Five things Americans find weird about the UK workplace

Possibly the most famous scene in the most famous movie of the 90s is when hitman John Travolta is offering cultural commentary to fellow hitman Samuel L Jackson on his recent trip to Europe. Not only are the Dutch drugs laws mind-blowingly lax compared to LA, a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris is called a Royale with cheese. Travolta’s most perspicacious observation is ‘they got the same shit over there as we got here but there it's just a little bit different.’ Then they go and shoot some guys.

I’ve just completed a couple of semesters (that’s a 'term' in UK-English) with American students in London. They were doing a blend of classroom teaching and workplace internships. Most were experiencing the UK, and London, for the first time, and these little differences were often the biggest things they noticed. Not red phone boxes, black cabs or double yellow lines, or even the linguistic differences so memorably explored by Kris Marshall in Love, Actually, but the little things Brits take for granted, and visitors find a little bit weird.

Of course, there are all the obvious ones such as driving on the left, curry as the national dish, three-pin plugs, queuing, plasticky bank notes, the price on a label being the actual price, and an unhealthy obsession with the Monarchy. But there were some interesting observations about cultural differences below the surface of the British workplace.

Here are five things that came up in conversation with the students:

1.??????British people talk about the weather a lot. This is partly a product of the ever-changing weather, meaning there is always something to talk about, but also a default topic for engaging strangers. It’s safe, it’s easy, and there are key phrases that you can always use: I dressed completely wrong for this weather, it so mild for the time of year, they say there’s snow on the way, it’s just too hot for me, and so on. In the USA, apparently the weather is not something to be endlessly dissected.

2.??????Pubs. The students seemed to adopt after-work drinking culture with ease, but one does forget how rigid the unspoken pub rules are – being served in order at the bar, getting a round in, the impossibility of a swift half, opening the crisps or pork scratchings in the middle of the table and sharing, etc. Transgress the rules and face some fierce tutting.

3.??????Informality at work. Having been to the pub the night before, it is acceptable at work to discuss levels of drunkenness, tales of drunkenness involving lost keys and bags, rumours of drunken flings, stories involving kebabs, night buses and clubbing, and calibrations of hangover the morning after. In most American workplaces this would be taboo, and probably trigger some sort of intervention.

4.??????Commutes. Some of the students were doing a typical London commute on the tube of over an hour, when the system was working. Whilst not unheard of in the USA, lengthy commutes would usually involve cars and freeways. The students noted the quiet resignation of British workers to the vagaries of the London transport system, and the expectation that a work day might mean more than two hours on foot, on the tube, on the bus, or a bike. Thank heavens for blended work and TWAT (that’s only working on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).

5.??????Workers’ rights. I’m posting this on a Bank Holiday. That’s just a tiny part of the panoply of UK workers’ rights and conditions that perplex most Americans. Paid holidays, maternity and paternity leave, contracts, and the right to join a trade union – things that British workers may take for granted. They also noted an irreverence towards bosses, wrapped up in the whole minefield of ‘banter’. On reflection, this is probably a product of the boss not being able to fire you on the spot.

And a quarter-pounder with cheese? In London, that's just a quarter-pounder with cheese.

Paul Richards is a freelance writer and trainer.?