'Could we please not have naked developers running around the office BEFORE 10pm?' Welcome back to The eXpat Files, a new Weekend Reg regular in which we chat to an IT professional who's decided to seek his or her fortune in another land, so you can learn how to follow in their footsteps. This week, meet 33 year-old James Hudson who hails from Australia, now lives in Berlin, Germany, and has also spent time …
being a good manager doesn’t mean micromanaging and berating your employees, it means getting out of the way and clearing away all the obstructions and red tape so they can do their job properly.
Definitely this. The manager's job is to make it easy for the team to do the work.
I met some of those German Siemens guys and some told me they wanted Nokia to take over completely as they liked the Nokia culture more. One guy told me that in Siemens you had to approach your boss through his secretary while in Nokia you just knocked on the door or sat down beside him at lunch. One guy told me they had some twenty pages of instructions on how to introduce people and how to say "Hello".
I have worked in IT in Germany without any cultural shocks although I did indeed find it difficult to remember every family name as they are used al the time not to mention the correct title, but I learned to throw in a “Doktor” when in doubt and nothing was lost.
Perhaps some German guy with the inside information could write about it.
... everydamnthing is more expensive in Australia. Citation.
As to why Australians put up with this... well, I put it down to low population density, which makes for a much less organised consumer lobby. But the simpler view, that "the dollar is about 30% overvalued", seems about equally convincing. Take your pick.
I've recently moved from Hong Kong to Germany after 4 years out there.
Contrary to your experience, I find the work/life balance very important here, I get shooed out of the office sometimes. It's a little infuriating when the brown stuff has hit the fan and everyone still trots home leaving it for the morning.
A refreshing change from HK though where the number of hours you spend in the office is a badge of respect. Although I don't think the 'sleeping on/under your desk after lunch' which is the norm in HK would go down so well here.
This was a fine article and very "view from the inside-ish" -- grand stuff for those of us who are ABLE to "cut the ropes" and venture out even if only on a contract basis...in return I would like to offer some info on the ROI... a REALLY pleasant place to work....great people (LOTS of multinationals -- the best haircuts I ever got were from my favourite Albanian barber!).... in general the Irish jokes are based upon factual experience! LOTS of laughs and fun, they are in the Euro-pool and cynically resigned to its effect upon the cost of living -- expect to pay the same rental on a 2-bed apartment as you would for a 4-bed semi with full CH in the north of England (but then again you can say that about the south of England). Be careful on the roads - they have NO CLUE about 'motorway etiquette' and will happily sit in their lane of choice until they want to leave. If you are going to be there any length of time and are likely to Ryanair in and out a bit make sure you try to book early -- Ryanair's prices vary wildly based upon how early you book and the Man Utd/Liverpool fixture list. If you are going to be using the internal motorways (what few there are) it's worth investing in an eflow tag to put behind your rearview mirror....my main usage was the M50 to and from Dublin airport but it simplifies your life immensely wherever you are if you go through tollgates or over tollbridges. And don't go drinking/eating in the Temple Bar area of Dublin unless you are prepared to wake up next day wondering where the hell your Euros went!
There is no gender in the language, no word for "he" or "she", no explicit word to indicate ownership, and everyone is on a first-name basis.
Finnish may not have a specific word to indicate ownership, since it uses suffixes for many grammatical constructions, but possession or ownership is indicates by suffixes. For example, "my cat" would be "kissani", where "kissa" is the noun for cat and the "-ni" suffix indicates first person possessive. You can also say "minun kissani", but in the spoken language the "minun" (my) is redundant and usually only used for emphasis.
Also, the first name thing amongst all but friends and family is a fairly recent thing. Finnish society is very egalitarian, but it fairly formal and a meritocracy. That's traditionally emphasised by people using plural forms and job titles when speaking to people in formal situations.
The lack of gender (in verbs) is correct though. The third person singular and plural of the verb "to be" (olla) is the same for male and female. So "hän on vanha" is "he / she is old".
Yes he/she is hän. Google translate will suggest he but also she. As a programmer I have played with the idea of writing a program that would run through the text trying to find out if it's he or she. You would try to find the name of the person or something about the hän to help you decide, Quite a task for a computer and no problem for a human being if you know Finnish. When the Finnish woman was able beat the he or she out of the language we don't know. There is a certain democracy in "hän" I think. Not surprisingly the Finnish women where the first to grab a complete right to vote according to the Wikipedia:
"Finland was the first country to have universal suffrage. First country to give the right to vote and right to stand for elections to everyone of age regardless of wealth, race or social class."
To understand the Nordic countries you have to understand that they are four season countries and that you had to provide for the winter during the summer or you had severe problems. Compare that to the southern part of Europe. About 200 years ago 1/3 of the Finnish population died due to a long winter and the short summer. Some of the "social" in Nordic countries I think is due to the four seasons.
And no, my American friends, a social cat is not a socialist.
An Arctic country, the Arctic circle cuts through northern Finland, Sweden and Norway. But i still find it a bit difficult to consider Helsinki or Stockholm arctic towns, not that it matters. Helsinki is at 60N like northern Canada.
Light summers and a dark winter are the same round the globe N and S at that latitude.
Nice article.
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Your idea about a program that scans Finnish texts trying to determine the gender of someone reminds me of how the lack of gender in the language was taught to me. My Finnish language tutor made me translate a diary entry written by someone doing their first day of their national service in the army. The writer describes an increasingly difficult day, and I assumed it was a man writing until in the very last sentence the author writes something like "on top of everything else I get my period". So of course it's a woman writing, but my immediate assumption at the beginning is it's a man as the verbs don't distinguish between male and female (women can volunteer to do national service in Finland).
It's something I've heard about higher latitudes (except in Alaska)! Oh, what I would've given for this knowledge in the prime of my youth!
It could be ovulation related; but maybe something as simple as people are out more, mingling with others in a generally cheerful atmosphere with the knowledge that clock is ticking and you need to squeeze in as much fun as you can. Stew the pattern over centuries and it becomes part of the culture (which probably explains the Alaska exception).
Paris, because, you know, the fecundity.
Sorry guys, I'm fairly sure this is about plants: With the short Nordic summers, growth takes off like crazy in early June, and in July everything is green like in a frigging rain forest. This forms a marked contrast with more Southern latitudes, where stuff looks brown from May or so, because it's been growing from March already.
As an Australian, I wished you asked the following to Australian expats:
1. How's the surf? Beach options?
2. Can you still access Australian NRL/AFL/Union/Soccer (choose you code, and I'm ignoring Netball/Basketball/Hockey/Motorsport) at certain pubs?
3. Is there an existing Australian expat community that you can successfully avoid like the plague?
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