Work atmosphere

bruceb · Post by **bruceb** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:24 pm

We all discuss a lot about getting a job in the UK but donâ€™t discuss about work atmosphere in the UK. Because to excel you got to be prepared adjust to the English office culture.

So I have created this thread to discuss, tips on communication, building a rapport with office colleagues. If you can share your thoughts will be great!

nm · Post by nm » Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:34 pm

Not finding any difference as of now except missing out the beautiful indian female engineers..

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:44 pm

Farting is important. Prowess here is directly proportional to how ur career will go...

ramesh1 · Post by **ramesh1** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:42 pm

I heard at office in UK people dont gather and go for tea and chit chat for sometime like the things happen at indian IT companies? Also no long hours like 10am to 10pm?

nm · Post by nm » Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:38 am

ramesh1 wrote:I heard at office in UK people dont gather and go for tea and chit chat for sometime like the things happen at indian IT companies? Also no long hours like 10am to 10pm?

Its there when you have couple of indians working..because we do..

for second, you come and 8 am and go 4pm. No overstay required.

ramesh1 · Post by **ramesh1** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:53 am

great..u see why lot of indian IT engineers apply for HSMP. Last week i was working till 12pm in the nite and u wont believe i was even asked to work on sat/sun to complete a task but i denied to work on sat/sun. So how about office politics...in india you have to maintain very cordial relationship with your managers otherwise it would be difficult to survive in the team i believe many people worked in Indian IT compaines are aware of this.

ghulbhai · Post by **ghulbhai** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:37 am

ramesh1

have you finished schooling?

your post sounds so immature.

ramesh1 · Post by **ramesh1** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:11 pm

why do you feel my post is immature?

kenfrapin · Post by **kenfrapin** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:55 pm

Work culture and office ethics overall is good and well practised in the UK in comparison to India.
Professional ethics are quite strong which is why work hours are well maintained. If you dont take multiple tea/coffee breaks and long lunches as is typically the practise in India, then there will never be a need to work more than 8 hrs a day. While a working lunch at your seat is so very common here, a typical lunch break in India lasts 30 mins to an hour!
Indian work culture seems to always push things to the limit and given the fact that there are more Service Providers in the Indian IT market, competition is tough and hence tighter project timelines are enforced making employees work longer hours and on weekends. Last minute changes to project deliverables are happily accepted in many cases because the Indian company does not want to lose future business from the client. Such is the nature of the current global IT industry.

Note that it is not entirely true that people dont work long hours in the UK. Exceptions are always there based on the industry and criticality of the project. Home working also is a boon out here where professionals seriously block out any personal time and only do office work when at home. In India, employers dont believe in home working because it is natural to think that when a person is at home with family, relatives etc time will actually be wasted than spent working.
Working from home is an excuse rather than a true intent to provide good quality in India - thats the mindset and very true is many cases

As mentioned earlier, you can come in to work at 8am and leave at 4pm as long as you put in your hours and do your work. It all depends on how you manage your work. One good thing in the UK is there are no prying eyes trying to see what you do every single minute
Everyone is an adult and should know their responsibilties towards their job and role in the work place. Loitering around and time wasting is for kids and for govt officials

If this is understood by all, then the work culture everywhere can be the same as there is respect for an individual's quality of work.

Some silly talk of cordial relationship and what not is baseless. Anywhere in the world you need to know how to work professionally and maintain proper decorum at work. Work atmosphere can be extremely casual if you are and engineer in Operations or strictly professional when in senior management and is the same everywhere so dont get confused.

Overall, in general, working life and culture is more enjoyable and fruitful in the UK compared to India. Forcing staff to work long hours is not as predominant as in India, that is for sure. Planning project work, ensuring ample time to deliver the goods and using resource effectively is very mature in the UK compared to most IT service providers in India and hence the significant difference in work culture and office times

Cheers
KP

bruceb · Post by **bruceb** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:33 pm

I see office politics everywhere, people bitching around, bringing sweets, farting (like Mr. Wanderer mentioned). It may be completely different to other people but my first impression is bad!. May be the environment I'm in!!

In India you could have afforded to loose some people on your side by telling the truth, but here you can't you may even loose your job.

It's interesting, when you fart people just fall for you! I mean dont one get a clue that other person is farting?

I know if I have made a decision to come here you ought to be one among.

herts · Post by **herts** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:13 pm

ramesh babu, In India there is mummy to cook food and take care of you, so even if you are late no worries, do you wash clothes, ironing, do grocery shopping, cook food.
But in UK you have to do everything on your own, mummy is not here. So here timings are 8am to 4pm and after that you do the maid servant job at home...

Post by **ChetanOjha** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:00 pm

Work environment also depends on with whom you are working. If you are working on a fixed bid project and with Indian company you many not feel 8-4 timings as mentioned above. But if you are working with local client(environment) you will definetly see the difference.

ramesh1 · Post by **ramesh1** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:06 am

herts that's true we need to take care of each and everything in uk i am aware of this as i stayed in US for couple of months i know how i struggled ...infact i learnt cooking only during my stay at US. So yes it is kind of hard.

Chetan this is a new information to me that if we work in an indian company in UK that we cannot assume the timings as 8 to 4. thanks.

Also some of my friends who travelled to UK for KT from my office said that there was complaints of being late it is very normal in india due to mad traffic,strike,water logs and unexpected diversions people usually being late for office so is it mandatory to be very punctual in UK (reach office sharply at 8am?)

gotcha · Post by **gotcha** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:04 am

herts wrote:ramesh babu, In India there is mummy to cook food and take care of you, so even if you are late no worries, do you wash clothes, ironing, do grocery shopping, cook food.
But in UK you have to do everything on your own, mummy is not here. So here timings are 8am to 4pm and after that you do the maid servant job at home...

Herts, why you are scaring other people mate? Subject is about office culture. And your telling about other stuffs. I always wonder, why people, once come here, start to paint negative picture to newcomers.

Ok, about your point.
Most of people are adult, and lived a stage in life away from home(education, jobs etc.), done things you mentioned(ironing,washing,cooking, grocery shopping(:))). Or doing it. Not everybody lives with there mummies. It's part of life.

And if you can do it in India(by any means), there is no problem here,too.

herts · Post by **herts** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:03 pm

gotcha, I am not scaring ramesh, telling him reality..

gotcha · Post by **gotcha** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:24 pm

herts wrote:gotcha, I am not scaring ramesh, telling him reality..

from earlier post,

herts wrote: So here timings are 8am to 4pm and after that you do the maid servant job at home...

Now that's what I called negative picture. You don't have to do washing(using machine),ironing and grocery shopping everyday, Do you ? About cooking, it won't take more than 1 hr for a single, and if you are living with friends, responsibilities are shared , so does with wife.

Once you leave your town/city/village, you will never get home comfort. Even in India. That's reality.

gainvidya · Post by **gainvidya** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:43 pm

I agree with Herts. Although you dont wash cloths on your own etc but there are so many work which we need to do on our own and we dont realise this when we are back home supported by other people of the family

herts · Post by **herts** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:44 pm

gainvidya, you have hit the nail on the head, thats what I meant exactly, there are so many things to do other than office work, and thats why the 8 to 4 timings come handy in uk.
gotcha is also correct in saying once we leave out city in India its not the same as home.

ramesh1 · Post by **ramesh1** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:05 am

hey guys cool down we are matured professionals and can take care of our personal buisiness at home on our own so better we dont want to get diverted from the topic. By reading all the posts here the understanding is that ..office politics exists everywhere from india to UK to US when we work in india for an outsourcing project the dimension of office politics is different and when we r working at UK or US the dimension is different...so i believe let us conclude here as this post gave me the valid inputs as expected. Thanks to all of you guys. I will open up a differnt thread to understand what we do at home after working hours.

ramesh1 · Post by **ramesh1** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:12 am

Recently I spoke to one of my friend settled in UK and it was sat/sun and i was asking if he is not going out during this weekend and he said it is very cold out there and usually i wont go out simply watch TV and stay at home. This guy is from southern india and the assumption is since he is used to hot climate (Usually Southern part of india is very hot) he is bit reluctant to go out. Guys so what's the deal in UK during weekends how do u spend time ....and if you are a family person how r u guys handling things..? can moderators pls move this to general topics pls?

herts · Post by **herts** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 1:51 pm

ramesh, I had a cineworld cinema pass, so would watch rubbish every week, and go to wembley to eat indian food.
How about in India you spend your weekend ?

ashishashah · Post by **ashishashah** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 3:04 pm

Depends on which area of UK u stay in..U can be in London and life can be rocking (movies.Asian food ,clubbing etc
),or if u r in a sleepy village then life can be dull and boring..You can always travel by car ,else u will be stuck..

kenfrapin · Post by **kenfrapin** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:31 pm

Ok then, so what we do on weekends...hmm...
If you cut out obligatory things to do on weekends like back home (India) say have to visit relatives, do some odd jobs for the neighbourhood, take the dog for a walk, chase the repairman to complete their work, run on Saturdays in Govt offices to pay bills or get some work done etc etc, everything here is same as back home...

Do you go to mall and watch movies? You can do that easily here as well
Do you spend time in the market and do shopping?You do the same here
Do you visit friends, party out in Friday/Sat night? You can enjoy that much more here with all night discs/pubs and just an amazin night life...
Do you go out for meals, shopping etc? Again, very easy and diverse here...

So there is practically no difference. If you live in UK, and have a social circle there is hardly ANY difference. You do your own personal work like household chores, take care of any other work like cooking, washing,banking, repairs etc (which all working adults should do themselves and not depend on family), what you do rest of the 2 days off is pretty much the same.

The big difference in the UK is that you will have a lot fewer family functions to attend or people to visit in the UK because your close family and neighbours are not out here but that being said, if you do have friends, you wont find a big difference. The weekends are a great chance to visit a lot of small towns, cities and historic places provided you like travelling...travelling is a lot more easier and fun if you plan well and like to go outdoors...its the best way to spend summers when the sun rises at 4am and sets at 11pm, its simply superb!!!

If none of the above interests you, well then I am pretty sure that whether in UK or India, you will spend the weekend relaxing at home, sleeping late, watching TV, enjoying a few drinks and take away meals and just lazing around....which is very easy to do no matter where you live

Cheers
KP

Post by **PaperPusher** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:25 pm

bruceb wrote:We all discuss a lot about getting a job in the UK but donâ€™t discuss about work atmosphere in the UK. Because to excel you got to be prepared adjust to the English office culture.

So I have created this thread to discuss, tips on communication, building a rapport with office colleagues. If you can share your thoughts will be great!

Bring cakes on your birthday and sweets when you come back from holiday.

And I have my tea strong with milk and one sugar, milk has my name on it in the fridge.

If someone doesn't want to go out now because of the weather, there is at least another 4 months of cold, rain, wind and hopefully snow.

If it does snow and you cannot get in to the office and will work from home, probably not a good idea to put a picture of your lovely snowman on your social networking page.

ashishashah · Post by **ashishashah** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:29 pm

Hmm..Interesting...Its funny what foreign country can do to people..I know a lot of friends who came to Bombay from South...So Bombay was like an alien place..They would work on weekdays and on weekends ,just laze around at home ,or visit office!!!.It was a differnt life ,but they never complained..Same people when they moved to US for short term (and wanted to go "On site" ) didnt like being in alien country..I thought that life was same for them in Bombay or US as they both were new location for them..So kinda funny that even though everyhing seems like same,its not the same...At the same time, i know a lot of ppl. who left good IT jobs and came to UK as a "student" ,just to be in UK and have never looked back..So its all about personal taste and priorities..!!!!!!

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