# Forum About Russia Society  Office Culture in Russia compared with other countries?

## Hanna

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?

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## Lampada

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## CoffeeCup

> *
> UK*: ... Meetings start about 5-10 minutes *late*, after everyone arrived. *
> Sweden*: Super punctual, people arrive to meetings 10 minutes *before* they start.

 How did you keep your mind off exploding while working in UK???

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## maxmixiv

18+  ::  Просрали все полимеры — Lurkmore

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## CoffeeCup

*Russians:* There are two groups in the office who do some work (workers) and who do nothing (loafers). Both have the same salaries. The workers hate the loafers because they think that the loafers got the money they earned. Since the salary is equal workers try to get some other benefits such as coming to work later or going to a swimming pool after a lunch. If the boss lets the workers to get some time benefits then the loafers hates the workers and think that the workers are lickspittles. If the boss doesn't let the time benefits for the workers the workers either find a new job or they just stop doing any work and became the loafers also. 
Every working person in the office thinks that he is the only one who do the useful work and he is the only one who makes the entire company to survive. 
If a vice boss asks a somebody to do something new the somebody will respond that the super boss did not tell him that this is a part of his duties.
If a somebody asks a vice boss to rise his salary the vice boss respond that the somebody should go talk to the super boss himself.

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## fortheether

I've been in IT in the USA since 1984.  Most company's culture are different, maybe some have the stereotype as below but I've never seen it.  It's pretty rare for a person that works for a company to not use all there vacation time.  For people working for themselves is a different story.  There are people who work long hours, for me, I don't get it.  There's one life, this is it.  There are people that work hard and some not so much.  There are butt kissers but most not.  There are overweight people, my experience is a lot in the middle of the country.  As for the people with chalk white teeth and perfectly manicured fingers, maybe they're on TV?   
FYI - it's pretty common now that companies don't have separate sick, personal and vacation time.  They're lumped together, called PTO (Paid Time Off) and used as needed. 
Scott     *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.

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