Office etiquette differences UK/Germany

Hi. I work for an international company and have been asked to run a workshop for my german colleagues on how they can better work with their english colleagues who they interface with daily and who perceive them to be abrupt and sometimes rude in emails and telecoms. . Does anyone have any ideas which i could include in my presentation material?. Thanks

Do not start your e-mail with "Hello together"

There is no real UK equivalent (unless you lapse into slang)

Oh the irony!

In our company it's the other way round, the UK staff are downright bloody rude to us in Germany!

Make them do role playing games!

Take them all out to the Ofest and get them all fucking drunk together.

Question ... is all of this communication being done in English? b/c if so, the Germans are already shouldering quite a bit. Am wondering how inspired they'll really feel to be nicey-nice in their mails and messages, if they're feeling strained by the language burden.

Yes all the emails are in english as we are interfacing with the uk office in london which makes it impossible to take them out for a drink Eurovol. All the frankfurt team are german but speak good english it is more the fact that they are too the point in emails, don't ASK but DEMAND things and that doesn't go down well.

There's quite a bit of material on business cultural differences available on the internet. You can get lots of ideas by just doing a few google searches.

Cultural Differences: A Brief European Encounter - HR.com
World Business Culture
GERMAN-AMERICAN INTER-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AT THE WORKPLACE: A SURVEY - Norbert Hedderich, University of Rhode Island
Bumps and Jolts on the Cultural Road - How To Germany (you could have them read about German business culture from an English perspective and they'll be susprised at how others view them)

I actually agree that it's often the other way around. In my experience, Anglo-Americans view email like TT postings and/or a telephone conversation ... Germans still generally view email as a business letter (I still have some Frankfurt colleagues who either show up in person and/or telephone after sending an email to tell me they've sent an email ... uhhh, okay, I just read it!)

That said, a big issue is German telephone ettiquette (or lack thereof). Having secretaries place calls old-timey (1920s-1950s-style) "please hold for Herr so-and-so" is viewed as incredibly pompous. Also, the course of a normal american telephone conversation would be "Hello, may I please speak with Herr so-and-so? Speaking. Great, my name is Frau whatever with XYZ company, and I'm calling to see if I can arrange a meeting with you, myself and two colleagues on the 29th of June at 15:00 to discuss your possibly doing business with your firm; if you can arrange a laptop and projector, that's be super. Great, it looks like I'm free at that time, I'll arrange for a conference room for four and look forward to seeing you then. Okay, goodbye."

The german version would be what I describe as "Teutonic 20 Questions': "Mmmmmm ... Schmidt. Hello? Mmmmm Schmidt: I'm calling for Herr Dr. Dr. Pompous, who'd really like to get to know you better. Uhhh ... what firm is he with? He is a Doppledoktor with the Firma Whatever. Okay, but what's the topic? Mmmmmm ... surely you know Herr Dr. Dr. Pompous? No, but I guess I can meet with him anyway ... what dates are you proposing? At your convenience, but then I will have to ask him if it fits into his diary. So it's not really at my convenience then, right? Right. Okay, How about 29th of June at 15:00? I'll have to check. Okay, you do that ... how many people will he bring with him. I have no idea. Will he need any AV equipment? I have no idea. Well, have him call me when he knows what he's doing. At which number can you be reached? Uhhh, other than the one you just dialed? Yes. 69 555-1212. Is that 069 55-51-21-2? Well, all out-of-exchange numbers have a "0" in front of them, so the "0" is understood, right ... plus the human brain groups things into a maximum of seven digits, so I thought you'd get it the first time. 0695 55-12-12? Okay forget it, just have him email me at some[dot]guy[at]some[hyphen]firm[dot]de. Some[punkt]guy, some[minus]firmde. No not "minus" ... and it's "firm[dot]de". Sigh ... forget it. Schoenen tag noch ... tschuss!

N.b. that the british style is also a bit offputting to americans: "Is that so-and-so?" as the first line in the conversation is contraindicated ... but one can get used to it, especially if they say "cheers" at the end, which reminds one of drinking :-) Also, the use of "double-twos" and "treble-fours" as opposed to giving a number as one woul write it down linearly is infuriating.

The other big issue is an overreliance on internal telephone system technology and a pathalogical aversion to voicemail. I often have internal German colleagues who say "I've been trying to reach you for weeks, but no one picks up the phone" Best I can tell, they assume that I use that annoying "feature" of "missed calls" on the phone menu or seeing what names pop up in the little display. Anglo-Americans, long used to telemarketers and unsolicted pitches, assume that most telephone calls are the equivalent of email spam, and let them spill over to voicemail and clear them off later. Also, it's a more mobile society where people are used to picking up voicemails remotely ... where one cannot see these 'missed call lists".

Hope that helps.

Thanks Bipa these are great articles.

We've just been through a company merger and the sister company that merged into ours have that DREADUL habit of walking round the building telling people they have sent them an e mail and calling to re confirm.

I find the UK phone callers to be demanding and arrogant to the point of downriht bloody rudeness!.

If the communication is already in English, the UKers have an advantage that the Germans don't.
The language and UK society is SO full of nuances, it's easy to make mistakes.

And the UK (USA?) tradition of being all first names wih everyone and matey is SO frikkin false.

You'll find it difficult to get the Germans to change. In workplaces, the British are polite and friendly in a kind of superficial way in their general dealings with each other. Germans are downright rude or at best stuffy and formal to most people unless they're friends with them. It's a cultural difference.

Mills, what about a list of rough intensity-equivalents for requests?

Something like

"The company highly values your contribution when you're on top of your game, and I'm concerned about how things have been going lately. Do you have ideas on how we can work together to ensure your continued success"

~=

"Sie stehen ganz knapp davor, gekuendigt zu werden, und die Aussichten auf Ihre Rehabilitation sind so gut wie null."

Agreed ... I've personally circulated the "Bumps and jolts" article at work ... the "frontier vs. walled village culture" observation was bang in line with my experience. We're not in the middle ages anymore, so all this compulsive "I am not armed' handshaking crap has to go as well. The circular steering wheel worked better than whatever tillers and yokes people came up with before ... which is why Mercedes today have circular sterring wheels instead of a tiller.

It's not a question of what is better or worse ... it's what works in a global context. Actually, I have a pet theory that the higher levels of sickness-realted absenteeism in Europe has more to do with all the handshaking and kissing than liberal sick leave rules. I secretly wish for a completley Japanese world of non-contact bowing :-)

I completely agree ... but there's nuance here, too.

"Hello, is this Mr. Lastname?" as a first introductory phone call isn't seen as overly formal, but reeks of pulling a name off of a cold call list. Saying "is this Firstname Lastname?" is pretty neutral. Hearing "Hello Firstname", and you figure you have a tosser on the other end of the line.

Maybe we're just a bit more sophisticated as anglo-americans, but the moment to switch from formal address to first name basis develops as organically as when one feels it's okay to hold hands on a date. Only Germans could complicate this into a ritual where one has to ask formal permission as to whether it's allowed to convert from "Sie" to "Du".

When I learned German, we didn't learn "Du" at all ... and when I learned Spanish we didn't learn the "Vosotros" address either ... speaks volumes on priorities, IMHO.