US work ethics & atmosphere !!

[alienlovechild 75]

These irritates me and conflicts in my mind in respect to what i get in India

It's easier for you to adjust to working in another country than having the country change for you. Not to be rude but that's the way it is.

1) Less patience in understanding foreigners.

Perhaps but the U.S. has far more foreigners than India. Foreigners aren't treated as guests because who knows if you're a guest by the way you look. You could be an American by birth and get insulted if people treat you like you just got off the boat.

2) Personal friendship may develop between colleagues is common but personal relationship between people of different levels is not common. People dnt give out phone numbers easily. My best friend for always in India is my subordinate coworker. Me & my boss has been great friends, even spent night at his house and I got phone numbers of almost all my colleagues on the 2nd day of the office. So i dnt understand the unfriendlyness in corporate & social life here. Even neighbors dnt talk to each other & dnt mingle.

The concept of personal privacy is strong here and I know a lot of foreigners don't understand it. Work is work and people don't want to be bothered by the same people they see at work unless necessary. The home is a place to escape from society not to socialize but some people do want more social interaction.

5) Don't walk/sit with arms around the shoulders, or too close of anybody ..... STRANGE !! why too close shd always mean gay or lesbo ??

Touching other people is a bad idea generally here. They assume you're coming on to them or are being pushy. Arm's length is ok.

7) NO use of internet or chat engine during work hrs ........... I agree to that to a limit but i also agree Indian corporates are good in allowing that as it makes employees free & not in a prison , so long their daily target is met.

I'm using the Internet now at work but our local government has a lot of websites blocked to cut down on people fooling around at work.

[T_and_A 3]

I completely understand your position. I was in the same situation as you are now just a few months ago. FOr goodness sake, if it will help, I will share my experience. I was scared and paranoid that I won't be able to find a good job here in US, considering I just moved here in US and all my work experiences are in the Philippines, may not be India but not far and the recession and everything I hear on the news, even researching on the internet. all the hearsay.... blah blah. I'm also in the IT industry and was really thinking about "what ifs" while i was waiting for my work permit... but guess what? 3-4days after I got my work permit, I got my very first job interview here in US, a week after I got a job offer and accepted it right away. NOw I love my job... I think better than what I did in the Philippines.

don't think of what ifs... but always be prepared. Just go out there and BE CONFIDENT! IF you have the skills and you have the right attitude and you can show it to the world, you won't have any problems getting a job! Sometimes all it takes really is how you handle yourself and the skills too are very important esp here in US. There are lotsa talented people but sometimes what makes/breaks it is the attitude.

SO just to make my point...

- work experience in your country do count, and it shows on the skills that you should show on your resume and just emphasize it when you get the chance for an interview.

- the references, what i did is tracked down people i used to work with before in my country that I know now are living in US and used them and also used my references ( THey prefer managers ) in the Philippines. Of course I've set the expectations to my employer that all my work experience is in the Philippines.

now that I'm working in a corporate office here, I do understand what they say about work ethics here...

There are a few observations I can put in for you too...

- Yes, here work environment is slightly different than what I'm used to in the Philippines. It's true. While in the Philippines, its ok to be "friendly" with your coworkers, sometimes hang out after office hours and no malice whatsoever, I noticed here, it's not. In the Philippines, we always have company outings and team building activities, here not much and not that I know of much. Most encounters with boss and colleagues are really professional-work related and work related and work related-(i hope you understand my point) But it's something you can live by. Just be flexible and understand that though you have your own culture you are accustomed to, you are now in a different country that also has its own culture. And make sure that you know their expectations of you esp your boss and live by their expectations. Sometimes we have our own expectations that may have worked in our own country but will not really work in this country...

I also feel the sentiment about neighbors and everything. While in your own country, you feel like you can go out of your house door and talk to anybody, exchange cel nos, chat and text and make friends and it's ok.. here... not really. You can say hi / hello and that's it mostly here. I just think that people here are more private and privacy is really important!!! and time is really important for them. Like everybody is always in a rush and no time for small talk. That's what I just think of when i'm at work or when I can't meet people much. Sometimes I say I don't have friends here, when i say that I mean friends like what I have in the Philippines. but I just think and tell myself that it will come. You really just have to wait and open up oppurtunities to meeting people.

Once you get a job here, its very easy to make friends, regardless of what country you are from... it really doesn't matter.

Of course, I also felt lucky and grateful... Prayers come in always.

I would also like to share some what ifs... like advises I gave to my friends who are in a different state who are feeling same thing about difficulty looking for a job.

If really there's no chance to get your foot forward in a very good job oppurtunity here in US as a start, you don't have to be really proud and be sorry and close minded and hard on yourself... you can always think of ways to make yourself flexible and just think of broadening your skills by doing things not exactly the same as what you did in your country.... Do not worry about the things you don't have. Just work with what you have. At the end of the day, its all about knowing yourself so you can make yourself happy,make yourself feel good, and work towards it. The rest is mundane!

Thanks all and great response Sandrilla. I think thats the best response i got here......My wife(the USC) started the post and I am so glad to recieve all your participation. Well i understand its not good to be picky at this stage and in a bad economy. Well then I wanted to understand the office atmosphere here. I still didnt get any fair reply on that except that it varies from office to office. Of course there are lots & lots of pros but I will give u some cons that I found about US work culture, while googling . These irritates me and conflicts in my mind in respect to what i get in India :

1) Less patience in understanding foreigners.

2) Personal friendship may develop between colleagues is common but personal relationship between people of different levels is not common. People dnt give out phone numbers easily. My best friend for always in India is my subordinate coworker. Me & my boss has been great friends, even spent night at his house and I got phone numbers of almost all my colleagues on the 2nd day of the office. So i dnt understand the unfriendlyness in corporate & social life here. Even neighbors dnt talk to each other & dnt mingle.

3) International experience are not taken into consideration even if someone has experience in a american company in a foreign land. This is true unless its highly technical job. That means my 5 yrs exp with companies like Dell, IBM, Van Heusen, will be lost.

4) You may find it difficult to discuss everything with an American friend, at least, when you are getting to know each other.

5) Don't walk/sit with arms around the shoulders, or too close of anybody ..... STRANGE !! why too close shd always mean gay or lesbo ??

6) Generally, Americans are very polite, friendly and helpful, but have no patience with interference in their private lives. - HMMMM !! what is interference ??

7) NO use of internet or chat engine during work hrs ........... I agree to that to a limit but i also agree Indian corporates are good in allowing that as it makes employees free & not in a prison , so long their daily target is met.

so right now i am trying to adjust but really freaked out as I dnt know how good i can take these in my heart and how good a job wd i get , sometimes do feel bad about leaving my good job and coming here, but thats immaterial. Didnt want to hurt anyone thru my words here, just an open discussion......... anted to share some feelings to see if anyone else feels like me or am i misunderstanding.

Anyways thanks guys.... however i wd like to hear from some Indians who are working here in some big cities, about their experience. Thanks a lot ...

[trinket 30]

Thanks all and great response Sandrilla. I think thats the best response i got here......My wife(the USC) started the post and I am so glad to recieve all your participation. Well i understand its not good to be picky at this stage and in a bad economy. Well then I wanted to understand the office atmosphere here. I still didnt get any fair reply on that except that it varies from office to office. Of course there are lots & lots of pros but I will give u some cons that I found about US work culture, while googling . These irritates me and conflicts in my mind in respect to what i get in India :

1) Less patience in understanding foreigners.-- Not sure about that, but really everyone is so busy with their job and they want 100% from you, so you can't really complain.

2) Personal friendship may develop between colleagues is common but personal relationship between people of different levels is not common. People dnt give out phone numbers easily. My best friend for always in India is my subordinate coworker. Me & my boss has been great friends, even spent night at his house and I got phone numbers of almost all my colleagues on the 2nd day of the office. So i dnt understand the unfriendlyness in corporate & social life here. Even neighbors dnt talk to each other & dnt mingle. -- I don't have friends as such yet, but my husband's colleagues are really nice, they have given me their wife's phone number and one of the wife's actually sometimes takes me out for shopping as I can't drive yet. I guess its office to office situation, where my husband works (by the way he is white American) everyone is really friendly and they look after each other. One of the fellows from his work spent a couple of nights at our house during this recent power shortage in our city due to ice storm

3) International experience are not taken into consideration even if someone has experience in a american company in a foreign land. This is true unless its highly technical job. That means my 5 yrs exp with companies like Dell, IBM, Van Heusen, will be lost.-- I had an interview today and they did take my job experience back in India into consideration, they do want me to attend their training program, but I might not do this job because of the timing ( 4pm to 1 am), buses don't run at those hours and I can't drive, so it stinks that I can't take that job

4) You may find it difficult to discuss everything with an American friend, at least, when you are getting to know each other. -- Hmmm I don't know why you say that, you have to built in friendship and its not just matter of days that you start sharing your life with someone. May be because I am more of a private person and I don't like sharing too much of life with others, so it doesn't bother me.

5) Don't walk/sit with arms around the shoulders, or too close of anybody ..... STRANGE !! why too close shd always mean gay or lesbo ?? -- well yes that's definitely is a NO-NO and it was a NO-NO even back in India for me.

6) Generally, Americans are very polite, friendly and helpful, but have no patience with interference in their private lives. - HMMMM !! what is interference ??-- Well I respect that fact and you have to make sure you aren't trying to be too nosey with other's personal life. No offence but us Indians have this practice of asking way too many personal questions, -- where are you from, what is your education, are you married, do you have any kids, what does your husband do, how much do you earn.......blah blah. It really is better not to be too personal with your questions. People out here love their space and you should give it to them.

It might make you look clingy if you ask or try to know about their personal life. There is a reason why its called as -- personal or private

7) NO use of internet or chat engine during work hrs ........... I agree to that to a limit but i also agree Indian corporates are good in allowing that as it makes employees free & not in a prison , so long their daily target is met.

so right now i am trying to adjust but really freaked out as I dnt know how good i can take these in my heart and how good a job wd i get , sometimes do feel bad about leaving my good job and coming here, but thats immaterial. Didnt want to hurt anyone thru my words here, just an open discussion......... anted to share some feelings to see if anyone else feels like me or am i misunderstanding.

Anyways thanks guys.... however i wd like to hear from some Indians who are working here in some big cities, about their experience. Thanks a lot ...

Edited February 3, 2009 by trinket

[tom&tata 2]

Thanks all and great response Sandrilla. I think thats the best response i got here......My wife(the USC) started the post and I am so glad to recieve all your participation. Well i understand its not good to be picky at this stage and in a bad economy. Well then I wanted to understand the office atmosphere here. I still didnt get any fair reply on that except that it varies from office to office. Of course there are lots & lots of pros but I will give u some cons that I found about US work culture, while googling . These irritates me and conflicts in my mind in respect to what i get in India :

1) Less patience in understanding foreigners.

Not sure, it really depends on the person. In general, I have never been bothered by it

2) Personal friendship may develop between colleagues is common but personal relationship between people of different levels is not common. People dnt give out phone numbers easily. My best friend for always in India is my subordinate coworker. Me & my boss has been great friends, even spent night at his house and I got phone numbers of almost all my colleagues on the 2nd day of the office. So i dnt understand the unfriendlyness in corporate & social life here. Even neighbors dnt talk to each other & dnt mingle.

It is more individualistic here - but I would suspect it depends on the person. I never spent night at my boss's place before in Indonesia, my husband & I actually had dinner at my boss's place here in US. So, it is totally different.

3) International experience are not taken into consideration even if someone has experience in a american company in a foreign land. This is true unless its highly technical job. That means my 5 yrs exp with companies like Dell, IBM, Van Heusen, will be lost.

Depends on the company. In my case, they take those experience into account

4) You may find it difficult to discuss everything with an American friend, at least, when you are getting to know each other.

I am not sure. There are people in the office where I work where she would tell anybody who would listen about her problems at home. So, it depends on the person.

5) Don't walk/sit with arms around the shoulders, or too close of anybody ..... STRANGE !! why too close shd always mean gay or lesbo ??

Why is it a big deal?

6) Generally, Americans are very polite, friendly and helpful, but have no patience with interference in their private lives. - HMMMM !! what is interference ??

Again, why is it such a big deal? I mean, I never asked people those questions back in Indonesia & why should I start here either.

7) NO use of internet or chat engine during work hrs ........... I agree to that to a limit but i also agree Indian corporates are good in allowing that as it makes employees free & not in a prison , so long their daily target is met.

It depends on some company. If you are on hourly pay, I would assume it matters. But in my case, I don't get paid hourly & I don't have internet blocked except for some sites not appropriate for work.

so right now i am trying to adjust but really freaked out as I dnt know how good i can take these in my heart and how good a job wd i get , sometimes do feel bad about leaving my good job and coming here, but thats immaterial. Didnt want to hurt anyone thru my words here, just an open discussion......... anted to share some feelings to see if anyone else feels like me or am i misunderstanding.

Anyways thanks guys.... however i wd like to hear from some Indians who are working here in some big cities, about their experience. Thanks a lot ...

Good luck. Just don't let somebody else's experience deter you from trying to go out there & get a job & adjust to the way things work in the US.