I have been working in the USA for over seven years now. And I can’t help but compare the people and projects to what it was like in Russia. The first and most important thing — nobody ever fights, at least not publicly. That is, 100% of work meetings are conducted in the most gentle and friendly manner.
Yes, the efficiency varies. As it does everywhere. Sometimes people chat for two hours and then disperse, unclear why they gathered in the first place. That happens sometimes. But as for someone saying something unpleasant about someone else publicly — I’ve never encountered it. It happens in “smoking areas,” yes. In meetings – no.
If someone clearly messes up, it is customary to package it in a shit sandwich. That is, start with something good, end with something good, and in between — highlight the problem. Again, ideally one-on-one. Or better yet, make it so that everyone at the meeting understands anyway, and simply “highlight” the topic, which then “magically” elicits a response, public (like a firing) or not (such as being denied a bonus). Maybe. Or maybe not.
I am currently at a client’s office, where I have been working for many years. It is one of the top 3 automakers. For the purpose of project planning, about 100 people flew in from various parts of the country. Managers, developers, analysts. From a variety of cultures. What unites everyone is the project. I’ve been at such planning meetings maybe the fifth or sixth time now.
So, there is friendliness just everywhere. Not just smiles, but genuine joy for each other. It’s a special kind of vibe. And I remember our planning meetings at Svyaznoy, Enter, Mail.Ru. With all due respect to the professionalism of the guys there, friendliness and respect for others often took a back seat (or perhaps even third place) to important work issues. And yes, there they often argued emotionally, and sometimes even yelled at each other.
Emotional escalations are very rare in the USA. Emotions are generally supposed to be hidden — it’s unprofessional. And not just at work. Seeing a couple publicly kissing on the street may take a couple of years of searching in our places. They even don’t walk holding hands 😉 Maybe New York is different. But many places are like this. At work, if you write an email, it just has to be polite. I think I’ve never seen impolite demand letters. I don’t even write “rude form,” because that’s simply unthinkable. Also, generally considered a poor gesture is “raising the temperature,” for instance, through escalation, unless there are really important reasons.
In Russia, it was normal for two quarreling employees to go to a manager, each badmouthing the other, for the boss to decide who was right. In the end, they often ended up arguing with the manager as well.
In the USA, it is preferred to discuss the problem, not the person who created it. This is a very good rule.
A slight digression on a side note: spaces, both office and otherwise, are always well-designed in the USA. There’s simply no important or unimportant. For example, a fire escape will look just as good as a regular one. There might be an unpainted wall, but certainly no rusty pipes. Many offices are extremely comfortable. After the pandemic, not everyone is always at the office, but life is returning there. Parking lots are perfect. For example, in a typical parking lot, you can drive almost any direction where there appears to be an exit — there will definitely be one. And where there doesn’t seem to be one — there won’t. But at the same time, there’s almost always no frills. It was surprising at first, now I’m used to it.
Returning to the projects. Of course, everything is now built on Agile. There are usually no projects with tight deadlines. There’s a direction, and there’s some expectation of progress from month to month. It is anticipated that if progress is within the expected delta, the result will be achieved on time. Some manager of course signs off under this deadline. If something “along the way” happens, and it’s necessary to review the scope, the delta will still be the right size, just maybe slightly off in a direction that was not originally calculated. Well, it happens. Because of this, there’s no need to rush things. And if the manager is a good manager, he will reschedule himself, having gathered arguments and facts.
(Disclaimer: All of the above is just my personal experience working on several major accounts as a solution architect. These international companies, their names and brands are known to anyone, companies are 50-100 years old, with 5-10 billion annual revenue in the USA and employee numbers from 2000 (significantly more globally) to 15000 in the USA (significantly more globally). In startups, things may be different)
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 