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Originally Posted by smartcat If you have worked in Western countries, how is the work culture there?
Everybody comes to office at 9 AM? And leaves by 5 PM? Does everybody put their heads down and work during the office hours? No logging into social media or wasting time web surfing or checking the stock markets? Are there frequent 'meetings' or 'chit chat'? How long is the lunch and coffee break? |
In my experience there is still substantial difference between companies and sectors. But in general the vast majority of people get to work between 08-09 hours and leave again between 16-17.00 hours.
In most jobs there is time to socialise with colleagues, hang around the coffee machine. Most companies tend not to have formal lunch and or coffee breaks. (unless you work in shifts/production where it is just more practical to have fixed breaks).
But it would be rare for people to spend more than 30 minutes on their lunch break anyway.
We do not prescribe what time people should be at the office. We do not keep track either. People need to fit their personal life around their work live and vice versa. If I need to go and see a doctor, I do not take time off, I just go, I am still available on my mobile, except for the 10 minutes in the doctor’s office.
Many people might put in work on their commute to/from work (calls, checking email, reading stuff etc).
I would say, just about everybody checks their social media several times a day, even when at work. Here in the Netherlands there was a court case several years ago. A company fired an employee for using the work laptop to check her Facebook several times a day, during working hours. She won her case. The court ruled that using social media is so much ingrained in our daily routines, employers need to make amends and allow for it.
In practice that means, as long as it does not affect the quality or the quantity of your work you can do more or less anything you like.
There are certain jobs that are extremely pressed for times these days. Teachers, nurses, doctors etc. Not sure how they manage.
I have started getting involved in local politics lately. The one thing that amazes me is the hours people put in. Being a councillor is an unpaid job (only some expenses are re-imbursed) in the Netherlands, it is all done in the evening hours and people will easily put in 20-40 hours a week on top of their day jobs! The whatsapp group of my political party faction is more busy, more messages and more people responding to any topics than any of my work whatsapp groups!
During my years in India I was head of operation, big organisation. I usually left our home in Vasant Vihar around 07.30. That got me in our Gurgaon office around 08.00am. I would stay at the office till 1600, go home and work some more from home. Or I would leave the office around 19.30. Anytime in between did not make sense because of traffic. My mobile is always on 24/7 and as I work for an International company I often need to make calls at odd hours because of time difference. I always had to do some work during the weekend. Checking and answering mail continuous 24/7 anyway.
I also travelled a lot in India. On average 2-3 days a week I was out and about somewhere in India. Which usually meant during the day, meeting with customers and my local teams. In the evenings very often customer entertainment or meeting up with my teams for a drink/dinner.
My current role is very different. In essence I work from home. I still need to make calls all around the world. But nobody determines or checks my schedule. Which gives me a lot of flexibility. I might start at 0600am. Work for a few hours, have breakfast with my wife at 08.30. Maybe go a for a little stroll. Work for a few more hours, go a ride on my bicycle, have dinner and make another few calls late at night. I travel 1-2 weeks per month too. This whole 4 day working week becomes a bit of a strain if not entirely academic, if you need to travel frequently.
These days I try to have all my travel during the week. So I would prefer not to start my travel on Sunday so I can be, wherever I need to be on Monday morning. I will arrive a bit later!
Jeroen