll be right.
If it’s bushfire season and you haven’t prepared for your house getting burned down, but it hasn’t happened in the last five years, she’ll be right.
Cynically, it’s shirking responsibility. Optimistically, it’s playing the odds.
Often used when some issue is raised and no one thinks it's important. "This bridge has cracks in it..." "She'll be right!"
It isn't really an issue in the workplace though, depends on the company but most everywhere I have worked cared very deeply.
- “It’ll be OK, don’t worry about it”, which leads to a more relaxed, less bureaucratic way of life.
- On the other hand, “it’ll do, don’t bother fixing/improving it”, which leads to things like New Zealand’s appalling housing quality.
We were renovating an old 1920s house and wanted to replicate the timber/wood/plaster look on a wall that needed replacing. The timber was cut to a certain profile.
Went to the local builder supplies and asked about getting some timber cut to the profile of my sample. The guy behind the desk says:
"Whaddya wanna do that for? Just chuck a bit of gyppie up mate, she'll be right!"
Translation: Cover the wall with gyprock (sheet rock for Americans). Don't worry about making it look the same.
It's an attitude, an instruction and a lifestyle rolled into one thing. I got the timber cut somewhere else.