Just wanted to ask any anyone who worked in US and DACH noticed the difference in work attitudes in relation to company culture?
I'm a US/EU citizen who worked the past 10 years in Germany plus Ireland and now working in San Francisco for a dotcom startup. Don't know if it's just pre-IPO fever, or if it's a culture thing with regards to work, but I find my fellow citizens over eager and way enthusiastic about work. Not all, but most.
For example, the companies I worked for in Germany and also Ireland, company events would mostly be around a dinner and fairly modest. Here I notice things being big, obnoxious and really believing the marking hype - "Yeah TEAM!! GO! GO! GO!"
Anyways, just wanted to bring this up and see if I should start calling myself European.
Germany Austria Switzerland aka The German speaking world.
And yes, massive differences in the working culture - I know some will naturally object to the sentiment, but I've yet to have half the productivity expected of me here as in the past.
The main difference between the cultures being discussed here is that the USA is all about selling and generally hype while the DACH region is about delivery on promises with a much higher quality of product then the sales hype approach.
Thanks everyone for filling me in. Poor Liechtenstein. Could me make it DALCH instead.
I would say there is a difference between the world & the US. I don't know of any other country that has these rah, rah team building events that the OP describes.
Does this have something to do with how the business cycle works in the US and EU? I've noticed that in the States, a lot of departmental budgets are set and near the end of a quater comes in the "use or loose" buying spree. In EU I haven't noticed this kind of budget allocations within a company and projects are funded with a more long-term approach.
The acronym DACH - is this widely known and used, or something made up for the purpose of this thread? ..... because I've never encountered it and can only think that it's something dreamt up by those from across the pond.
If D is for Deutschland, and CH for Confoederatio Helvetica, then A for Austria, is incorrect - it should be Ö for Österreich, if each countries' name for itself is used.
This would make the correct acronym DÖCH (not to be confused with DOHC, meaning double overhead cam. ). For keyboards without umlauted letters, then DOECH should be used.
As the acronym is in the thread title, then it should be something that is easily understood by those who read it. Maybe German speaking Nations or Germanic peoples should be used, if this is the meaning intended.
The use of A for Austria comes from the country code used for vehicle identification (those white oval stickers with black letters on them on the back of cars). Under that system, Austria is A, Germany D and Switzerland CH. Dear forgotten Liechtenstein is FL (Fürstentum Liechtenstein, Fürstentum meaning "principality"). To make it into a pronounceable word, I'd go for FLADCH. It is odd that Austria does not use letters related to Österreich in its various designations, but its ISO 2 letter form is AT and 3 letter form is AUT, it's internet domain is .at and the old Austrian Schilling was the ATS.
You do realize that in the last few years Leo has been fired by SAP and HP. That being said, golden parachutes from those two firms would give me several millions of reasons to dance!