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momopi
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Location: Orange County, California

Post by momopi »

RedDog wrote: Unfortunately, in the US, the focus is not on being "well-rounded", as in Europe, but rather you must be a subject matter expert (SME) in one specific thing to the total exclusion of anything else. It's a myopic approach that drives me insane. I read somewhere recently that in America, if you engage in some activity, it must be for the sole purpose of earning money. If your activity - whatever it may be - does not lead to increased earnings, it is worthless or a waste of time. I'm sorry, but there's more to life than work, and personally, I have about 50 hobbies, some of them sports, some working with my hands, and others are intellectual. None of them are about earning money. They're about enriching my life, my mind, and my soul.
Hi Red Dog,

My last job was with a Fortune 500 company with 12,000+ employees world-wide. I had extensive (almost daily) contacts with coworkers in oversea offices, and was at one point the support person for Asian-Pacific offices. We had offices across Europe as wel.

My personal work experience may differ from yous. From my observation, American workers were expected to be "jack of all trades" beyond their stated SME role. I was the SME for IBM/Tivoli SWD but also had to evaluate laptop hardware, build packages, support in-house developers, manage Altiris RS update project, manage mass software rollout projects, and so on. As SME I was also level 2 support for all Tivoli related tickets from all offices world-wide. Basically, we were like octopus with unpaid overtime.

In comparison, our European coworkers were trained for only one specific task, and he/she is not expected to perform any other task or work overtime. In some EU countries it's illegal to work unpaid overtime, so US-based workers actually had to cover for them off-hours.

I didn't feel that Europeans were "well rounded" at work, they were trained specialists with very rigid and inflexible roles. If I asked someone in EU office to do something beyond his assigned role, he will refuse. On the other hand, they probably have a more rounded lifestyle where they work to live and not live to work.

In meetings, American workers are usually more open and expressive, prone to blabbing non-work related crap while waving their arms around. European coworkers from Geneva office keep their hands and arms in conservative posture and only speak what's necessary. Coworkers from London office... want to eat hot curry and go bar hopping.

We had a pretty young intern from Italy for few months, and she was very, very popular. :D


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Montanaland
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Joined: August 19th, 2009, 3:57 pm
Location: Billings, MT

Holiday?

Post by Montanaland »

Were the european workers under the same vacation schedule as the U.S. -2 weeks? We as american's are bombarded with so much "people magazine" type crap coming out of our t.v.'s that is as become american pastime to talk about what happened on the bachelorette the night before.


Who's the president of Russia again? Isn't Laos in Africa?
momopi
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Joined: August 31st, 2007, 9:44 pm
Location: Orange County, California

Re: Holiday?

Post by momopi »

Montanaland wrote:Were the european workers under the same vacation schedule as the U.S. -2 weeks? We as american's are bombarded with so much "people magazine" type crap coming out of our t.v.'s that is as become american pastime to talk about what happened on the bachelorette the night before.
US employees at the (previous) company starts off with 3 weeks of paid vacation, plus 3 personal days and ?? paid sick days. After 5 years you get +1 week vacation per year. Additional bonuses are given for those who stayed for 10, 15, and 20 years. I was there for ~12 years and had quite a bit of vacation time.

Geneva office employees, I think they were given 4 weeks of paid vacation per year, but they didn't get paid personal days. So for year 1 through year 5 employees, the Swiss coworker received 2 extra days of paid vacation / year over his US counterpart.

For paid holidays, US workers got 8 -- we followed the stock market holiday schedule. Geneva office, I think they have 9 national holidays per year? It's been a while so am not sure.


Most white-collar jobs I've looked at here in CA provide 3 weeks vacation per year for full time employees. I get a little less at my current (new) job because we agreed to 6 hour workdays (I only work 30 hrs/week). It's summer and getting off work at 2:30pm to hit the beach or go fishing is really, really nice.

One thing I noticed is that here in the US, we have company sponsored activities and basically ditch work for the day for company picnic, sports, and "team building" events. At my last job we raced toy cars. At my current job, we're planning our summer picnic and softball game right now. I was dumb enough to volunteer as the chef, so now I have to figure out how to cook rack of lamb in a park. The European offices didn't seem to have these activities, other than annual company dinners. It's possible that I may simply be unaware of their extra activities.


*looks at the clock* hmm 3pm! Time to go! :D
Adama
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Joined: August 23rd, 2009, 2:37 pm

Re: websites

Post by Adama »

Montanaland wrote:The best ME jobs that I have seen on Tefl.com and Daves Esl forum posts are only in the range of $2,700 requiring 1-2 yrs experience.


I have seeing scouring the local ME job websites and have found a few entry level esl positions...but they are far and few between..

http://www.dubaifaqs.com/job-websites-dubai.php

http://www.dubizzle.com
I think they want you to teach English in South America or Asia somewhere before they consider you qualified enough for the ME.

You thought this country was repressed. No booze, no hookers, no porn (you cant even bring your own!).
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Master
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Post by Master »

I'm tired of having to leave the "non-American" side of me out of my public life here.

Judging from this post and your other post. Its clear you have too much pride. It appears you like bruce lee and I dare say Asian Culture. I would work on this.
skeptic
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Joined: July 24th, 2010, 8:57 pm
Location: NYC

Post by skeptic »

Do you think Russia's economy is now thriving? If U.S. ever implodes, so does Russia.
You can run away from America, but you CAN'T run away from yourself.
Montanaland
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Post by Montanaland »

The closer to Asia the better. I really think some of the most explosive growth potential is in Central Asia-Uzbekistan,Krgyztan,Kazakhstan in thier infant stages.

Do you think Russia's economy is now thriving? If U.S. ever implodes, so does Russia

I'm not so sure Russia will implode when America tanks. It will get slow, but resurface to be a world player with its natutral resources second or third to Asia.


It should read >> If U.S. ever implodes, so does Latin America.
skeptic
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Joined: July 24th, 2010, 8:57 pm
Location: NYC

Post by skeptic »

America has resources of its own, although not as much as Russia or Arab countries.
You can run away from America, but you CAN'T run away from yourself.
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