Five things I loved about the work culture in the UK
Experience and Life lessons
This is an experience-sharing blog, which made me a better version of myself as well as taught me things that I never thought existed. I am in no way demeaning any culture or country or people, instead, it is my effort to adopt the good from all parts of the world.
Nobody bothers you on your weekends 👾
Being Indian it was pretty natural for us to get office or college calls during weekends. It is very typical behavior to stuff people with extra work/assignments/homework during holidays. Frankly, I thought holidays were just meant for that. I too have taken up leading responsibilities in my college and there were several instances where I waited for the weekend to stuff my club members with a lot of work😓 (sincere apologies to all of you guys). We have grown like that.
One fine day I was working with my project partner and couldn’t figure out a particular point. We worked during office hours and even continued working after coming to our residence (It was not urgent work that was to be submitted the next day or so). It was nearly 9 pm and a weekend. We mailed the Professor regarding the work and he kept replying to a few messages after which he instructed us to take a rest and not work on weekends😩.
We were kind of embarrassed to have bothered him outside office hours but later we learned that you can relax and pursue your hobbies on the weekends and nobody bothers you outside the working hours.
You are just free to study or travel or make good food and even complete assignments if you want to without getting bothered.
This trait is a positive one that I particularly liked, as it forces exploration and creation in an individual in a long run, which I am adopting myself as well.
Internet and Wifi 👨🏻💻
Internet is the cheapest in India. We felt like we are reliving our childhood when we bought 1 GB of internet for a month for a lot of money. We were not comfortable initially when we had to switch off the data on our phone every now and then and send just one-liner SMS to our friends for saving the phone plan till the month’s end.
However, to our surprise, all public places had their own free wifi, which was really fast most of the time. It was particularly useful in the university where we did not think twice before using the data. It was available 24*7 and we were given access as visiting students.
It is not a positive or a negative trait. In our country, we have internet in our way, where no matter whether we are financially wealthy or not most of the people can afford the internet and in the west, it is mostly the wifis at the workplaces which people use. However, as university students, the wifi was really convenient for reading and writing purposes at the university campus.
Email culture — professional touch 📧
Where is Whatsapp???
It emails for all. I have never used my mail so much till then. Even small little messages by the professor were via mail.
Whatsapp groups are very common in my place. Wherever more than two people get together, we form Whatsapp groups. It is that handy for us.
But please do not do the mistake of asking for the WhatsApp number of your professor/supervisor during your first meeting with him (which I saw people in my college doing). It is really rude to ask for some personal social contact directly 🤕.
Email writing is a skill. You need to know to write professional emails and be professional while talking about work. Cute Whatsapp emojis and stickers should not come into this conversation. I still remember when we were sent for this trip, even the administrative communications at our end were done in a phone call with a “Hey it is done.” or “Hey send me all your CVs. Inform all”. We have kind of normalized such conversations, nevertheless, it is surely not the right way to do professional conversations.
Here I would like to point out that people in the west like us to call them by their first name and here in the east we usually refer to the professor as sir/ma’am. It is just a cultural difference so do try to adopt it wherever you are. People in the west do not like to be called sir anyway and vice versa for India. It is in fact rude only if you do not call them the way they like. This even applies to email conversations.
Coming back to the emails, I am so much into mail now that, I may even send grateful messages from time to time to some wonderful people in my life🌸. Be ready!
This can be a good trait that can be adopted by anyone.
Amiable professors— no hierarchical complexities 👭 🧑🤝🧑
In India, we are trapped in the vicious cycle of seniors and juniors. I love the way the Indian culture promotes respecting and bowing in front of the elders. That induces a sense of respect and responsibility and promotes personal growth but only if not overdone.
Any educational institution is a learning hub and knowledge is infinite. I do not know everything, and no one does. This is a realization or understanding which helps a person grow in any institution, specially in an educational institution.
I worked with a senior professor, who was very kind to me every time and we worked as a team. He knows 1000 times more than me, yet listened to all my presentations with utmost curiosity. There were no hierarchical complexities between us, it was an easy discussion for everyone, with a lot of knowledge transfers from both ends. It was like a team project where each one of us gave time and had a mindset to complete the task.
I also felt healthy, compared to my college viva’s where students get panic attacks before their turn in the viva, out of fear. It is never a discussion or a knowledge exchange but an interview each time a teacher and a student meets (typically speaking and not generalizing).
I still remember being laughed off during my college presentation where I used computer science theoretical jargon. In short, most of the time it is a very uncomfortable meeting, where apart from this we are also confused about who is the senior-most professor, who is the junior professor, or who is a guest professor to determine our level of bowing down. Thus it becomes complicated and we lose the beauty of learning in this process. This is a very general observation and not indicative of a particular institution.
It is particularly harmful in educational institutions where collaboration among people is the key to growth. Academia always should promote cooperation and work in teams over competition or exams.
Personal and professional space is respected
This is a very underrated yet important thing in today’s life. As Indians, we are very friendly, we organise several family/friend get together often, and there are some mandatory functions every month. In short, we are very guest-loving people. We just love guests. These habits almost feels like a tradition from very ancient times.
However, in the age of internet and social media the personal space of an individual is interrupted a lot of times. Professional and Personal spaces have a very light boundary most of the time. Social media and very friendly relatives and friends often do not realize that the personal life of an individual is compromised and publicized to a large extent. This eventually affects one’s mental well being and they are not productive in both the spaces.
This boundary was very well maintained between my personal and professional life in the UK. It is considered very rude to meet someone for the first time and ask about their family and relationships. My professor in the UK was only concerned about my subjects and my research. As a student of his he expected me to work dedicatedly during office hours and complete the assignments on time. We used to have occasional light chats but we always had that boundary drawn.
I do believe one can form a very good friendship with his/her supervisor or any professional colleague when working for a long time and it is just a personal choice and not something mandatory.
Back at my place, I was asked if I or my friends had a partner by one of the sponsor-members of this trip right in the first meeting, which I found very amusing and normal at that time, but it was certainly not.
I learnt to respect the personal and professional space of an individual more than ever since then.
Through these experiences, I learned options or way of life which I thought never existed. I take it as a process and a journey of improving and upgrading yourself. I am in no way advocating the traits as right or wrong. It is a personal choice and habit.
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