Hope you guys liked the video about some of the Workplace Culture Shocks I've experienced at the office in France. If you're working as a foreigner abroad, I'd love to hear some of the things that you surprised when you started working!
Well, I'm actually the kind of person who never takes a cigarette/coffee break and don't like to socialize with other people during lunchtimes... and I'm French ! I've never felt the need to chat with people at work and don't like to force myself to seek it. Guess I'm kind of antiscocial^^
Excellent video. You’ve observed the French working environment with throrough eyes. To complete your overview, I’d add 2 points: - French are risk adverse and always fear changes. Due to this, they are not the best friends of innovation - They have difficulties to question themselves or their performance. Therefore, they often keep moving to the wrong directions and do not make a U-turn before hitting the wall. Best wishes to you 3 for the new year.
Xaxa Lolo Interesting points. The second one I find linked to the management, having a hard time questioning themselves in general. But then again I think it is because they have a bigger sense of social hierarchy in France (I’m comparing to 🇸🇪 ) so the managers are often seen of more like experts which is how they win over their employees. Rather than team players/coaches like in Sweden Obviously this depends on the company and the situation. FYI, talking about the corporate world. But I’ve seen so many younger, and also managers being very good at questioning themselves here in France so still it is also depends on the character.
Do you think France is a developed nation because it is afraid of change ? Look at our history, our technological innovations and all the inventions due to French. Maybe we don't like to take risk just because of a (non calculated) change but that's all.
Xaxa Lolo I thought American government was the only problem in France and USA friendship but I réalise the low level people is also our enemy. There’s a short phrase that explains the status of our friendship : “with USA as ally France doesn’t need enemies” I won’t take time to explain the spirit on innovation we have, what we invited. It would be too long and you couldn’t understand with your binary brain. All I can say is that USA hates when we create something better and it tries to kill by buying companies or influence the deciders to block France new project. One good example is the Rafale. It’s currently the best war plane and USA don’t like that all. Your government obliged all European countries to be equipped with old fashioned, failing F-35 just because your gouvernement is too powerful. In the future, New France army project will no more be a sovereign decision. Thanks fuckin USA ! It’s one example among others. Fuck you.
about the coffee break... I had a German colleague at one of my previous job who thought that us French were slackers due to the numerous and rather long coffee breaks the staff would get. He didn't understand how the company could stay afloat when no one would be at their desk toiling away at their work! And then he noticed something... Those same French (wo)men who had left 10-20 minutes ago to get a cup of coffee and chat at the coffee machine, would come back to their desk, sit down, focus intently on their computer, type down something at blazing speed and solve in a few minutes a problem similar to the ones he had to manage and would take him almost an hour to solve. So he started joining in on these coffee breaks... Only to discover that yes, they ARE somewhat part of work! This is where the French office drone will discuss (among other things) the latest problem he has encountered with his/her colleagues. After a nice amount of relaxing debate on the problem's cause, how to solve it and how much work it deserves, the office drone would merely have to sit at his desk to implement the fix. Be lazy, work smart - do it once but do it well.
I also agree! Even if I am not a smoker I can imagine that the talks around the cigarette works the same way. Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out at my work here in France because I don’t join them :)
@@gabyinparis9695 not as much as the coffee break, but yeah - I don't smoke either, but I would still join my smoking colleagues sometimes. It's just a matter of not being downwind from them.
Completely agree, it is a parallel corporate world where things get sorted out, decisions are taken, contacts are made, in a more relaxed, but definitely efficient way. I am a non smoker but I cannot count how many times I joined the cig pack. In one of my job, I knew that the management was meeting at the coffee machine very early in the morning (like 7:30) and that most of the cross areas decisions were taken. I took the habit to get early to the office at least one or two times a week to "accidently" meet these guys and get my messages heard.
I feel that so much. I used to work in a French company (freelancing now), private sector, and we used to have long useless meetings... I would start falling asleep after the first half an hour and it would be super hard to stay focused til the end. I also experienced the French "you have to get to get to know the person for her to get your requests done" and it used to be a lot of stress for me. And same thing for the sharing aspect... When I started working, I was excited about getting to know new people and after some time realized... It was not really gonna happen. Btw I agree, complaining is 100% part of our culture ;-)
Je suis bien d'accord avec toi ! Je suis un Montrealais d'origine et travaille en France depuis deux ans et elle tout à fait raison. Après, j'ai aussi travaillé à Montréal (avec des francos, des anglos et des allophones), en Beauce québécoise et dans le nord de l'Ontario. Somme toute, les différences régionales en Amérique du Nord me semblent moins importantes qu'avec la France.
I'm a little bit surprised that french people do not usually eat packed lunch, as everything else you said sounds very similar to what happens in Italy, except for packed lunch: in Italy it is pretty common to see people who cooks their lunch for the next day and than take that packed lunch to the office for lunch break. There are even rooms dedicated to people who don't want to go to the cantine. We also have 1 hour to eat and we like eating together. I went to university in Paris and I did not work for a french company, so I've found your video very very interesting :)
Maybe i happened to work in places where packed lunch was less common but even when i had the money for lunch, people tended to go out to eat together or go bring something back to the office and eat in a conference room together!
Companies in France usually have a canteen or are giving you money covering part of your lunch (tickets restaurant)... so there really isn't a need for you to pack a lunch.
Yes this was also something that surprised me when I moved here too. (from Sweden) but then again sometimes they do bring backed lunch. I worked for some time at a startup (pretty international though) and since we didn’t earn that much we used the famous “ticket resto” to shop at the grocery store to get reductions and bring food to work! :)
At work most of people go to the company restaurant or outside restaurant. Some get their lunch pack but eat with colleagues who buy food at store. Very few eat alone at the desk, but still sometimes don't work while eating. I would say most of people take 1h to eat. Some regularly take up to 2h. And some eat in 15 minutes. It is common for managers to take short time to eat and for them to work many extra hours. And it is not exceptional for them to work evenings or weekend.
Mad Jotun sure there may be no need to cook your own lunch, but I think many italians do that because they choose to eat something healthy where you know for sure what there actually is inside the packed lunch. It’s not always the case when you eat at the cantine. However, French people are known for the high quality of cantines food.
I remember Emily in Paris here. Thank youuu. It helped me a lot. I will be working with American people and this video helped me to diffenciate cutures in US.
You missed a big one : the no snitching rule which is enforced in high school and at the office. If you ever report an important mistake by one of your coworkers, you will be labeled a rat and you'll never come back from that. Even managers often cover for their teams. While in the us you're expected to rat people out and no one will blame you for it.
Snitching out is a very USA way of doing things. It comes from the crazy unreasonable competition you people like to be involved in. In other countries, people talk together to resolve the problem caused by the mistake. Snitching out is not gonna help the problem to be solved or the person that made the mistake to grow.
You think no one blames you for ratting? If you trust a known rat, then you deserve what you get. Rats may thrive in a newbie environment but an experienced group will keep setting them up until they hang themselves. It is usually easy because they are so eager to rat.
I think it's partly due to the repulsion inspired by nazi collaborators during the war. In my experience snitching is not that frowned upon in Switzerland for example.
The French do not define themselves through their job. This is very true. We work to live, not the other way around. And yet, we have to feel some gratification about how we work, do things right and be proud of what we do. Feel that it is well done, useful and efficient. This is important to us. Mixing the two ideas might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it is the very core of our culture. One just can't go to work everyday, "do stuff" and leave. It has to make sense, whatever one works in.
My colleagues would say "French people are just not shy to tell when they are not happy with what's happening" which is actually an extension to our debating ability
Gosh I hated so much my English Manager in Paris who organized "brown bag meetings" at lunch time about once a week. We would go to the nearby boulangerie to buy a sandwich and then head to the meeting room for a 30 mins team meeting. I hated that. And in turn, he hated our 1hr30 Friday lunch at the local vietnamese restaurant :-)
De même, je déteste les réunions sandwich ! Quel perte de temps et quel inconfort. Dans ces réunions je ressens comme un dédain de la part des managers ...
I don't drink coffee, or tea or anything much really outside of meals and I never had an issue going to the coffee break with my colleagues just to "hang out" without ingesting anything with them. Heck I don't drink alcohol (weak liver) and I go to the bar or cafe after work with them and just take a soda and never had any issue either. Sure from time to time they tease me a bit but it's not mean or that often really . As soon as they got that I wasn't judging or abstaining because of some prejudice against alcohol but simply couldn't stomach it they just accepted me as I am and didn't care. They would have done the same if I had abstained for religious reasons as long as I didn't preach about it or judge.
I felt like I got teased a lot for never taking anything when I first started working so I just learned to love sparkling water! But that's great if you stuck to what you wanted and your colleagues jumped on board!
I so appreciate your insights and comparisons. I’m only 1/4 French, but I see here I get some of my traits! I love a good discussion just for the sake of it. I worked on corporate America for almost 20 years. I never fit in. I d go into meetings and scratch my head. No discussion or coming together of ideas. It was one person sitting at the head and saying we’re doing this and that. It sounds like a fun and interesting environment. Also interesting about the aloofness of coworkers and not discussing personal stuff. That’s all I remember from my corporate days. So what DO people talk about in their break time at work? Also, didn’t you have a baby? Don’t you get a long maternity leave in France? I haven’t watched you in awhile. Happy new year.
Hi! Glad to see you can see yourself in some of the French traits!! I'd say people talk about culture events, the news, work projects, politics... things we shy away from sometimes in the US 😂 I did just have a baby 6 weeks ago and I'm on my 4 month maternity leave right now! I have a video about the differences in maternity leave coming out next month!!
Thanks for the helpful replies. Yes that does make sense. Haha, Americans taking about the news in the workplace..🥱. More like latest episodes of whatever current tv show is on! Congrats on your new baby. Take a nice rest time and enjoy it. It all goes by so quickly. Savor every moment, even the ones that seem unglamorous-like wearing shirts with baby spit up ! Looking forward to hearing about life with baby in France !
HaHaHa so true many good points, I'm a New Yorker now living in Paris and yes we do Work, hard and the competition can be high. Our coffee breaks and lunches are usually 15 min and 45-1hr respectively but not at all the lengthy ones like in france and no alcohol is offered, it took me a while to get used to the way of life here but I love it, love the debats, long family meals and aperitifs and wine. I like that french people do not randomly just come up and talk to you they keep to themselves unless the cue is long and then they can complain about it lol
My boss is the opposite of almost everything French. The man lives to work running his business. Usually he doesn't have lunch at all or has a bowl of soup at his desk. Even though he is a millionaire, he prefers to clean the bathrooms himself on a Saturday rather than pay a cleaning person. He's got that midwest work ethic on steroids. All of us employees, being Californians, just shake our heads at his rather excessive industriousness. Maybe that is why he is rich and we are not, but his life looks likes misery to me. I take my job seriously, but I prefer to have more balance in my life. I will take that hour lunch and my coffee breaks, and I will still manage to get everything done.
As far as I know, in France, it is (outside of Covid, which has special rules) prohibited to eat in front of your computer at the workplace, for hygiene reasons.
In the Netherlands the lunches are shorter and more simple than in France. Often just a sandwich with cheese. Drinking alcohol during lunch hardly ever happens. Only if some high level executives of different companies want to become acquainted. But even then not drinking wine is accepted.
FYI, there are actually quite a lot of jobs that are 39hours instead of 35 (especially if they're very high or very low in the hierarchy). Granted most 39h jobs aren't in the corporate world.
I worked in France for 4 years and now working in the dutch side of Belgium. Here lunch hour is max 45 mins and I do miss the 1h or 1h30 lunch hours! 😂 also I used to have a 4pm coffee break with my team but here no one stays at the coffee machine for more than 5mins.. so close but yet so different!
Klopt het dat je in Frankrijk een 35 uur werkweek hebt en dat een lunch 1.5 tot 2 uur kan duren? Dat zou betekenen dat je 10 uur per week besteed voor de lunch.
@@gabyinparis9695 As a French expat living in Stockholm, I concur! I would say I tend to prefer the way things are done here in Sweden (except maybe a certain lack of flexibility and a kind of "rules are rules and should be the same for everyone in every situation" attitude that is a bit dumb sometimes).
As a french working on international stuff, I think you can compare french workers to other latinos countries, like spain or italy. But considering we're not 100% latins, we're somehow a not-so-latin version xD
I like how quickly the French are ready to strike at the slightest inconvenience and complain when you ask a bit more effort in times of need. Good luck working in France.
I think the useless meetings part depends more on the company size or sector than on the country. I've seen these Power Points snooze fests all around the world.
Death by Power Point. The worst aspect of them is handing out copies of each power point slide. With six to a side of paper they are difficult to read and with one to a side of paper they take up too much paper.
I live in the usa I've never had a paid vacation or a saterday and a sunday off. And if I did have the weekend off I would have enough money to enjoy it.
the tourism sector would increase very much if americans have more vacations. in the other hand the gdp per capita is higner than in france for several reasons, france has no material raws, we work less but not so much that you can imagine because our productivity is good compared to others with more workdays.
If you don't know them personally, you can't get your work done. That's the definition of corruption as opposed to professionalism. I left France for good, and I don't wish it on my worst enemy
What kind of work ? What kind of task are you trying to get done by your colleagues ? It seems like you are generalizing the whole French based on few experiences. Can you elaborate ?
Do you guys have a lot of parties in France? I live in a small town in northern Europe, and my first year hear I got invited to 7 Christmas parties! But they also have a lot of parties throughout the year on top of it. Most of my jobs in the U.S. had only 1 party for maybe the whole year, or not really any parties at all.
If I may, you make it sound like french people have 25+ days of holidays and 35 hours work week on top of that. Actually, 25 is the minimum, the fact you have 13 days (RTT) is because of the 35 hours week, I assume you're actually working 40 hours and have 13 days to compensate the weekly 5 hours difference. The 13 days extra are a consequence of the 35 hours week, but do not come on top of it.
Hello! You're right that I work currently more than 35 hours and my company compensates me for the extra working hours with extra time off (RTT days.) Where I don't agree with you is that I do know people who work strictly 35 hours in the public sector and have more than 25 days of vacation. That's one of the perks of working for that specific company. So while the minimum is 35 hours a week and 25 vacation days in France, just like in the US, people do have more vacation than that and don't work overtime. I thought I was clear in the video about the minimum requirements but sorry if I wasn't and thanks for the comment!!
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified In public sector, you may have up to 2 extra days if you took more than 1.5 week days off them between November and April, ending up with 27 paids days. You can also ask for extra days, but those days will not be paid. If some sector have a weird schedule (first week at 43 hours and the second one at 27 hours), you may place some days off strategically and have the illusion of having a whole week (8 days off from sunday to sunday) just with 3 days off.
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified thanks for your reply and cool videos. Yes, there are companies were you work exactly 35h and still have more than 25 days as a perk for that company. Damn, I miss my 45 days of holidays...
All people don't have 35h it is die because you work in a big company, most still work 39h and more in restaurant where you can go up to 52h if you have less tha 50 people working in the company, most of restaurents. Also you can see that productivity in France is nearly the same as US so more work in a shorter time.
Hi! Of course everyone doesn't work 35 hours, just like everyone doesn't work 40 hours in the states. However, no matter how many hours you work in France, legally, a full working week is 35 hours. That's just the law and the main point I was trying to make.
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified Well no it is the legal time for company that are more that 50 sallaries. legat time for others are 39H And in restaurants it is both 44H and 52H (less than 50 salaries). There is not one legal time but many. Also there is a status called "Cadres" where you are assigned to work day and not work hours. Then you can work 7H a day or 12H a day, it is still a day and this is absolutly in the law.
Makes me want to work in France. What about hospitals? Certainly, you must move quickly there and stopping for coffee and a cigarette will not work in an operating room. Are there jobs where the pace is quicker and similar to the states? Are there any jobs that are 12 hours?
For hospitals it depends where you're working, if it's emergency departments then you don't have a lot of break and right now it's a real mess everywhere in the country but if you're working in other departments then you do have a coffee break and things like that and you work 12hours for 2 days and have a 3 days break (or 2 times 12h and 1 day 7h and then a 4 days break), it's the norm in service where they don't lack people. Also depending on the day, I know that sometimes you have like 4 patients for 8 people and other days it's like 20 patients so those days are more complicated. But mostly working in a public hospital is exhausting and not really something I would recommend.
I m french , we have 5 weeks vacation, 1 hour lunch , no alcohol at the cafeteria , cigarettes only outside the building , 7 hours official workdays but we can do more if we want . the national average is more than 35 hours per'week for employes. If you have a private job you can do all the hours that you want per'week or if you are a corporate executive you will do much more than 35 hours per'week but you ll earn more money .
I'm a Belgian, which is not very far from France... One of my culture shocks was the moral obligation to greet everyone personally in the office, sometimes up to 12 persons. 'Bonjour, comment ça van? Ca va bien, merci. 12 times every morning. If you don't do that, it looks to them that you are 'froissé' (angry) with them and that a storm will hit them very soon. But, 'bonjour,' is everywhere from the boulangerie to the railway ticket seller...
Pour beaucoup de choses ça concerne des grades et des secteurs de métiers particuliers .... Beaucoup de français ont des contrats de travail avec moins voire pas de congé payé, personne à part ceux hauts dans la hiérarchie ne travaille que 35h, idem pour les longues pauses déj sur lesquels les cadres abusent niveau temps pendant que ceux avec un grade moindre n'ont parfois pas le temps de manger du tout parce qu'ils n'ont pas le temps de prendre leur pause (puisqu'effectivement on n'a pas le droit de manger en bossant). Les droits du travail sont plus avantageux que ceux des US sur beaucoup de points mais là vous faites croire que le cadre en grande entreprise c'est représentatif du travailleur moyen....
Mon dieu! And I find American workplace meetings to be a waste of time and full of bs. I can only imagine a French one. I don’t think I’d be able to keep my mouth shut. I can’t already.
Hi Kate! Really like your channel! You mentioned you have 38 days, is this the 25 plus the RTT days? I'm moving to France in a month with my boyfriend who is homesick and I'm very curious about what working there is like. Thank you!
If i remember , companies in california or usa offer sleeping room or special rooms to relax 1 hour after lunch or all along the day , they are much more relax and performs much more during their work day. In france we have 1 hour lunch to relax , the productivity is important for a company
@@UnintentionallyFrenchified that's the cliche not the reality. Project success usually depends on how often you show up in the coffee corner. Also contrary to the cliche work life balance has a high value in Germany. The only thing where we're not as good as the French with regard to the social system is retirement age.
I was born in France and I am living all my life here, but I did not really work with French people and it is not so bad lol You just miss some detail : they are arrogant and little bit sassy ! And maybe I am but I try hard to change this !
5:00 - I'm not against "positive attitude" (although it's a childish concept)... The problem I can't stand with americans (I work with...), the INJUNCTION to be "fuuuuun", to be "kiddish" (In game industry particularly) which is simply a management way to keep employees dumb, and they TAKE employee like "I want to have a win career".. But NO ! I'm not a TV host... My job is to program, it's not to be "fun" to "sell myself", or the only goal to fulfill a career is not to do your job but become some incompetent manager, a "petit chef de merde" and take the maximum of cash from the flow generated by THOSE WHO WORK... I love american scientists and technicians, I hate the american "win/career" management which is superficial.. I correct you on another point: _ I DO define myself as my JOB... Which means SKILLS and PRODUCING... Savoir faire etc... _ "Americans" (trending of course) define themselves as their TITLE JOB related to income... Nothing to do with your USEFULNESS in the society but more how a good parasite you are pumping the money to yourself... Again I love US and Americans for so many things... But the VALUES of work and exploitation coupled with the "you have to be childish" to be malleable, this I hate. This ruins MILLIONS of lives on earth, this is a plague.
Very interesting but, as many other foreigners that work in France, you tend to think that big companies in Paris are the rule. They are not: most French companies are small or medium and employees do not have all the benefits you mention. But I agree most larger companies are as you describe.
I did work in a very small company (start up) for 2 years and I do agree that benefits like vacation time were absolutely the minimum, but even 5 weeks seems like a lot for me! But the majority of my experience is in very large multinational companies so that's probably showing through in the video!
I have a trouble accepting the fact I should ask politely even when we are in a middle of a rush. I find saying est-ce que tu peux faire ça, s'il te plaît as a waste of time. If I need sometime that will be used for work in a middle of a rush, I don't see why I should say please and thank you.
I'm sorry to tear down the myth of hard working US workers, but I actually experienced the reversed culture shock in US companies: even in small to medium tech companies, in US you leave after your 8 hours on site, while in France in similar companies people would actually work around 10 hours... and in US, working days are not that 'intensive' compared to those in France. I only speak for working places like medium size companies, I've experienced some state companies in the US and there... people just came to work and sit, but extremely few actual work was done... but yes, they were doing the hours...
Always good to hear from people who haven't experienced the same thing! I've heard a lot of people say that the French are way more efficient in their shorter work week than other cultures like Americans.
I'm an Italian that lives in Italy and I must say, we Italians love a good complain and a little bit of an argument. Maybe a little bit less than the French. And we smoke less, I think.
As a french-canadian (from Montréal, Québec Canada) living and working in France , I totally agree with you. I would add that in France, the network is important to gain superficial prestige. Those who gets promotions are not necesserly those with the best results, but those who know how to become little "kings".
It sounds fair. From the opposite point of view, i.e. as a French expat having lived in many countries, I kind of agree with most of that. For the "relationship" point however, I have the feeling that it does depend to some extent on which region of France you're speaking about.
What did you get from the fact that an american was the first man on the moon when on the other side everybody can enjoy french bread? And sorry, the best bread comes from Germany :-)
I think 90-95% of the population would agree that she talks absolutely at a good pace; she shouldn't have to adjust her pace to suit the 5-10% who have ESL. You can play the video slow, like 1.25 - 1.5 times slower speed. (Was that direct? I'm getting Frenchified already!)
@@PriscillaThen I talk a lot of English in Europe. The people in Europe that I meet do not talk this fast. I don't know how you can talk for 90-95% of the population? I try to give a positive feedback. Not all your viewers are native American ! speaking. There is a difference between English and American.
America ranks poorly in almost everything. France is also a pretty wealthy nation. America is a laughing stalk of the world with some pretty fake people.
So how do you explain that the poverty rate is higher in the USA than in France ? It's probably a rich country, but the money is extremely unequality distributed.
@@Draclord35 which country ? Norway has oil ressources, that changes a lot of things. Germany has a high poverty rate. In Sweden and Finland, the social organisation is better (and it's a good thing to me).
