Mixing Work and Pleasure is Good for Business in Many Countries
By
William R. Dodson
19
July 2002
I
was disappointed this morning to read in the New York Times (2 May 2002) that
the British are working longer hours than they had been ten years ago. One in
three British men work at least 50 hours each week, while one in ten British
women do the same. What disappoints me here is a clear indicator of the
disappearance of the pub culture that I’ve come to know and love after working
in London. Nothing like it, really, a couple pints of Guinness and a
no-holds-barred chat with chaps from work.
The
New York Times article cited, “The all-work, all-the-time culture that appears
to be taking hold sounded familiar to Simon Rostron, a partner in a public
relations firm whose clients include some of London's large financial
institutions. He said he longs for the days when a three-hour lunch over
multiple bottles of claret was still the norm. ‘Today, people are actually
arranging meetings at 2 p.m.," he added. ‘That is a cause for
indigestion.’” Not that I had that many two-hour long lunches in London; well,
ok, a few.
Of
course, that’s still happily the norm in Mexico. A Chinese employee of an
American multinational once told me, “You don’t want to get too personal with
people you work with daily in the US. On the contrary, work is more than “pure
work” back in my homeland. Work is part of life… no matter how many years spent
in the US, no matter how Americanized you’ve become… your interests outside
work are very different. Thus, work is not that enjoyable if you cannot
socialize with peers. This is not just saying hello, and talking about the
weather in the office.
“…After
working in Mexico for a while, which is a foreign country to me, I felt closer
to the people at work… I think it is because of the people. The General Manager
there will invite you to his personal residence for drinks. You have to say
Mexicans are more openly affectionate.”
A
Turkish colleague explained to me, “In Turkey, you call your co-workers
‘friend’ – arkadaş. In the States, though, there is a distinct
separation between friend and co-worker.” The Jordanian we were with concurred
the case was the same in his homeland. “In Jordan, you actively socialize with
your co-workers, who are also your friends.”
Spain,
France and Italy still maintain a closer integration between work and
socializing than does the Anglo-American approach to productivity. Still, they
prefer not to discuss work-related problems over the meal, since that spoils
the ambiance and the taste of the moment, and is considered lousy for
digestion.
It’s
significant that the developed countries that do take time for a mid-day and/or
early evening repast have productivity levels that are on par with if not
greater than that of America. “In the seven years to 2000, NDP per hour rose by an average of 1.8% in the euro area, but
by only 1.4% in America,” according to the Economist Magazine (8 Nov. 2001). NDP (Net Domestic Product)
is like Gross Domestic Product, except that NDP takes subtracts the greater
capital depreciation of information technology investments.
Managers
who work in countries that more tightly integrate social and professional
aspects of life should take advantage of these periods of grace during which
you can come to better know your counterparts. It’s during these precious
moments that you can expand the base of trust upon which relies so much of the
expediency you require in a foreign country. Further, you may find yourself
with lifelong friends with whom you would not have become acquainted, people
for whom relationship is not an aspect of business, as it is so many times in
America. The same is true of foreign nationals who work in your home office, and
who come from countries in which they are used to “working to live”: take a
little extra time out of the day or at the end of the day to get to know them,
singularly; not in some large group in a bar with blaring 80’s music. You may
be surprised the next day at the loyalty you inspire in people who want to
contribute their entire selves to your group’s success: not just the part of
them that is conscious from 9 to 5.
William R. Dodson is
Managing Director of Silk Road Advisors, L.L.C., a management consultancy
that builds and improves working relationships across cultures. He is the
international business editor of the American Management Association’s (AMA)
MWorld Journal of Management, and writes the weekly column “The Cultured
Business”, found at www.silkrc.com and at
the Global Perspectives section of the AMA’s member website. He can be reached
at sradvisors@gmail.com or +1
(847)722-7817.