Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

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Agree with most points except these two:

> - Many American work environments have more of a hierarchy within the company, particularly in more corporate environments. US companies are often more stratified. Some to the degree of oil and water.

I found this the opposite. If we have a spectrum from Flat <-----> Hierarchical structure, then I've found the following: USA <----- Germany -----> Japan, where Japan is the most Hierarchical.

> - You will likely get less vacation. Not only that, you will be discouraged, though rarely explicitly, from taking it.

True you do get less vacation but it is not true that you will be discouraged. May be if you work at IBM or GE, etc. Not here in Silicon Valley, not in most modern corporations that were founded in last 20 years. Vacation is tremendously encouraged in all companies I've worked for and every other engineer I know. I think this might be true if you're in a <100 employee startup (< 4 year old company and VC backed).

Spot on about politics and I prefer it that way. IMO politics, religion, activism, etc. is probably best to avoid at work.

May I add that inside the EU, the differences can be staggering? I worked in both German and French companies. The French ones were all much more hierarchically organised than the German ones. So much so that I started researching why, because from the outside, German culture seems to be more hierarchical than the French, but that's not true. In France, there is a cultural dogma for centralisation, exemplified by how they organise their country with Paris controlling everything. This way of thinking also is prevalent even in small companies: Every decisions flows top-down, there are simply no feedback channels bottom-up.

Sure, I narrowed it to Germany having dealt with a handful of German companies. I am sure there are exceptions within Germany as well. Generalization can become quite contentious in discussions, but there is some value in understanding larger cultural phenomena, however broad brushed that might be. Thanks for adding color.

Not really true at IBM- I mean of course you got to take vacation. Also, you couldn't carry over vacation time, so often half the office was out last two or three weeks of December to use it up.

Also on vacation time: you can negotiate for more. I knew someone who negotiated for a 4 day work-week, but that was a special case (along the lines of "I don't need to work anymore, so if you really want me it's going to be for 4 days a week only").

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