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And as an European I feel that American corporate culture bleeds far too far into everyone's personal life. Huh, I had the opposite experience when I worked fo

by quant18 17y ago

And as an European I feel that American corporate culture bleeds far too far into everyone's personal life. Huh, I had the opposite experience when I worked for a small Dutch company. The amount of enforced merry-making (not to mention all the emphasis on consensus-formation) really got on my nerves. Never saw anything like it when I was working for American companies. It did remind me of my brief career in Tokyo --- I'm not the only one to have noticed the superficial similarities between Dutch and Japanese corporate culture [1], though apparently if you dig deeper it's not as similar as it looks. Of course, this may simply be a quirk of the industry I was in at the time (options trading). It may also be a consequence of me rubbing Dutch people the wrong way (when excusing myself from company bowling/drinking/whatever trips or expressing dissenting opinions), while knowing how not to rub American people the wrong way because I'm a lot more familiar with their culture. [1] e.g. Joop Stam has done a lot of research on this: http://www.mb.utwente.nl/oohr/staff/professorate/stam/ http://www.mb.utwente.nl/oohr/staff/professorate/stam/

ytinas 17y ago
You've never worked for an American company that tried to tell you what you could/couldn't do outside of work? Either you've had good luck or I've had bad because every place I worked for tried to impose their rules beyond the office parking lot. Maybe it was due to working in a "right to work" state?
- Vivtek 17y ago
  Yeah, really. Ever had a stern talking to because the political bumper sticker on your car didn't align with the company image? That's uniquely American.
aerique 17y ago
(disclaimer: I'm Dutch) My experience working both for several companies and for myself outsourcing myself to companies is that there's a pretty wide range of corporate cultures here in the Netherlands. Going from the enforced merry-making (which is an awesome description, since it makes me retch!) to much, much more easy going environments.

by quant18 17y ago

ytinas 17y ago

You've never worked for an American company that tried to tell you what you could/couldn't do outside of work? Either you've had good luck or I've had bad because every place I worked for tried to impose their rules beyond the office parking lot. Maybe it was due to working in a "right to work" state?

Vivtek 17y ago
Yeah, really. Ever had a stern talking to because the political bumper sticker on your car didn't align with the company image? That's uniquely American.

aerique 17y ago

(disclaimer: I'm Dutch) My experience working both for several companies and for myself outsourcing myself to companies is that there's a pretty wide range of corporate cultures here in the Netherlands. Going from the enforced merry-making (which is an awesome description, since it makes me retch!) to much, much more easy going environments.