I was in a meeting with my boss, the country manager. The regional manager, also French, was over the phone, he asked him what he was doing to address some problem. My manager started to reply « je pense que… » (I think that…), his boss cut him abruptly yelling « TU N’ES PAS PAYÉ POUR PENSER!!! » (You are not paid to think!!!). Those 6 words, which obviously had different layers, encapsulate my 25 years experience in French Corporate. Funny enough, when I finished my MBA from a north American university, I received a gift, a book called « Paid to think » 😂😂😂
Thank you so much for making this video!! I moved to Paris for 1 year from Los Angeles and I was so confused in general about how things work. There are so many subtleties that are not discussed or obvious. When I moved I already spoke decent French and had worked for a French boss in L.A. for almost 9 years (fashion). I was surprised that I was so turned upside down with communication styles in Paris. I highly recommend the book "the Culture Map" by Erin Meyer (US communication guru that lives in Paris) as it explains which countries have hierarchies and where each country lands on the communication scale. For example negative feedback is given liberally in France and positive feedback sparingly. In the US negative feedback is given wrapped in a gentle blanket of positivity...for example...'you might want to consider rewriting that report' = rewrite the report. In France they just tell it like it is, which in all honesty saves time and guessing. For me as an American the directness was brutal at times. You definitely need a thicker skin as you mentioned. Again thanks for this video!
Hierarchy... it's painfully true. A lot of people from here in the US particularly complain that a lot of our work is based more on who you know than what you know. France and the French are that to the nTH degree. If you can make a handful of good respected connections in France the world will be your oyster. If you can't connect with people of perceived power... you are going to have a hard time even getting your foot in the door. Some of that comes down to french work laws (look those up), but most comes from needing to understand that the french, while not personal with strangers, do take the thoughts of people they respect with more weight than professional they perceive as a nobody. On being prepared to defend... Too. true. I found that the best work around on that is to have all your data complied with an expanded bibliography that you give out before the presentation. At least with what I work with (Fire Art), you can cut a solid hour of questions by simply having all the information available. When asked, "how do you know that," "where's the proof," "where'd you get those numbers," it makes it a lot easier to just simply respond with a page number and source in your material package. It saves a lot of time and helps not having to repeat yourself or defend your points for an hour when you have hard copies of your research. Totally on speaking french... but I find this is a courtesy you should do when dealing with anyone you are capable of speaking the same language as. You should be trying to speaking the native language of the people/place you are working. Just common sense. Lastly... growing thick skin... I think that tip extends well beyond just working in France/with the french. If you are going to deal with the French people in general, you need to learn to be able to take criticism from complete strangers. (One of the reasons some people see the french as rude is because they're not used to criticism off the bat) It's a cultural thing. It's almost like a programming that the French have to instantly look for the issues and if you ever receive a compliment, screenshot it, take a photo, voice record it, or something because it wont happen a lot especially in relation to work.
About invitation at home, it seems that in some countries, where privacy is not a big thing, you invite people to know them better, whereas in France, home is a part of our private life, so you invite people you are confident with. So if a french invite you at home, it means that you have a good chance to be friend with him.
we have a saying in france you can translate as "we don't live to work, we work to live", for us, work is not the place you take personnal life (it depend, for example I love to put a lot of personnal in the professionnal world) but at work you have "collègues" not friends and it may be dangerous sometimes to think ortherwise. It really takes time to really trust a "collègue" or to become friend
C est la première fois que j entend parler de la France comme ça. J apprend des choses sur mon propre pays et ça m ouvre les yeux sur les pratiques des pays anglo-saxons. Très interessant. Comme quoi nous qui avons toujours l impression d être americanises on a gardé des côtes bien français !
Et nos grosses boites qui ont copié les méthodes de néo-management anglo-saxonnes n'ont hélas pas pris la partie zéro-hiérarchie-symbolique, relations amicales, faible séparation entre travail et vie privée et gardé toutes les règles et la pression de notre société de castes, de classes sociales qui s'entrent-jugent et de la bourgeoisie qui a peur du prolétariat. Nos dirigeants sont devenus de purs gestionnaires injectés directement aux sommets en sortant de leurs écoles de management-gestion et ils répugnent à tous ce qui relève des métiers qu'ils pilotent du haut de leurs grues. Ce ne sont plus des ingénieurs, ce sont des financiers.
Having worked in France (my native country), in the UK, and in Australia where I am now, I can safely say that the French business culture is the number 1 reason why I am very unlikely to go back to France until I retire. I just cannot deal anymore with the presenteeism (which does not equal to more productivity, but to less time with partner / family / friends), the mess, the reunionite aigue, the old-fashioned importance of the hierarchy, the lack of flexibility at work and in the job market in general. I admire you for coming from NZ and being able to adapt to the French business culture, I feel like I wouldn't have the courage or patience to readapt back to it myself. When I was working at your company 10 years ago, I was an apprentice as part of my M2 so I was supposed to do 35 hours a week; when leaving around 6pm on Fridays, the interns would tell me "Oh, you're going away for the weekend?!"; at the cafet in the morning, they would loudly lament they had worked till 2am and order sushi in the night before. Of course, business life in UK / Oz is not perfect... but working again in an office in France? Ne-ver-e-ver. PS: I'm heading to NZ in a few hours for the long Easter weekend, it'll be my first time there, I'm sooo excited!!
Hehe just saw your comment a year after hope it's not late to share some of my opinion. I come from Asia, but got my degree in Canada even though I have never worked there I know pretty much what the work culture is like in the US/CAN since you could sort of equate the work life during school to the work life in corporate environment. I totally feel you and support you for your decision to not coming back here. I am now working in France as a consultant for Airbus. I have been really struggling with how slow/inefficient things/people are. I felt like I had learned so much more and had become a better version of myself when put in an environment such as in the US/CAN/UK/AUS etc. because of the better organized structure, flexible work culture, flat hierarchy, the people with high drive. Luckily I'm surrounded by so many good people and I still find some aspects of work interesting. But definitely in the future I will move out too, so wish me luck! Lol Anyways I wish you all the best in your career abroad!
I understand completely. Présenteisme, lack of trust amongst other patterns makes working in France very consuming. This is the main thing bothering me about living in France. Imagine I'm struggling to find a company that grants one remote day a week😩
For me, it's a miracle that French companies are working deliver outputs, products and services. I work in upstream in a French company in France and everything you said applies in my office as well. It takes 10 meetings to finally reach one single decision, each day I'm wondering who is working in France because everyone losses between 2 to 4 hours per day saying bonjour, doing the kiss, drinking coffee, small chat on the aisle, above all..it's that weird habit of bringing the laptops in the meetings...so everyone writes e-mails or doing other things while you were supposed to reach a consensus....I don't know, I'm coming from Eastern Europe and still, I find it very difficult to adapt to the working environment, I wonder how it's like for the Americans to work in France...
Very good video! I’m from Sweden and it’s such a big difference between working in Sweden and France. It’s like day and night. By the way, your videos are so interesting! Keep up the good work 🙌🌟😊
En fait ce qu'il faut comprendre à propos des réunions dans le monde du travail est qu'elles ne sont pas faites pour prendre des décisions. Comme vous l'avez dit, la France est un pays où la hiérarchie est un concept très important. Les décisions sont toujours prises par elle. les réunions sont faites pour avoir un retour de la part de la base, les objections, de mettre en valeur des points que la hiérarchie n'avait peut-être pas mesuré, voir s'il y a un réel désaccord ou des résistances à prévoir quand la décision sera effective prise. On ne vous demande pas votre avis parce que le chef est le chef, il est indiscutable, omniscient, il est dieu sur terre, mais il veut savoir si ça va chier dans la colle quand sa décision sera effective et éventuellement connaitre votre idée pour qu'elle devienne son idée.
Moi je rejoins sa vision : nos réunions divergent de leur sujet de départ (quand au moins il est défini) , se perdent dans des détails et à la fin, rien n'a été décidé, tous les sujets sont restés en suspend et dans 1 mois on refera une réunion sur la même chose. Une réunion où les actions, les acteurs et les échéances n'ont pas été définis est une réunion qui n'a servi à rien.
Pour avoir travaillé dans les deux cultures, les Anglo-saxon ont plus la maitrise du management & decision making than We French. En France, on aime ps les changements, les nouveauté ...etc et en plus l'échec c'est notre cauchemar. Anglo-saxone don't mind failure, it's even embrassed to do better next time. Oscar wild a dit " perfection is boring, it doesn't leave place for improvement " defines well Anglo-saxone, in my opinion.
Mais comme je l'ai dit, les réunions ne sont pas faites pour prendre des décisions. On tâte le cul des vaches pour être un peu vulgaire, ça sert à prendre le pouls de son équipe, à créer du lien social avec des discussions qui partent dans tous les sens. Il n'est jamais sorti une seule décision ou objectif de ces réunions. En clair, elles n'ont pas du tout le même but que dans le monde anglo-saxon.
C'est ce qu'on appelle la reunionite aigue: beaucoup de reunions, pour pas grand-chose au final. Et si ca sonne comme un nom de maladie, ce n'est pas un hasard ^^
I discovered your video by chance. I am French and a cross-cultural trainer dealing with many, many different nationalities. You two just hit some great key points, and I fully abide by what you said. It both matches my personal experience working in many different organizations and the stories I keep on hearing from my clients. I give you a 20 out of 20 (The grading system in France is out of 20 points) or a 100 out of 100 if you prefer. Thank you for your great and absolutely accurate contribution! Sylvie PS: Receiving not even the slightest negative feedback isn't it great when it comes from a French person?
I'm french and I have never kissed my colleagues at work ! NEVER. Outside of work, with colleagues who were also friends I did kiss them sometimes but never at work. But I always say "bonjour" or "au revoir" at everyone I see at work.
Es Colombiaaano! I recently made a really good friend who's from Colombia so now I get really excited whenever I see Colombians haha :) Even though I'm nowhere near working in a French company, this was super interesting to watch! It's fascinating to hear about the more nuanced parts of cultures - ones that aren't immediately obvious unless you've really experienced it yourself. I can imagine that these tips are gonna be a godsend for new expats out there. Bisous from NZ! ♥
Excellente vidéo, Rosie et Daniel. Il est vrai que chez nous, au travail, on met bien plus l'accent sur les erreurs que sur ce qui a été bien fait (sans doute que bien faire est normal, puisque c'est pour cela que l'on vous paye). Que dire sur cette façon que nous avons toujours à débattre de tout, pour moi c'est quelque chose de naturelle jusqu'au repas de famille. C'est toujours un plaisir de regarder tes vidéos, je te souhaite tout le meilleur. Amicalement.
I may add that the more you aply the french etiquette ( Bonjour, bonne soirée, bon week-end, ça va?, tenir la porte, la pause café, la pause déjeuner,...) the faster you can make friends out of your colleagues. For a foreigner we may seem cold or rude but if you respect those rules you’ll be surprise on how we can be friendly even at work!
La définition: L'étiquette, aussi appelée bienséance, est un ensemble de règles, de normes sociales, appelées « bonnes manières » qui gouvernent le comportement en société. Just the same thing than « how to be polite » 😉
It really depends of where you work, I worked in a huge company ... Disneyland Resort Paris, well you get very close to your colleagues, you ask if they are married, have children, where they from, etc, and you do invite them at home, go to restaurants, bars etc but youll tell me hey it's an American culture and you're right and we were being told that right form the start Now I work for the gov, (Police) and it's the same ....I think it's because of the kind of work we do, we need to know our colleagues and be close to them
I work in a primary school in France as a language assistant and when the kids get asked "how are you?" and they respond with something negative, there's this one teacher who always asks them "pourquoi ?" and gets mad at them if they can't explain/ defend themselves. The challenging, questioning and criticising starts really early. A lot of the teachers also make fun of the kids if they say something stupid or do something a bit different. "Ça se fait pas" is a common phrase!
True, kids will make fun of your accent if it's too French, but they will also make fun of you if you try to sound legit, as they will say that you're showing off. As a result, most kids are ashamed to speak and most of us hate our accents from the start.
Oh, thank you. I do my best. :) I'm a secondary school trainee teacher in the UK and sometimes I wish I had a Scottish accent for behaviour management niéhéhé. A French accent doesn't sound serious enough.
This was actually what happened to me. I started learning English at the age of 3, and then started German at 12, and Italian at 14. I've been mocked for speaking with correct accent and pronunciation for 13 years. Yay!
It really depends on the company and the line of business, everything you said can be true or half can be false. Just to give you some example, I work in a big telecom company and there is process for everything (because it's a big company) I can adapt my schedule pretty much every day, I can ask for a day off just one day before and (next may be IT related) we never use "vous" even when a big big boss comes from Paris, I can go to work wearing flip flops and ask the boss of my manager about his week end if I want ^^
Same, I work as a consultant for Airbus in their digital transformation project and it's pretty laid back. Only some of the stories told in this video here ring true to the Southern part of France.
Je suis russe et j’ai fait mes études à Paris. Je travaille avec les français et je ne peux pas dire que je suis vraiment d’accord avec ces points... partout où j’ai bossé on était très proches, on parlait de tout, on faisait des soirées chez nos collègues... j’ai travaillé également en Russie dans une entreprise américaine et c’est là où j’ai dû avoir des confirmations de tout le monde pour lancer un projet ou bien des milliers de KPIs...
This was really interesting!! Thanks for sharing your experiences :) On the one hand it sounds really nice to greet EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the morning before starting work...like that seems really social and a great was to start the day. But on the other hand if the company is big that could really take a long time!!! Sometimes is it just greeting people within your single department or on your floor if the company is bigger? Thanks again for the video!!
If you work in a big company you don’t have to greet every single person but only your departement! Every company has is own way of thinking but in mine, I shake hand with managers, say hi out loud to most of my colleagues and kiss on both cheeks my closer colleagues (if that make sense).
In my experience, the way for greeting people depends a lot on the company you work for. In some companies (mostly small ones) you have to greet every single person but in other ones it can only be your team or floor. Sometimes you have to kiss (faire la bise) everybody, sometimes it can be a hand shake, or it can only be saying hello frow the hallway. The best to be integrated is to observe the cowerkers habit, as mentionned
yeah It depends, if its a big company its just the people you work with. WHen I went to work in the UK I was shocked by how no one was greeting anyone or very few... it would be suicide in france. Also from a french perspective I thought everyone hated me right from the start. and it's just polite.
Observing rituals; I noticed while working out in outdoor gyms in Paris that new people entering the area go around and shake the hand of every other person working out, first. This happened in soccer fields too.
Very interesting video! I am French myself but I moved to Canada at the end of my studies and I've been working there ever since, so I am actually more familiar with the Canadian work culture, that is very chill, very flexible and with very little hierarchy. I am afraid to move back to France because I am not sure I will be able to readapt to the French work culture (among other things). My question for you is, are you afraid of a reverse culture shock if you ever had to move back to your home countries? Because I know I am :|
François Talbot I had the same experience, it's easier to go back to a chilled culture than a hierarchical one, trust me! For Rosy, it's gonna be easy but for you...not sure. I moved back to France, I couldn't take it, it was extremely hard, you have the feeling of being sh*t constantly, so I decided to work in a multicultural company that embrasse diversity which i can relate to much more. Having said that, you will do just fine I am sure. Just don't be surprise to have a feeling of being a foreigner in your own country, it's normal to have this.
Sadly the work culture In France is very interface based, the form is more important than the content. And you constantly have to advertise your work to survive. Moreover remote work is nonexistent due to the lack of trust. I have worked with Canadians for a few years and yeah French work culture sucks in comparison.
I would like a video where you talk about the coffee/lunch break socializing and building relationships. Like maybe a role play of things you would say or talk about
I would say it's a matter of case. But the most important thing you pointed out is to observe the coworkers habits and more important your N+X habits and of course speaking french as much as possible even if you lack of vocabulary, even if you make mistakes and have "un accent trop mignon"(polite manner to say we - probably not even - barely understand what you say) and this is quite amusing considering how we, froggies, consider ourselves as bad english speakers (well, our "cute accent" isn't helping, especially when you're from the south... the so called singing accent) As we can say, when in France do a the french do so a lot of observation, careful social move at the beginning and adapt.
Yup. And I'm not ashamed by my accent since I consider it as part of my identity and not being that problematic. It's just tough work when I have to speak english after a long pause, passing from engrish to english with "cute accent" quite rapidly. An important point being to work your vocabulary and being cautious with false friend. It's now subject to funny jokes from my english speaker friends and we have good laugh with our own accents (a japanese friend's trials to speak french were priceless). It's funny how bad we judge our english in comparison of other countries, thinking it's worse... After speaking with japanese and some other "english speakers", now I feel no remorse to speak english with my accent, I do my best to and voilà.
You do so much effort to integrate in france and apparently it 's not easy. Being french, i would not like to be a foreigner coming in france . it seems to be hard to integrate in my country !
I find the HUGE cultural differences fascinating between where I live ( midwest US) and descriptions like this video. 10/20 min lunches are ideal , meetings start on time or 3-5 mins late if prior notice, meetings end with take actions assigned and clarity ensured of all tasks, idle chit chat in offices are discouraged, inefficiency is about the worst sin you could commit, there is some hierarchy but its limited etc etc
I am french myself and working in Paris as well and would say that for me the video is only 50% accurate. We always speak about personal stuffs with colleagues, even when we just start in the company, we do not kiss everyone when we arrive ( we just say bonjour, comment vas tu?) and we invite people very easily at our home (maybe not in the tiniest apartment). And we say "Tu" to all of our superiors. I think you may be working with a very particular kind of French people who are not particularly representative of the French culture on the work place...
You're in Paris. Inviting people at home is a little difficult, as in other big cities (NY / London ...) when people can live very far from each other or live in tiny places.But you can definitely make friends, and go out with colleagues in bars or restaurants for exemple. Or you could be invited to a wedding by your closests colleagues (not evening but afternoon invitation)Then it depends a lot of course : what company are you working in / how old are your co-workers / are they from paris or not ?Generally, in Paris, a loooot of foreigners are working, from other countries, or from other cities. If they have no or few friends, they will be more eager to make new friends on the workplace.As you said, the key is : have coffee / lunch with them, that's the place to talk personal. Great ice breakers are culture topics : movies / tv shows / books / video games. so that you can meet people with shared interest and then have extra work activities.
hello ! (nothing to do with the workplace tips but) you should buy a microphone and put it above your camera ! it will completely improve the sound of your videos! sometimes it's hard to hear you ;) apart from that ... interesting video!
Merci pour vos astuces, Il y'a certaines choses que je comprend mieux désormais parce que même en tant que français il m'arrive souvent de me sentir en décalage par rapport à mes compatriotes.
First things first, Daniel has a beautiful smile. It was a pleasure to watch this video for that as well. One thing I can stand is when colleagues are not cooperative. If I phone/talk to you and ask (politely, of course) something which is within your duties, I expect you to help me even if I'm not a friend of yours. This need to court someone to have them do their job is maddening.
I used to be a bit offended when I saw foreigners talk about the stereotype of French people being reluctant to do their job, and then I traveled and I also went studying and working abroad. I was so shocked when I saw how supportive staff members in my English uni were. They were so helpful and kind, always ready to help. Same thing in pretty much all the countries that I visited. ^^ I feel so sorry for foreigners who have to deal with French administration, especially if they come from a helpful and sunny society.
The last point seems quite normal ! And I assume (and hope) it's the same in every country. If you come to a country, you have to fit in and not the other way around. And the first step to do that, in order to be accepted and integrated is the language ;)
I don't know if it is in your line of work, in Paris or in big company but working in a little company in Brittany it is nit the same at all about relationship with collegs. They are like my friends we talk about everything and we frequently invite each other at out home ;)
Well, it depends mainly on the company size and when you work in a company with 94 other peoples, they behave differently from a 8 ppl "family like" company. Having worked on both I can say it's far more impersonnal and protocolary on the first one. Plus the location and the boss habits have to be taking in account. You can have a 30 ppl company with everyone being other's buddy and spending some WE on BBQ and 7 ppl company where you barely know more than coworker's names.
Pour une fois je trouve que le propos est intéressant mais pourrait être nuancé. Je ne reconnais pas vraiment mon cadre de travail et pourtant j'ai travaillé dans des structures de 3 à 3000 personnes. Ça doit être spécifique a un certain domaine mais ça m'a carrément angoissé pour vous (réunions, horaires, compétences, valorisation...)!
Hi! To explain the kind of feedback french manager can give and why you need to defend yourself, the point is not to down you or anything (most of the time, it can happen ), the point is for you to show him you know what you do and why you do it this way. You may be used to a certain method, you may want to try something because it seem to make more sense another way, you thought about pro and cons etc etc. You don't have to be sure, it just need to make sense. Then you can talk about it or ask him to explain why he told you this or that. Because EVERYTHING is complicated in france, they need to know if they can trust your judgment, if you can stand up for yourself or if you blindly do things without thinking. And remember, a "pas mal" (not bad in english) is already good or really good!
I remember a time when I was a student & my boss let me finish early one day & asking to be careful on the way home & not have any accident. I don't live in France anymore but I'm sure it remains same up to know. By the way, living in UK for a very long time, having amazing colleague friends but you don't get invited home either out here ;).
Hello rosie.that whould be interesting to interview a french expat on this topic.histoire de comparer les experiences Ps:great video as usual very interesting👍👍👍
This was definitely one of your best and most interesting videos, although the tips are variable depending on each company.My own "different" experience is that with enough seniority you can get away with just about anything -- neither of you have yet reached that stage, but with a little luck you will. Even though in my career I never rose above "senior" something-or-other and was therefore under "supervisor" and "manager" (not to mention "general manager"), I was the expert in my field and was consulted by my superiors on what they should do in certain situations. They would even ask for MY authorisation in certain matters. On my own level, I was able to break as many rules as I wanted in terms of procedures because nobody would question what I did. To be a little more specific, I was (among other things) in charge of refunds and I refunded anybody I felt like refunding, even when they didn't qualify as per company rules. If I decided to make a refund, it was the law. Yes, I think I was a bit luckier than a lot of people...One other remark that I will make is about social interactivity with colleagues. For the first 3 years, this just didn't happen. For the next 5 years, we all had more or less a frenzy of social interactivity -- not just invitations to dinners and parties but even going to clubs together -- and once we had finished with that, we really didn't want to see each other anymore out of the workplace. Nevertheless, most of us remained work friends -- we had just turned the page as we got older and had more of a personal family life.I would like to see a more abstract video some day about "life in Paris" without all of the commentary. I will dare to give you the link about the one I did for last year in Paris as I saw it: ua-cam.com/video/BlbeFGVfSzg/v-deo.html
Been here 5 years... Simple rule: be super extra polite. The French are just like everyone else, but they have a strong exterior facade at the beginning,... It breaks easily over time and you become really good friends.. But start off super polite
Super vidéo Rosy ! Comme d'habitude ! 😀 au fait, j'ai un nouvel ordi donc je devrais pouvoir t'aider de temps en temps pour les traductions... a+ bizzz
Nice video, but I'm not sure it is entirely true. It might be the thing with most of the big companies, and it is probably true if you work in offices. But things can get very different if you are doing a more manual work, if the company is smaller, or depending on the company culture and history (in workshops for example - okay, I'm not sure that foreigners expat move here to work in workshops, but still, they can be in contact with workers so ... - , Syndical French history made it's way, and your coworkers can easily become your best friends). A friend of mine, for example, is engineer in a big shoesmaking company, and despite the fact that it is a very big one, producing a lot of stuff, he found himself in a service where everything is like family, and his colleagues are his best friend when it comes to find an appartment, or dealing with small life issues. On an other hand, my brother is chef in a small restaurant, and he goes out nearly once a week with his colleague to drink a beer and spend some time with them in order to know each others, just because they are in the same boat, facing the same difficulties (you know ... That "brother-in-arms" thing ...) French professional life is not always so cold. BUT it his true that accessing to that level of friendship and support will not come easily, and if you expect the classic French people to just be warm and nice with you immediately, you might be very disappointed. They don't do that, and they won't make any effort to integrate you to the team, or the minimal effort. You must change yourself to adap, but it won't go in the other way. In fact, if you try to bring to many changes with you, you might even do a nice social suicide. Be patient, it will come later. However, i agree with nearly everything else you said ;).
I quite agree with what you say. The corporate culture is very variable from one sector of activity to another and also according to the size of the company. The kiss is not systematic. It is mainly practiced towards close colleagues. And especially for the relations man-woman or woman-woman. The handshake mainly for man-man relationships. When I arrive last at a meeting :-( I do not hesitate to say hello everybody !
how did you get by when you were not speaking french very well? As someone who works primarily in english, are you still expected to participate in meetings that are in french?
It's always interesting to learn these tips from you ❤ I'm french but kinda socially awkward and I only know how my parents' jobs work (but they're both teachers of sort so it's different from most jobs I guess)
Wow This helps me understand my own culture. Thank you. I've seen so many blurry guidelines and contradicting protocols that everyone else seems to be fine with and I agree about having to harden up regarding criticism and what seems like very black and white perceptionseither you are doing your job (perefectly) and it is normal or you're just not (doing your job). Encouragements are not part of the deal, and the idiom "Si vous n'êtes pas content, la porte est là" seem to be the underlaying moto in many places. As in people are geniuenly going to think why are you there if you have an issue with this or that vs accepting to consider comment/input at times. You would just stay somewhere if it benefits you and leave/ go elsewhere if it no longer does. Don't expect anyone to ask you why/ try and hold you back in most places. (Not talking about the actual corporate world but a specific field from experience. Also agree with other comments that it does remind me how much more positive and efficiency-focused, among other things, english-speaking cultures are in comparison. (Sorry if I go on and on but I went to Canada for a semester in high-school and I was very surprised with how open teachers were and actually building relationships with students, taking the time to (roughly) follow up on them and their families and how much lighter/ more balanced the schedules were. It makes me realize there must be thinking school has to be extra difficult/ exhausting or even traumatic to be recognized as succesful. Yes, it's like people will judge your education/ professional level by how much you've suffered. Also agree that there are a LOT more boundaries.
C'est drôle parce qu'en tant que française, je ne me rendais pas compte de tout ça^^ Quand on le dit, oui, c'est vrai mais je n'y faisait pas attention, c'est juste "normal" ou "habituel". En fait, on a beauuuuucoup de codes^^ (moi qui trouvait qu'au Japon, il y avait énormément de codes^^ je ne réalisais pas qu'il y en avait autant en France). Le rituel des salutation le matin sont vraiment différents d'une entreprise à l'autre et d'un milieu à l'autre. Je me souviens que quand je travaillait en cabinet comptable, on disait bonjour à très peu de personnes alors qu'en entreprise du bâtiment, la poignée de main à TOUT le monde était super importante (sinon les gens ne se sentaient pas considérés et vexés). J'ai l'impression que ça peut être très difficile pour les étrangers de s'intégrer parce qu'on est très attachés à nos habitudes et quand quelqu'un ne veut pas rentrer dedans, ne fait pas assez d'effort, il est tout simplement ignoré^^ Ne pas parler français en France, c'est sacrilège^^ On est très attachés à notre langue et l'ignorer, c'est ignorer notre culture, ce qui fait de nous ce qu'on est.
LoOorraine c'est pas forcément sacrilège mais c'est pas possible de se faire bcp d'ami français, au final tu ne connaitra que des personnes parlant la meme langue que toi donc c'est dommage.
Bear in mind that in France you are insured on your way to work ( back & forth ) and AT work BY the company itself. If anything happens to you during the supppse working hours & your not at work, it's huge deal to who should pay for you while off sick for instance & company can get in a LOTS of trouble if they can't justify why the staff member was away while supposed to be at work...working hours flexibility is more restricted mainly to this structure & restriction.
Hey guys! i originally from Normandy. if you never visited Normandy and Brittany then you should. My brother own some "Gite" close to Mont Saint michel. I think the challenging stuff is very true since French people don't like BS. in USA I am always amazed how they can BS. As a french I can tell in few second if someone is a BSer in a meeting... Many time someone will answer a question with BS instead to say I don't know.. This is cultural they are taught at a very young age not to show failures...I still don't get it, either they know it is BS and they don't care of it is a game of BSing. Very strange because it can lead to a dramatic results
Thank you for your enlightening video. Does Daniel also work in human resources? Did he also study in France? I would be interested in watching his videos too if he has a UA-cam channel. Regards from Vancouver Island!
Hi Rosie I just wanted to say thank you for giving me all the tips I should know about living in France and working in France as I where I am from I don't act like everybody else I think I think different done everybody but I live and I have a question for you if I lived in France is there some people can help me because I'm in the wheelchair
J'arriverai pas à l'exprimer aussi bien en Anglais mais j'ai l'impression que votre point de vue est très biaisé et s'adresse surtout au travail dans de grandes entreprises à Paris, dans des bureaux. Ce sont des généralités mais j'ai l'impression que hors de Paris et dans de plus petites boites tout est beaucoup plus chill et moins formel. Tout dépends de la culture de l'entreprise et du poste j'imagine. Mais votre vidéo résume quand même bien la chose et laisse percevoir l'esprit français en entreprise dans sa globalité.
Clairement ça dépend de la boite ... Je boss dans une société de plus de 1000 employés et pourtant c'est vachement cool ! De nombreux collègues sont des amis et c'est assez fréquent de se voir en dehors du boulot et même d'être invité chez les uns ou les autres. Faudrait voire à pas trop généraliser =). Ça doit surement dépendre des domaines aussi, mais dans le high tech en tout cas, on est vachement plus détendu j'ai l'impression !!!
Je suis d'accord. C'est particulièrement vrai dans les métiers "sociaux" ou médicaux, où les équipes sont en général plus soudées et plus proches que dans des métiers de vente...
Oui la plupart des points ne sont pas vraiment valables, ou beaucoup moins marqués, dans le milieu des starts-up dans lequel je bosse effectivement. Sauf les rituels par ex qui sont meme encore plus puissants. Mais je reconnais bien là le fonctionnement dans la plupart des grands groupes "traditionnels" français en revanche, quel que soit le secteur.
Enfait il y a du vrai dans cette vidéo mais après c'est dur de faire une généralité car chaque entreprise peut tellement être différente même quand il s'agit du même secteur, la ou je la rejoint c'est au niveau des convention social elle peuvent être tellement dur a cerner pour des étranger car par exemple il dit il faut regarder comment il se dit boujour mais moi dans l'entreprise où je suis il y des personne a qui je vais faire la bise, d'autre a qui je vais serrer la main ça dépend du statut de la personne et du lien que tu a avec, pareil pour le vouvoiement ça dépend a qui je m'adresse.
Bonjour, j'aie bien ta chaîne et j'espère que vous ferez bientôt d'autres vidéos en français (pas grave s'il y a des fautes, on comprenait bien les deux précédentes).
Hi Rosie, as usual great video! The myth about the " you cannot get 20/20" is overly exagerated though. First of all, before going to lycée, it is not very hard to get 20/20, teachers wants to reward good student. In lycée, if you get every right answer in a test about a scientific subject (maths, physics, biologie or whatever) you will get a 20/20. In maths and physics I had means above 19.5 during my 3 lycée years so having 20/20 is far from impossible. As for less scientific subjects we have a phrase "19 pour le prof, 20 pour dieu", but even that is unaccurate. It mainly depends on the teacher, some will give 20/20 when they think the student deserves it, some will never give that grade. Even in Classe Préparatoires, where it is said tests are impossibly long and hard (wich is a very accurate depiction of those tests) a common method for giving grades is to put the best grade as a 20/20 and then adjust the other grades accordingly (most people still get 5 because the guy with 20/20 is just not human). I am currently in engineering school and since most subjects are scientific, 20/20 are actually very common.
Love your workplace videos! I have previously worked in the French part of Switzerland and I wonder if it's the same there? I wouldn't be able to tell cause I worked for an international organisation with more of an anglo-culture
You are so tolerating towards french, some french aren't so tolerating towards other french... Keep your own spirit and be honest to french poeple if something bothers you and make them see your perception of it and how you feel it doesn't always have to be there way, nothing would evolve otherwise. I remember saying to my general director once "confrontation makes things evolve" and i was blown away when he replied "No it doesnt. Confrontation creates problem and bad work environment" or something like that. Not every french likes confrontation some are just really hypocrite and worries a lot about their image, but i was working in a very hypocrite industry. Im french/maori i grew up on the french riviera its a very different mentality there. No matter what my superior may think i still spoke with honesty and he knew i was right but i hadn't earned the right to be right yet. I was only new in the company... sometimes french mindsets are just wrong and based on fear and ego, just close minded really. I love the french because i can see them for who they are and im not afraid of pointing out the bad traits while still loving and understanding them. They need to hear it sometimes. Love your vids btw xx
Yep, got them on my watch later playlist. Thought to ask, however, as everyone has a different experience. Thank you for responding! Looking forward to future videos of yours :)
Great video, as always! 👍🏻 On a separate note, what video editing software do you use? Your videos are always immaculate, and you make it look so easy 😊
Not Even French superstar, thank you! And yes I’m well, been recovering from the flu, but hoping to get back to reality soon, lol. Hope you’re well too! ☺️
Hi Rosie. I am new to your channel however I have watched mostly your channel in last 2 days. General info before I get to the question I am an Indian worked with French over phone and definitely experienced what you are talking about. 2 things I am interested to know about: How they treat Brown people in office? If you are on tight timeline (being a cross geography project) how do you manage to get things done? Thanks a ton
Hi I'm not Rosie but I think I could share with you some of my exp. I'm not Indian btw but I'm working at Airbus where there are a lot of Indians and some of my colleagues whom I consider my friends are also Indians. What one of my Indian friends told me is that some French people do treat brown people as a lesser being. This is even more true when you are still working in India and having to collaborate with them remotely. Once you've moved to France though like how my friend moved from Airbus India to Airbus France, things started to get better. Since French people care so much about hierarchy and labels, an Indian person has to move to France and posses a work title equivalent to those that French people have, only then they start to treat that Indian better. Another thing about managing things with tight deadlines with French people remotely. The answer is No, forget about it cos you will never succeed doing that. Even at a big multinational company like Airbus, people still don't manage to get things done on time. Hope this helps more or less.
Merci pour cette vidéo, je trouve tes remarques très justes. Je suis d'origines étrangères et je vis depuis plus de 10 ans à Paris. J'ai toujours trouvé l'environnement professionnel français extrêmement toxique, notamment du point de vue social. C'est d'ailleurs en partie pour cela que je vais bientôt quitter la France.
what did you guys mean by invest time in colleagues? How do you get to know them in break times if you cannot go up to them say "hi" or "how was your weekend"?
Guess you work in an open space with various teams not necessarily doing the same job. You won’t need to socialize with all the floor but only the one who are your direct colleagues. That said, be quite, learn your tasks, and take time to know your colleagues slowly, so that they can also get to know you slowly
Not Even French Have since spent an hour watching all your videos...!! Really reassuring to know I'm on the right track to surviving 5 years :) All the weird little cultural/linguistic things that seem odd and incomprehensible - good to know I'm not alone !
Hello Rosie ans Daniel ! This video is kind of a revelation for me : I'm french, but i had a lot of this problems with my coworkers, and i thought it was my fault :-o but it seems now that it's a cultural thing ! I come to think, seeing all your videos, that i may be happier somewhere else :/ Sorry about the french behaviour for being such a bread in the a** ;)
While not disagreeing with the observations- inefficient meetings are not only the bane of French companies. I worked for nearly ten years for an American company and 80% of the meetings were, IMO, inefficient and more of political theatre (rife with culture-specific small talk, no agenda/unstructured, non-value-adding participants not excluded, no follow-through or connectivity across meetings, and sometimes brown-nosing ridden). I also admire the French system of bifurcating the personal and professional (keeps off nosy snooping and superficial relationships).
As a French woman I can’t agree on what you both say about the grading system. I often had 20/20 when I was a student, we know that if we give the best of ourselves we can have such good notes. After that, it takes a lot of work. Excellent video despite this little "disagreement" 😉
You can get 20/20 in scientific studies and on subjects that require a clear and defined answer. To get a 20 in philosophy or literature is nearly impossible. And at uni, it becomes even harder.
Raphanne you’re right In math it’s possible, in history too. And at the university it’s more or less impossible. But in « collège - lycée » it’s really possible.
Getting 20/20 is definitely possible (and definitely not an exception ;) ), but we have to compare it to the A to F system. While getting a 14/20 on average could be considered good (and excellent in higher education), getting a C or even a B would be considered disappointing. When I was in prep school I was happy with a 9 or 10/20, can you see this happening outside of France? I mean, on a strictly objective scale, it's not that good, but in prep school, you can be top-third with these grades. Apart from this, I do think the philosophy behind our grading system is quite accurate in the video, and is certainely not made to give us 20/20 all the time. In fact, our system's so different that when applying for schools abroad it can be troublesome for us if we do the conversion to letters.
Yeah in France when there is too much positivity or someone compliment you a lot you have the impression they are dishonest. We are not necessarily the more direct in a lot of situation but people prefer being criticized and having the negative feedback from the start then false compliment or promises. Of course that depends on the people... but I hear a lot of french people working with American companies that complain about them not being completely honest from the start of their opinion on the project.
Your both a very nice couple and like to get to know both of you, i'll be coming into Zurich in Nov sometime so we stay in touch and we'll get together when i get settle in thank you for upload
What would be fun.. would be to have French employees in US companies there have to do business like Americans do, ie, pretty much the oppose of everything you've said EXCEPT speaking up in meetings... (and knowing the subject well enough to answer questions fact). But all the rest of what u describe is BAD FOR BUSINESS, (imho)
This must be very specific to your area ..Paris is different. Cac 40 is different. I cannot relate to almost anything you're talking about. Except for the inviting colleagues to your home part maybe.
Je suis français et pas vraiment d'accord avec la plupart des points! Par exemple: je tutoie mes chefs, comme tout le monde dans ma boite, et j'arrive rarement avant 10h30 le matin! (s'il n'y a pas un impératif bien sûr). Nos réunions ne consistent pas à se tirer dans les pattes. Je dis bonjour uniquement aux gens dans mon bureau, ensuite au fil de la journée aux gens que je croise. Je ne suis pas le seul à faire ça et je ne crois pas qu'on soit des parias :)
The French work culture is not good. -lack of acknowledgement -form over content -you have to say something, like always or people missjudge you -people are actually very judgemental -remote work is very rare due to "présenteisme"
Very interesting video as usual, but for the first time I'd like to disagree. Most of what you said is true, but it really depends on the company's culture. It sounds like (again) a very Parisian "corporate" way to behave.
6 років тому
La vidéo est très intéressante mais tu devrais éviter d'utiliser des transitions différentes et plutôt en utiliser une tout au long de la vidéo, c'est plus agréable au regard 😊
Pour la hiérarchie, même si c'est généralement vrai, tout dépend de ton lieu de travail et de la politique de l'entreprise, personnellement je tutoie tout le monde a mon travail qui compte pourtant plus de 150 employés (donc grosse société) PS : et quand je dit tout le monde ça va même jusqu'au grand patron
latest tip is normal. It is normal that if you want to spend years in a country, you must learn the language. It's highly disrespectful to try to keep up speaking english because it's an international language.
really ? If I decided to live in Norway, Sweden or Denmark I would do my best to master the language. I would feel shameful if after a couple of years I don't speak the language.
Raphaël D Yes, really. Keep in mind that these specific countries speak a language spoken by a couple of million inhabitants and no one else. Or in the case of most Asian languages, the alphabet is different so it would take years to master it. But “needing to” and “feeling ashamed not to” are 2 completely different things. I actually agree with you... But let’s be honest, if you were sent to China for 2 years by your company, I think you might not bother.
They are describing positions in which interactions are keys. Of course if you manage your own project and no need interactions then you can work the way you said
Funny, as a French I felt the same things working in Italy. A « positive » side of having a culture of critics is that nobody expects perfection from you. Working with other European countries I know that FRANCE has low quality standards 16/20 or 80% is good for a French bad for a German
That is shocking as an American in a regulated industry an employee would have real issues if not meeting 99.5% of standards. Also her saying in video that it’s not KPI driven is so culturally different.
I think you are just working in a big corporation because none of these applies to me. By the way, these rules applies if working in any big corporation, no matter what country.
I am about to move to France and I am so annoyed by their attitude toward foreigners not speaking French. I am trying to learn this language since one year and it's not the easiest. And they don't even try to make it easier. In Poland you can live as an expat for 20 years and not speak our language, nobody expects that, if you will know few basic words it is more than enough. French people just have some issue here :/
Bougez pas les gars ! Il y a un Colombien qui va nous expliquer l’organisation et l’efficacité au travail ! 😂😂😂 C’est vrai qu’on a encore des efforts à faire pour se mettre à leur niveau question traffic de drogue et grand banditisme. Je propose qu’on fasse une petite découverte du joyeux mode de vie à la colombienne ! Quant à l’analyse de nos conditions de travail par cette jeune femme issue d’un pays d’éleveurs de mouton... 😏 Au moins elle, elle a l’air sympa et elle est plaisante à regarder. Do not move guys! There is a Colombian who will explain the organization and efficiency at work! 😂😂😂 It is true that we still have efforts to be made to their level issue drug trafficking and organized crime. I propose that we make a small discovery of the happy way of life to the Colombian! As for the analysis of our working conditions by this young woman from a country of sheep farmers ... At least, she looks nice and she is pleasant to watch.
im pretty sure i have a french soul born in California lol I'm very friendly and happy buuuuut I'm also pretty good at complaining, have resting bitch face, I don't like making personal relationships with coworkers, and I move quickly in relationships but without much pomp and circumstance.
aren't you afraid to catch a cold during ;flu season if you're stuck double kissing everyone in your area of the company? i am franco, and this is really weird to me.
I was in a meeting with my boss, the country manager. The regional manager, also French, was over the phone, he asked him what he was doing to address some problem. My manager started to reply « je pense que… » (I think that…), his boss cut him abruptly yelling « TU N’ES PAS PAYÉ POUR PENSER!!! » (You are not paid to think!!!). Those 6 words, which obviously had different layers, encapsulate my 25 years experience in French Corporate.
Funny enough, when I finished my MBA from a north American university, I received a gift, a book called « Paid to think » 😂😂😂
Thank you so much for making this video!! I moved to Paris for 1 year from Los Angeles and I was so confused in general about how things work. There are so many subtleties that are not discussed or obvious. When I moved I already spoke decent French and had worked for a French boss in L.A. for almost 9 years (fashion). I was surprised that I was so turned upside down with communication styles in Paris. I highly recommend the book "the Culture Map" by Erin Meyer (US communication guru that lives in Paris) as it explains which countries have hierarchies and where each country lands on the communication scale. For example negative feedback is given liberally in France and positive feedback sparingly. In the US negative feedback is given wrapped in a gentle blanket of positivity...for example...'you might want to consider rewriting that report' = rewrite the report. In France they just tell it like it is, which in all honesty saves time and guessing. For me as an American the directness was brutal at times. You definitely need a thicker skin as you mentioned. Again thanks for this video!
Keerstin Marion ❤️
Hierarchy... it's painfully true. A lot of people from here in the US particularly complain that a lot of our work is based more on who you know than what you know. France and the French are that to the nTH degree. If you can make a handful of good respected connections in France the world will be your oyster. If you can't connect with people of perceived power... you are going to have a hard time even getting your foot in the door. Some of that comes down to french work laws (look those up), but most comes from needing to understand that the french, while not personal with strangers, do take the thoughts of people they respect with more weight than professional they perceive as a nobody.
On being prepared to defend... Too. true. I found that the best work around on that is to have all your data complied with an expanded bibliography that you give out before the presentation. At least with what I work with (Fire Art), you can cut a solid hour of questions by simply having all the information available. When asked, "how do you know that," "where's the proof," "where'd you get those numbers," it makes it a lot easier to just simply respond with a page number and source in your material package. It saves a lot of time and helps not having to repeat yourself or defend your points for an hour when you have hard copies of your research.
Totally on speaking french... but I find this is a courtesy you should do when dealing with anyone you are capable of speaking the same language as. You should be trying to speaking the native language of the people/place you are working. Just common sense.
Lastly... growing thick skin... I think that tip extends well beyond just working in France/with the french. If you are going to deal with the French people in general, you need to learn to be able to take criticism from complete strangers. (One of the reasons some people see the french as rude is because they're not used to criticism off the bat) It's a cultural thing. It's almost like a programming that the French have to instantly look for the issues and if you ever receive a compliment, screenshot it, take a photo, voice record it, or something because it wont happen a lot especially in relation to work.
It's interesting that the greeting and relationship is so important, but no personal questions or home visits
About invitation at home, it seems that in some countries, where privacy is not a big thing, you invite people to know them better, whereas in France, home is a part of our private life, so you invite people you are confident with. So if a french invite you at home, it means that you have a good chance to be friend with him.
we have a saying in france you can translate as "we don't live to work, we work to live", for us, work is not the place you take personnal life (it depend, for example I love to put a lot of personnal in the professionnal world) but at work you have "collègues" not friends and it may be dangerous sometimes to think ortherwise. It really takes time to really trust a "collègue" or to become friend
C est la première fois que j entend parler de la France comme ça. J apprend des choses sur mon propre pays et ça m ouvre les yeux sur les pratiques des pays anglo-saxons. Très interessant. Comme quoi nous qui avons toujours l impression d être americanises on a gardé des côtes bien français !
Et nos grosses boites qui ont copié les méthodes de néo-management anglo-saxonnes n'ont hélas pas pris la partie zéro-hiérarchie-symbolique, relations amicales, faible séparation entre travail et vie privée et gardé toutes les règles et la pression de notre société de castes, de classes sociales qui s'entrent-jugent et de la bourgeoisie qui a peur du prolétariat.
Nos dirigeants sont devenus de purs gestionnaires injectés directement aux sommets en sortant de leurs écoles de management-gestion et ils répugnent à tous ce qui relève des métiers qu'ils pilotent du haut de leurs grues.
Ce ne sont plus des ingénieurs, ce sont des financiers.
C'est aussi ce que j'ai réalisé. Nous avons nos pratiques ...
Having worked in France (my native country), in the UK, and in Australia where I am now, I can safely say that the French business culture is the number 1 reason why I am very unlikely to go back to France until I retire. I just cannot deal anymore with the presenteeism (which does not equal to more productivity, but to less time with partner / family / friends), the mess, the reunionite aigue, the old-fashioned importance of the hierarchy, the lack of flexibility at work and in the job market in general. I admire you for coming from NZ and being able to adapt to the French business culture, I feel like I wouldn't have the courage or patience to readapt back to it myself. When I was working at your company 10 years ago, I was an apprentice as part of my M2 so I was supposed to do 35 hours a week; when leaving around 6pm on Fridays, the interns would tell me "Oh, you're going away for the weekend?!"; at the cafet in the morning, they would loudly lament they had worked till 2am and order sushi in the night before. Of course, business life in UK / Oz is not perfect... but working again in an office in France? Ne-ver-e-ver.
PS: I'm heading to NZ in a few hours for the long Easter weekend, it'll be my first time there, I'm sooo excited!!
Hehe just saw your comment a year after hope it's not late to share some of my opinion. I come from Asia, but got my degree in Canada even though I have never worked there I know pretty much what the work culture is like in the US/CAN since you could sort of equate the work life during school to the work life in corporate environment. I totally feel you and support you for your decision to not coming back here. I am now working in France as a consultant for Airbus. I have been really struggling with how slow/inefficient things/people are. I felt like I had learned so much more and had become a better version of myself when put in an environment such as in the US/CAN/UK/AUS etc. because of the better organized structure, flexible work culture, flat hierarchy, the people with high drive. Luckily I'm surrounded by so many good people and I still find some aspects of work interesting. But definitely in the future I will move out too, so wish me luck! Lol Anyways I wish you all the best in your career abroad!
I understand completely. Présenteisme, lack of trust amongst other patterns makes working in France very consuming.
This is the main thing bothering me about living in France.
Imagine I'm struggling to find a company that grants one remote day a week😩
For me, it's a miracle that French companies are working deliver outputs, products and services. I work in upstream in a French company in France and everything you said applies in my office as well. It takes 10 meetings to finally reach one single decision, each day I'm wondering who is working in France because everyone losses between 2 to 4 hours per day saying bonjour, doing the kiss, drinking coffee, small chat on the aisle, above all..it's that weird habit of bringing the laptops in the meetings...so everyone writes e-mails or doing other things while you were supposed to reach a consensus....I don't know, I'm coming from Eastern Europe and still, I find it very difficult to adapt to the working environment, I wonder how it's like for the Americans to work in France...
Very good video! I’m from Sweden and it’s such a big difference between working in Sweden and France. It’s like day and night. By the way, your videos are so interesting! Keep up the good work 🙌🌟😊
En fait ce qu'il faut comprendre à propos des réunions dans le monde du travail est qu'elles ne sont pas faites pour prendre des décisions. Comme vous l'avez dit, la France est un pays où la hiérarchie est un concept très important. Les décisions sont toujours prises par elle. les réunions sont faites pour avoir un retour de la part de la base, les objections, de mettre en valeur des points que la hiérarchie n'avait peut-être pas mesuré, voir s'il y a un réel désaccord ou des résistances à prévoir quand la décision sera effective prise. On ne vous demande pas votre avis parce que le chef est le chef, il est indiscutable, omniscient, il est dieu sur terre, mais il veut savoir si ça va chier dans la colle quand sa décision sera effective et éventuellement connaitre votre idée pour qu'elle devienne son idée.
Moi je rejoins sa vision : nos réunions divergent de leur sujet de départ (quand au moins il est défini) , se perdent dans des détails et à la fin, rien n'a été décidé, tous les sujets sont restés en suspend et dans 1 mois on refera une réunion sur la même chose.
Une réunion où les actions, les acteurs et les échéances n'ont pas été définis est une réunion qui n'a servi à rien.
Tellement vrai!! Mdrrr
Pour avoir travaillé dans les deux cultures, les Anglo-saxon ont plus la maitrise du management & decision making than We French. En France, on aime ps les changements, les nouveauté ...etc et en plus l'échec c'est notre cauchemar. Anglo-saxone don't mind failure, it's even embrassed to do better next time. Oscar wild a dit " perfection is boring, it doesn't leave place for improvement " defines well Anglo-saxone, in my opinion.
Mais comme je l'ai dit, les réunions ne sont pas faites pour prendre des décisions. On tâte le cul des vaches pour être un peu vulgaire, ça sert à prendre le pouls de son équipe, à créer du lien social avec des discussions qui partent dans tous les sens. Il n'est jamais sorti une seule décision ou objectif de ces réunions. En clair, elles n'ont pas du tout le même but que dans le monde anglo-saxon.
C'est ce qu'on appelle la reunionite aigue: beaucoup de reunions, pour pas grand-chose au final. Et si ca sonne comme un nom de maladie, ce n'est pas un hasard ^^
I discovered your video by chance. I am French and a cross-cultural trainer dealing with many, many different nationalities. You two just hit some great key points, and I fully abide by what you said. It both matches my personal experience working in many different organizations and the stories I keep on hearing from my clients. I give you a 20 out of 20 (The grading system in France is out of 20 points) or a 100 out of 100 if you prefer. Thank you for your great and absolutely accurate contribution!
Sylvie
PS: Receiving not even the slightest negative feedback isn't it great when it comes from a French person?
I'm french and I have never kissed my colleagues at work ! NEVER. Outside of work, with colleagues who were also friends I did kiss them sometimes but never at work. But I always say "bonjour" or "au revoir" at everyone I see at work.
Es Colombiaaano! I recently made a really good friend who's from Colombia so now I get really excited whenever I see Colombians haha :) Even though I'm nowhere near working in a French company, this was super interesting to watch! It's fascinating to hear about the more nuanced parts of cultures - ones that aren't immediately obvious unless you've really experienced it yourself. I can imagine that these tips are gonna be a godsend for new expats out there. Bisous from NZ! ♥
Excellente vidéo, Rosie et Daniel. Il est vrai que chez nous, au travail, on met bien plus l'accent sur les erreurs que sur ce qui a été bien fait (sans doute que bien faire est normal, puisque c'est pour cela que l'on vous paye). Que dire sur cette façon que nous avons toujours à débattre de tout, pour moi c'est quelque chose de naturelle jusqu'au repas de famille.
C'est toujours un plaisir de regarder tes vidéos, je te souhaite tout le meilleur.
Amicalement.
I'm french and this video is 100% accurate.
I may add that the more you aply the french etiquette ( Bonjour, bonne soirée, bon week-end, ça va?, tenir la porte, la pause café, la pause déjeuner,...) the faster you can make friends out of your colleagues. For a foreigner we may seem cold or rude but if you respect those rules you’ll be surprise on how we can be friendly even at work!
this is not etiquette, this is how to be polite in France. It is about showing respect.
La définition: L'étiquette, aussi appelée bienséance, est un ensemble de règles, de normes sociales, appelées « bonnes manières » qui gouvernent le comportement en société. Just the same thing than « how to be polite » 😉
Game of Thrones in France :
- Hold the door !
*holds the door*
- Merci.
- De rien.
- Bonne journée.
Good point there !
It really depends of where you work, I worked in a huge company ... Disneyland Resort Paris, well you get very close to your colleagues, you ask if they are married, have children, where they from, etc, and you do invite them at home, go to restaurants, bars etc but youll tell me hey it's an American culture and you're right and we were being told that right form the start
Now I work for the gov, (Police) and it's the same ....I think it's because of the kind of work we do, we need to know our colleagues and be close to them
I work in a primary school in France as a language assistant and when the kids get asked "how are you?" and they respond with something negative, there's this one teacher who always asks them "pourquoi ?" and gets mad at them if they can't explain/ defend themselves. The challenging, questioning and criticising starts really early. A lot of the teachers also make fun of the kids if they say something stupid or do something a bit different. "Ça se fait pas" is a common phrase!
True, kids will make fun of your accent if it's too French, but they will also make fun of you if you try to sound legit, as they will say that you're showing off. As a result, most kids are ashamed to speak and most of us hate our accents from the start.
Oh, thank you. I do my best. :) I'm a secondary school trainee teacher in the UK and sometimes I wish I had a Scottish accent for behaviour management niéhéhé. A French accent doesn't sound serious enough.
This was actually what happened to me. I started learning English at the age of 3, and then started German at 12, and Italian at 14. I've been mocked for speaking with correct accent and pronunciation for 13 years. Yay!
Not Even French wow, are you serious? That would be really cool. I'm only in France for another 2 weeks and a bit though :(
pistache - I actually left France 9 years ago and I don't think I'm going back until I retire :-D
Thank you, very useful to those are going to work with French Boss in first time in life.
When she says... A Bientõţ..sounds great 😍. I find her clips very resourceful. Learning lots from you. Thank you.
It really depends on the company and the line of business, everything you said can be true or half can be false.
Just to give you some example, I work in a big telecom company and there is process for everything (because it's a big company) I can adapt my schedule pretty much every day, I can ask for a day off just one day before and (next may be IT related) we never use "vous" even when a big big boss comes from Paris, I can go to work wearing flip flops and ask the boss of my manager about his week end if I want ^^
Same, I work as a consultant for Airbus in their digital transformation project and it's pretty laid back. Only some of the stories told in this video here ring true to the Southern part of France.
Je suis russe et j’ai fait mes études à Paris. Je travaille avec les français et je ne peux pas dire que je suis vraiment d’accord avec ces points... partout où j’ai bossé on était très proches, on parlait de tout, on faisait des soirées chez nos collègues... j’ai travaillé également en Russie dans une entreprise américaine et c’est là où j’ai dû avoir des confirmations de tout le monde pour lancer un projet ou bien des milliers de KPIs...
This was really interesting!! Thanks for sharing your experiences :) On the one hand it sounds really nice to greet EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the morning before starting work...like that seems really social and a great was to start the day. But on the other hand if the company is big that could really take a long time!!! Sometimes is it just greeting people within your single department or on your floor if the company is bigger? Thanks again for the video!!
Yeah, if the company or the workplace is too big, you usually greet only people in your department, your floor or your team :)
If you work in a big company you don’t have to greet every single person but only your departement! Every company has is own way of thinking but in mine, I shake hand with managers, say hi out loud to most of my colleagues and kiss on both cheeks my closer colleagues (if that make sense).
In my experience, the way for greeting people depends a lot on the company you work for. In some companies (mostly small ones) you have to greet every single person but in other ones it can only be your team or floor.
Sometimes you have to kiss (faire la bise) everybody, sometimes it can be a hand shake, or it can only be saying hello frow the hallway.
The best to be integrated is to observe the cowerkers habit, as mentionned
"When in Rome do as the Roman do"
yeah It depends, if its a big company its just the people you work with.
WHen I went to work in the UK I was shocked by how no one was greeting anyone
or very few... it would be suicide in france. Also from a french perspective I thought everyone hated me right from the start. and it's just polite.
Observing rituals; I noticed while working out in outdoor gyms in Paris that new people entering the area go around and shake the hand of every other person working out, first.
This happened in soccer fields too.
Very interesting video! I am French myself but I moved to Canada at the end of my studies and I've been working there ever since, so I am actually more familiar with the Canadian work culture, that is very chill, very flexible and with very little hierarchy. I am afraid to move back to France because I am not sure I will be able to readapt to the French work culture (among other things). My question for you is, are you afraid of a reverse culture shock if you ever had to move back to your home countries? Because I know I am :|
François Talbot I had the same experience, it's easier to go back to a chilled culture than a hierarchical one, trust me! For Rosy, it's gonna be easy but for you...not sure. I moved back to France, I couldn't take it, it was extremely hard, you have the feeling of being sh*t constantly, so I decided to work in a multicultural company that embrasse diversity which i can relate to much more. Having said that, you will do just fine I am sure. Just don't be surprise to have a feeling of being a foreigner in your own country, it's normal to have this.
Sadly the work culture In France is very interface based, the form is more important than the content. And you constantly have to advertise your work to survive.
Moreover remote work is nonexistent due to the lack of trust.
I have worked with Canadians for a few years and yeah French work culture sucks in comparison.
Never go to back to France. You will regret
@@moonsama395 Wow, so sad. That was my fear, which you just confirmed! Hopefully the pandemic has helped to break old beliefs against remote work?
@@PriscillaThen Things have evolved drasticaly during covid. I'm now almost full remote . Who would've thought.
I would like a video where you talk about the coffee/lunch break socializing and building relationships. Like maybe a role play of things you would say or talk about
I would say it's a matter of case. But the most important thing you pointed out is to observe the coworkers habits and more important your N+X habits and of course speaking french as much as possible even if you lack of vocabulary, even if you make mistakes and have "un accent trop mignon"(polite manner to say we - probably not even - barely understand what you say) and this is quite amusing considering how we, froggies, consider ourselves as bad english speakers (well, our "cute accent" isn't helping, especially when you're from the south... the so called singing accent)
As we can say, when in France do a the french do so a lot of observation, careful social move at the beginning and adapt.
Yup. And I'm not ashamed by my accent since I consider it as part of my identity and not being that problematic. It's just tough work when I have to speak english after a long pause, passing from engrish to english with "cute accent" quite rapidly. An important point being to work your vocabulary and being cautious with false friend.
It's now subject to funny jokes from my english speaker friends and we have good laugh with our own accents (a japanese friend's trials to speak french were priceless). It's funny how bad we judge our english in comparison of other countries, thinking it's worse... After speaking with japanese and some other "english speakers", now I feel no remorse to speak english with my accent, I do my best to and voilà.
You do so much effort to integrate in france and apparently it 's not easy. Being french, i would not like to be a foreigner coming in france . it seems to be hard to integrate in my country !
I find the HUGE cultural differences fascinating between where I live ( midwest US) and descriptions like this video. 10/20 min lunches are ideal , meetings start on time or 3-5 mins late if prior notice, meetings end with take actions assigned and clarity ensured of all tasks, idle chit chat in offices are discouraged, inefficiency is about the worst sin you could commit, there is some hierarchy but its limited etc etc
C'est tout à fait véridique, un beau panel de nos pratiques en entreprise! Et cela vaut également pour la province ;-) Félicitations
I am french myself and working in Paris as well and would say that for me the video is only 50% accurate. We always speak about personal stuffs with colleagues, even when we just start in the company, we do not kiss everyone when we arrive ( we just say bonjour, comment vas tu?) and we invite people very easily at our home (maybe not in the tiniest apartment). And we say "Tu" to all of our superiors. I think you may be working with a very particular kind of French people who are not particularly representative of the French culture on the work place...
You're in Paris. Inviting people at home is a little difficult, as in other big cities (NY / London ...) when people can live very far from each other or live in tiny places.But you can definitely make friends, and go out with colleagues in bars or restaurants for exemple. Or you could be invited to a wedding by your closests colleagues (not evening but afternoon invitation)Then it depends a lot of course : what company are you working in / how old are your co-workers / are they from paris or not ?Generally, in Paris, a loooot of foreigners are working, from other countries, or from other cities. If they have no or few friends, they will be more eager to make new friends on the workplace.As you said, the key is : have coffee / lunch with them, that's the place to talk personal. Great ice breakers are culture topics : movies / tv shows / books / video games. so that you can meet people with shared interest and then have extra work activities.
hello ! (nothing to do with the workplace tips but) you should buy a microphone and put it above your camera ! it will completely improve the sound of your videos! sometimes it's hard to hear you ;) apart from that ... interesting video!
Merci pour vos astuces, Il y'a certaines choses que je comprend mieux désormais parce que même en tant que français il m'arrive souvent de me sentir en décalage par rapport à mes compatriotes.
First things first, Daniel has a beautiful smile. It was a pleasure to watch this video for that as well.
One thing I can stand is when colleagues are not cooperative. If I phone/talk to you and ask (politely, of course) something which is within your duties, I expect you to help me even if I'm not a friend of yours. This need to court someone to have them do their job is maddening.
I used to be a bit offended when I saw foreigners talk about the stereotype of French people being reluctant to do their job, and then I traveled and I also went studying and working abroad. I was so shocked when I saw how supportive staff members in my English uni were. They were so helpful and kind, always ready to help. Same thing in pretty much all the countries that I visited. ^^ I feel so sorry for foreigners who have to deal with French administration, especially if they come from a helpful and sunny society.
The last point seems quite normal ! And I assume (and hope) it's the same in every country. If you come to a country, you have to fit in and not the other way around. And the first step to do that, in order to be accepted and integrated is the language ;)
I don't know if it is in your line of work, in Paris or in big company but working in a little company in Brittany it is nit the same at all about relationship with collegs. They are like my friends we talk about everything and we frequently invite each other at out home ;)
Well, it depends mainly on the company size and when you work in a company with 94 other peoples, they behave differently from a 8 ppl "family like" company. Having worked on both I can say it's far more impersonnal and protocolary on the first one.
Plus the location and the boss habits have to be taking in account. You can have a 30 ppl company with everyone being other's buddy and spending some WE on BBQ and 7 ppl company where you barely know more than coworker's names.
Pour une fois je trouve que le propos est intéressant mais pourrait être nuancé. Je ne reconnais pas vraiment mon cadre de travail et pourtant j'ai travaillé dans des structures de 3 à 3000 personnes. Ça doit être spécifique a un certain domaine mais ça m'a carrément angoissé pour vous (réunions, horaires, compétences, valorisation...)!
Hi! To explain the kind of feedback french manager can give and why you need to defend yourself, the point is not to down you or anything (most of the time, it can happen ), the point is for you to show him you know what you do and why you do it this way. You may be used to a certain method, you may want to try something because it seem to make more sense another way, you thought about pro and cons etc etc. You don't have to be sure, it just need to make sense. Then you can talk about it or ask him to explain why he told you this or that. Because EVERYTHING is complicated in france, they need to know if they can trust your judgment, if you can stand up for yourself or if you blindly do things without thinking.
And remember, a "pas mal" (not bad in english) is already good or really good!
I remember a time when I was a student & my boss let me finish early one day & asking to be careful on the way home & not have any accident. I don't live in France anymore but I'm sure it remains same up to know. By the way, living in UK for a very long time, having amazing colleague friends but you don't get invited home either out here ;).
Hello rosie.that whould be interesting to interview a french expat on this topic.histoire de comparer les experiences
Ps:great video as usual very interesting👍👍👍
This was definitely one of your best and most interesting videos, although the tips are variable depending on each company.My own "different" experience is that with enough seniority you can get away with just about anything -- neither of you have yet reached that stage, but with a little luck you will. Even though in my career I never rose above "senior" something-or-other and was therefore under "supervisor" and "manager" (not to mention "general manager"), I was the expert in my field and was consulted by my superiors on what they should do in certain situations. They would even ask for MY authorisation in certain matters. On my own level, I was able to break as many rules as I wanted in terms of procedures because nobody would question what I did. To be a little more specific, I was (among other things) in charge of refunds and I refunded anybody I felt like refunding, even when they didn't qualify as per company rules. If I decided to make a refund, it was the law. Yes, I think I was a bit luckier than a lot of people...One other remark that I will make is about social interactivity with colleagues. For the first 3 years, this just didn't happen. For the next 5 years, we all had more or less a frenzy of social interactivity -- not just invitations to dinners and parties but even going to clubs together -- and once we had finished with that, we really didn't want to see each other anymore out of the workplace. Nevertheless, most of us remained work friends -- we had just turned the page as we got older and had more of a personal family life.I would like to see a more abstract video some day about "life in Paris" without all of the commentary. I will dare to give you the link about the one I did for last year in Paris as I saw it: ua-cam.com/video/BlbeFGVfSzg/v-deo.html
Just loved, guys! 👏👏
Been here 5 years... Simple rule: be super extra polite. The French are just like everyone else, but they have a strong exterior facade at the beginning,... It breaks easily over time and you become really good friends.. But start off super polite
Super vidéo Rosy ! Comme d'habitude ! 😀 au fait, j'ai un nouvel ordi donc je devrais pouvoir t'aider de temps en temps pour les traductions... a+ bizzz
Nice video, but I'm not sure it is entirely true. It might be the thing with most of the big companies, and it is probably true if you work in offices. But things can get very different if you are doing a more manual work, if the company is smaller, or depending on the company culture and history (in workshops for example - okay, I'm not sure that foreigners expat move here to work in workshops, but still, they can be in contact with workers so ... - , Syndical French history made it's way, and your coworkers can easily become your best friends). A friend of mine, for example, is engineer in a big shoesmaking company, and despite the fact that it is a very big one, producing a lot of stuff, he found himself in a service where everything is like family, and his colleagues are his best friend when it comes to find an appartment, or dealing with small life issues. On an other hand, my brother is chef in a small restaurant, and he goes out nearly once a week with his colleague to drink a beer and spend some time with them in order to know each others, just because they are in the same boat, facing the same difficulties (you know ... That "brother-in-arms" thing ...)
French professional life is not always so cold. BUT it his true that accessing to that level of friendship and support will not come easily, and if you expect the classic French people to just be warm and nice with you immediately, you might be very disappointed. They don't do that, and they won't make any effort to integrate you to the team, or the minimal effort. You must change yourself to adap, but it won't go in the other way. In fact, if you try to bring to many changes with you, you might even do a nice social suicide. Be patient, it will come later.
However, i agree with nearly everything else you said ;).
I quite agree with what you say.
The corporate culture is very variable from one sector of activity to another and also according to the size of the company.
The kiss is not systematic. It is mainly practiced towards close colleagues. And especially for the relations man-woman or woman-woman. The handshake mainly for man-man relationships.
When I arrive last at a meeting :-( I do not hesitate to say hello everybody !
how did you get by when you were not speaking french very well? As someone who works primarily in english, are you still expected to participate in meetings that are in french?
It's always interesting to learn these tips from you ❤ I'm french but kinda socially awkward and I only know how my parents' jobs work (but they're both teachers of sort so it's different from most jobs I guess)
Wow This helps me understand my own culture. Thank you. I've seen so many blurry guidelines and contradicting protocols that everyone else seems to be fine with and I agree about having to harden up regarding criticism and what seems like very black and white perceptionseither you are doing your job (perefectly) and it is normal or you're just not (doing your job). Encouragements are not part of the deal, and the idiom "Si vous n'êtes pas content, la porte est là" seem to be the underlaying moto in many places. As in people are geniuenly going to think why are you there if you have an issue with this or that vs accepting to consider comment/input at times. You would just stay somewhere if it benefits you and leave/ go elsewhere if it no longer does. Don't expect anyone to ask you why/ try and hold you back in most places. (Not talking about the actual corporate world but a specific field from experience.
Also agree with other comments that it does remind me how much more positive and efficiency-focused, among other things, english-speaking cultures are in comparison. (Sorry if I go on and on but I went to Canada for a semester in high-school and I was very surprised with how open teachers were and actually building relationships with students, taking the time to (roughly) follow up on them and their families and how much lighter/ more balanced the schedules were.
It makes me realize there must be thinking school has to be extra difficult/ exhausting or even traumatic to be recognized as succesful. Yes, it's like people will judge your education/ professional level by how much you've suffered.
Also agree that there are a LOT more boundaries.
thank you very much for the tips
C'est drôle parce qu'en tant que française, je ne me rendais pas compte de tout ça^^ Quand on le dit, oui, c'est vrai mais je n'y faisait pas attention, c'est juste "normal" ou "habituel". En fait, on a beauuuuucoup de codes^^ (moi qui trouvait qu'au Japon, il y avait énormément de codes^^ je ne réalisais pas qu'il y en avait autant en France).
Le rituel des salutation le matin sont vraiment différents d'une entreprise à l'autre et d'un milieu à l'autre. Je me souviens que quand je travaillait en cabinet comptable, on disait bonjour à très peu de personnes alors qu'en entreprise du bâtiment, la poignée de main à TOUT le monde était super importante (sinon les gens ne se sentaient pas considérés et vexés).
J'ai l'impression que ça peut être très difficile pour les étrangers de s'intégrer parce qu'on est très attachés à nos habitudes et quand quelqu'un ne veut pas rentrer dedans, ne fait pas assez d'effort, il est tout simplement ignoré^^ Ne pas parler français en France, c'est sacrilège^^ On est très attachés à notre langue et l'ignorer, c'est ignorer notre culture, ce qui fait de nous ce qu'on est.
LoOorraine c'est pas forcément sacrilège mais c'est pas possible de se faire bcp d'ami français, au final tu ne connaitra que des personnes parlant la meme langue que toi donc c'est dommage.
Bear in mind that in France you are insured on your way to work ( back & forth ) and AT work BY the company itself. If anything happens to you during the supppse working hours & your not at work, it's huge deal to who should pay for you while off sick for instance & company can get in a LOTS of trouble if they can't justify why the staff member was away while supposed to be at work...working hours flexibility is more restricted mainly to this structure & restriction.
Hey guys! i originally from Normandy. if you never visited Normandy and Brittany then you should. My brother own some "Gite" close to Mont Saint michel.
I think the challenging stuff is very true since French people don't like BS. in USA I am always amazed how they can BS. As a french I can tell in few second if someone is a BSer in a meeting... Many time someone will answer a question with BS instead to say I don't know.. This is cultural they are taught at a very young age not to show failures...I still don't get it, either they know it is BS and they don't care of it is a game of BSing. Very strange because it can lead to a dramatic results
Since french people like physical appearence, whats the formal way of dressing, eg is jeans fine on a lady?
If the office is casual yes, otherwise you must adapt to the style the other have
Thank you for your enlightening video. Does Daniel also work in human resources? Did he also study in France? I would be interested in watching his videos too if he has a UA-cam channel. Regards from Vancouver Island!
Congratulations for your good integration in france + subtitles in french.
Hi Rosie I just wanted to say thank you for giving me all the tips I should know about living in France and working in France as I where I am from I don't act like everybody else I think I think different done everybody but I live and I have a question for you if I lived in France is there some people can help me because I'm in the wheelchair
J'arriverai pas à l'exprimer aussi bien en Anglais mais j'ai l'impression que votre point de vue est très biaisé et s'adresse surtout au travail dans de grandes entreprises à Paris, dans des bureaux. Ce sont des généralités mais j'ai l'impression que hors de Paris et dans de plus petites boites tout est beaucoup plus chill et moins formel. Tout dépends de la culture de l'entreprise et du poste j'imagine. Mais votre vidéo résume quand même bien la chose et laisse percevoir l'esprit français en entreprise dans sa globalité.
Clairement ça dépend de la boite ... Je boss dans une société de plus de 1000 employés et pourtant c'est vachement cool ! De nombreux collègues sont des amis et c'est assez fréquent de se voir en dehors du boulot et même d'être invité chez les uns ou les autres. Faudrait voire à pas trop généraliser =). Ça doit surement dépendre des domaines aussi, mais dans le high tech en tout cas, on est vachement plus détendu j'ai l'impression !!!
Je suis d'accord. C'est particulièrement vrai dans les métiers "sociaux" ou médicaux, où les équipes sont en général plus soudées et plus proches que dans des métiers de vente...
Oui la plupart des points ne sont pas vraiment valables, ou beaucoup moins marqués, dans le milieu des starts-up dans lequel je bosse effectivement. Sauf les rituels par ex qui sont meme encore plus puissants. Mais je reconnais bien là le fonctionnement dans la plupart des grands groupes "traditionnels" français en revanche, quel que soit le secteur.
Enfait il y a du vrai dans cette vidéo mais après c'est dur de faire une généralité car chaque entreprise peut tellement être différente même quand il s'agit du même secteur, la ou je la rejoint c'est au niveau des convention social elle peuvent être tellement dur a cerner pour des étranger car par exemple il dit il faut regarder comment il se dit boujour mais moi dans l'entreprise où je suis il y des personne a qui je vais faire la bise, d'autre a qui je vais serrer la main ça dépend du statut de la personne et du lien que tu a avec, pareil pour le vouvoiement ça dépend a qui je m'adresse.
Faut bien savoir que ces gens-là veulent dire « Paris » quand ils disent « France ».
Bonjour, j'aie bien ta chaîne et j'espère que vous ferez bientôt d'autres vidéos en français (pas grave s'il y a des fautes, on comprenait bien les deux précédentes).
What field does your friend work in? Thx keep up the good work, really excited about the workplaces and education videos
Hi Rosie, as usual great video! The myth about the " you cannot get 20/20" is overly exagerated though. First of all, before going to lycée, it is not very hard to get 20/20, teachers wants to reward good student. In lycée, if you get every right answer in a test about a scientific subject (maths, physics, biologie or whatever) you will get a 20/20. In maths and physics I had means above 19.5 during my 3 lycée years so having 20/20 is far from impossible. As for less scientific subjects we have a phrase "19 pour le prof, 20 pour dieu", but even that is unaccurate. It mainly depends on the teacher, some will give 20/20 when they think the student deserves it, some will never give that grade. Even in Classe Préparatoires, where it is said tests are impossibly long and hard (wich is a very accurate depiction of those tests) a common method for giving grades is to put the best grade as a 20/20 and then adjust the other grades accordingly (most people still get 5 because the guy with 20/20 is just not human). I am currently in engineering school and since most subjects are scientific, 20/20 are actually very common.
Love your workplace videos! I have previously worked in the French part of Switzerland and I wonder if it's the same there? I wouldn't be able to tell cause I worked for an international organisation with more of an anglo-culture
Do skip meetings, but Do Not skip coffee breaks, that’s where you get all valuable information you need.
You can invite colleagues home if you know them very well (like my mum 's colleagues for 10 years !)
You are so tolerating towards french, some french aren't so tolerating towards other french... Keep your own spirit and be honest to french poeple if something bothers you and make them see your perception of it and how you feel it doesn't always have to be there way, nothing would evolve otherwise. I remember saying to my general director once "confrontation makes things evolve" and i was blown away when he replied "No it doesnt. Confrontation creates problem and bad work environment" or something like that. Not every french likes confrontation some are just really hypocrite and worries a lot about their image, but i was working in a very hypocrite industry. Im french/maori i grew up on the french riviera its a very different mentality there. No matter what my superior may think i still spoke with honesty and he knew i was right but i hadn't earned the right to be right yet. I was only new in the company... sometimes french mindsets are just wrong and based on fear and ego, just close minded really. I love the french because i can see them for who they are and im not afraid of pointing out the bad traits while still loving and understanding them. They need to hear it sometimes.
Love your vids btw xx
Ambiguity I laughed so hard with that!
Coucou, could you please make a video about finding an apartment in Paris?
Yep, got them on my watch later playlist. Thought to ask, however, as everyone has a different experience. Thank you for responding! Looking forward to future videos of yours :)
Great video, as always! 👍🏻
On a separate note, what video editing software do you use? Your videos are always immaculate, and you make it look so easy 😊
Not Even French superstar, thank you!
And yes I’m well, been recovering from the flu, but hoping to get back to reality soon, lol. Hope you’re well too! ☺️
Hi Rosie. I am new to your channel however I have watched mostly your channel in last 2 days. General info before I get to the question I am an Indian worked with French over phone and definitely experienced what you are talking about. 2 things I am interested to know about:
How they treat Brown people in office?
If you are on tight timeline (being a cross geography project) how do you manage to get things done?
Thanks a ton
Hi I'm not Rosie but I think I could share with you some of my exp. I'm not Indian btw but I'm working at Airbus where there are a lot of Indians and some of my colleagues whom I consider my friends are also Indians.
What one of my Indian friends told me is that some French people do treat brown people as a lesser being. This is even more true when you are still working in India and having to collaborate with them remotely. Once you've moved to France though like how my friend moved from Airbus India to Airbus France, things started to get better. Since French people care so much about hierarchy and labels, an Indian person has to move to France and posses a work title equivalent to those that French people have, only then they start to treat that Indian better.
Another thing about managing things with tight deadlines with French people remotely. The answer is
No, forget about it cos you will never succeed doing that.
Even at a big multinational company like Airbus, people still don't manage to get things done on time.
Hope this helps more or less.
it seemes bit stuffed there, the best friends ive made are from work:) and also there is no strict work hierarchy here (norway).
Merci pour cette vidéo, je trouve tes remarques très justes. Je suis d'origines étrangères et je vis depuis plus de 10 ans à Paris. J'ai toujours trouvé l'environnement professionnel français extrêmement toxique, notamment du point de vue social. C'est d'ailleurs en partie pour cela que je vais bientôt quitter la France.
what did you guys mean by invest time in colleagues? How do you get to know them in break times if you cannot go up to them say "hi" or "how was your weekend"?
Guess you work in an open space with various teams not necessarily doing the same job. You won’t need to socialize with all the floor but only the one who are your direct colleagues. That said, be quite, learn your tasks, and take time to know your colleagues slowly, so that they can also get to know you slowly
Eight months in and this is all ringing very very true!! Do you work in French or in English?
Not Even French Have since spent an hour watching all your videos...!! Really reassuring to know I'm on the right track to surviving 5 years :) All the weird little cultural/linguistic things that seem odd and incomprehensible - good to know I'm not alone !
Hello Rosie ans Daniel ! This video is kind of a revelation for me : I'm french, but i had a lot of this problems with my coworkers, and i thought it was my fault :-o but it seems now that it's a cultural thing ! I come to think, seeing all your videos, that i may be happier somewhere else :/
Sorry about the french behaviour for being such a bread in the a** ;)
While not disagreeing with the observations- inefficient meetings are not only the bane of French companies. I worked for nearly ten years for an American company and 80% of the meetings were, IMO, inefficient and more of political theatre (rife with culture-specific small talk, no agenda/unstructured, non-value-adding participants not excluded, no follow-through or connectivity across meetings, and sometimes brown-nosing ridden). I also admire the French system of bifurcating the personal and professional (keeps off nosy snooping and superficial relationships).
Interesting that Daniel, who is form a Latin culture too, is just as lost sometimes as Rosy from New Zealand.
As a French woman I can’t agree on what you both say about the grading system. I often had 20/20 when I was a student, we know that if we give the best of ourselves we can have such good notes.
After that, it takes a lot of work.
Excellent video despite this little "disagreement" 😉
You can get 20/20 in scientific studies and on subjects that require a clear and defined answer. To get a 20 in philosophy or literature is nearly impossible. And at uni, it becomes even harder.
Raphanne you’re right
In math it’s possible, in history too.
And at the university it’s more or less impossible. But in « collège - lycée » it’s really possible.
Not Even French I am not an exception. I was a good student 😂
Getting 20/20 is definitely possible (and definitely not an exception ;) ), but we have to compare it to the A to F system. While getting a 14/20 on average could be considered good (and excellent in higher education), getting a C or even a B would be considered disappointing. When I was in prep school I was happy with a 9 or 10/20, can you see this happening outside of France? I mean, on a strictly objective scale, it's not that good, but in prep school, you can be top-third with these grades.
Apart from this, I do think the philosophy behind our grading system is quite accurate in the video, and is certainely not made to give us 20/20 all the time. In fact, our system's so different that when applying for schools abroad it can be troublesome for us if we do the conversion to letters.
Yeah in France when there is too much positivity or someone compliment you a lot you have the impression they are dishonest. We are not necessarily the more direct in a lot of situation but people prefer being criticized and having the negative feedback from the start then false compliment or promises. Of course that depends on the people... but I hear a lot of french people working with American companies that complain about them not being completely honest from the start of their opinion on the project.
Your both a very nice couple and like to get to know both of you, i'll be coming into Zurich in Nov sometime so we stay in touch and we'll get together when i get settle in thank you for upload
How many hours does a person needs to work normally in France?
I wish I had seen thus video before deciding to come work in France. 🙄
When you present, would it be considered inappropriate to ask everyone to please save their questions for the end?
Not at all at the condition to advise everyone at the beginning of the presentation.
What would be fun.. would be to have French employees in US companies there have to do business like Americans do, ie, pretty much the oppose of everything you've said EXCEPT speaking up in meetings... (and knowing the subject well enough to answer questions fact).
But all the rest of what u describe is BAD FOR BUSINESS, (imho)
Lol. We should do nothing. We are home. :) Americans understand.
This must be very specific to your area ..Paris is different. Cac 40 is different. I cannot relate to almost anything you're talking about. Except for the inviting colleagues to your home part maybe.
Super madam
Je suis français et pas vraiment d'accord avec la plupart des points! Par exemple: je tutoie mes chefs, comme tout le monde dans ma boite, et j'arrive rarement avant 10h30 le matin! (s'il n'y a pas un impératif bien sûr). Nos réunions ne consistent pas à se tirer dans les pattes. Je dis bonjour uniquement aux gens dans mon bureau, ensuite au fil de la journée aux gens que je croise. Je ne suis pas le seul à faire ça et je ne crois pas qu'on soit des parias :)
The French work culture is not good.
-lack of acknowledgement
-form over content
-you have to say something, like always or people missjudge you
-people are actually very judgemental
-remote work is very rare due to "présenteisme"
Very interesting video as usual, but for the first time I'd like to disagree. Most of what you said is true, but it really depends on the company's culture. It sounds like (again) a very Parisian "corporate" way to behave.
La vidéo est très intéressante mais tu devrais éviter d'utiliser des transitions différentes et plutôt en utiliser une tout au long de la vidéo, c'est plus agréable au regard 😊
Pour la hiérarchie, même si c'est généralement vrai, tout dépend de ton lieu de travail et de la politique de l'entreprise, personnellement je tutoie tout le monde a mon travail qui compte pourtant plus de 150 employés (donc grosse société)
PS : et quand je dit tout le monde ça va même jusqu'au grand patron
latest tip is normal. It is normal that if you want to spend years in a country, you must learn the language. It's highly disrespectful to try to keep up speaking english because it's an international language.
It's normal... in France. Not everywhere (e.g. Scandinavia).
really ? If I decided to live in Norway, Sweden or Denmark I would do my best to master the language. I would feel shameful if after a couple of years I don't speak the language.
Raphaël D Yes, really. Keep in mind that these specific countries speak a language spoken by a couple of million inhabitants and no one else. Or in the case of most Asian languages, the alphabet is different so it would take years to master it. But “needing to” and “feeling ashamed not to” are 2 completely different things. I actually agree with you... But let’s be honest, if you were sent to China for 2 years by your company, I think you might not bother.
I'm french and I really hate our kissing culture, just hello with a smile and meaning it should be enough :D
Not to be mean, but that sounds like a very inefficient work environment.
Also 2:08 is how I like the workplace. I'm just here to earn, not socialize.
They are describing positions in which interactions are keys. Of course if you manage your own project and no need interactions then you can work the way you said
Funny, as a French I felt the same things working in Italy. A « positive » side of having a culture of critics is that nobody expects perfection from you. Working with other European countries I know that FRANCE has low quality standards 16/20 or 80% is good for a French bad for a German
That is shocking as an American in a regulated industry an employee would have real issues if not meeting 99.5% of standards. Also her saying in video that it’s not KPI driven is so culturally different.
I think you are just working in a big corporation because none of these applies to me. By the way, these rules applies if working in any big corporation, no matter what country.
I am about to move to France and I am so annoyed by their attitude toward foreigners not speaking French. I am trying to learn this language since one year and it's not the easiest. And they don't even try to make it easier. In Poland you can live as an expat for 20 years and not speak our language, nobody expects that, if you will know few basic words it is more than enough. French people just have some issue here :/
Bougez pas les gars ! Il y a un Colombien qui va nous expliquer l’organisation et l’efficacité au travail ! 😂😂😂 C’est vrai qu’on a encore des efforts à faire pour se mettre à leur niveau question traffic de drogue et grand banditisme. Je propose qu’on fasse une petite découverte du joyeux mode de vie à la colombienne !
Quant à l’analyse de nos conditions de travail par cette jeune femme issue d’un pays d’éleveurs de mouton... 😏 Au moins elle, elle a l’air sympa et elle est plaisante à regarder.
Do not move guys!
There is a Colombian who will explain the organization and efficiency at work! 😂😂😂 It is true that we still have efforts to be made to their level issue drug trafficking and organized crime. I propose that we make a small discovery of the happy way of life to the Colombian!
As for the analysis of our working conditions by this young woman from a country of sheep farmers ... At least, she looks nice and she is pleasant to watch.
Ahah, so true 😂
im pretty sure i have a french soul born in California lol I'm very friendly and happy buuuuut I'm also pretty good at complaining, have resting bitch face, I don't like making personal relationships with coworkers, and I move quickly in relationships but without much pomp and circumstance.
En France, chaque année il y a des élèves qui ont 21/20 de moyenne! Impossible n’est pas français.
aren't you afraid to catch a cold during ;flu season if you're stuck double kissing everyone in your area of the company? i am franco, and this is really weird to me.
Shaking hands shares more germs than a kiss on the cheek.
When you are sick you can "dire bonjour de loin" (say hello from afar)