What's the business/office culture in Russia like, and what are Russians like to work with?
As a comparison, my subjective views:
Germans: Punctual, well-organised, pedantic. Meetings start on time, somebody takes notes and distributes afterwards. The actions agreed on are implemented and reported back in the next meeting. People have long holidays and there is plenty of politics and bureacracy to get things done. Everyone accepts that some things take 10 times longer then necessary, for completely bureacratic reasons. Very nicely dressed in the office, but not formal.
UK: The boss decides and everybody else follow, everybody tries to impress the boss. Meetings start about 5-10 minutes late, after everyone arrived. Usually there are no meeting notes. People are very friendly on the outside but there is plenty of gossip and backstabbing. 10 minutes lunch: a sandwich at your desk. Semi formal clothing. No jeans or weekend clothes in the office.
Americans: Always in the office, working long hours and almost never on holiday. Better at talking about things than actually doing them. Enthusiastic and friendly but don't seem to work very hard while in the office. Easy to fire people but that doesn't seem to worry anyone. Always joking about people getting the sack. Casual clothing. Lots of people very overweight, lots of people with chalk white teeth and perfectly manicured fingers.
Spaniards: Take lunch for 2-3 hours... but often work until 9 in the evening. Generally friendly but sometimes big drama about something seemingly unimportant. Happy to try new things, not very well organised but somehow the really important things tend to get done anyway. Non-important things don't get done. If you really want something done, talk to a woman in the office, not a man.... Or start screaming and being very angry. People are very nicely dressed in the office, some of the best dressers in Europe.
Sweden: Super punctual, people arrive to meetings 10 minutes before they start. A lot of time is spent reaching consensus before decisions can be made, sometimes wasting time to hear everybody's comments when it's not needed. Nobody pays any attention to the boss. Usually somebody other than the boss is is the one making decisions. At around 4:00 pm, people with small children start leaving to pick them up at the creche. Very informal clothing. Jeans is fine. Nobody works in July and half of August. Almost impossible to sack anyone, so there are some completely useless people around who never do anything, and everyone else knows it.
What about Russia, what is a typical situation?
—Do people respect the boss?
—How much holiday do people have?
—Are Russians well organised in the office, or quite casual... ?
—What is typical for Russian office culture compared with other countries?
I realise that it's different depending on what type of job you have, but if there are any general trends?