Cassie 10000

I have the same issue at my place, its quite funny to watch.

My Supervisor will think for about 20 mins about where to move a certain product to make room for another. I'll suggest something then after another 15 mins he'll say the same thing but make it look like his idea Give me strength.

I do like working there though, honest.

JonboyE

And, boy, doesn't it show with some of the lousiest customer service imaginable?

It is a problem for large organizations like Telus. How do you keep the workforce focused on the company's goals? If people are not working towards a common objective they descend into the back-biting, bitching and power politics you describe. It is indicative of incompetent senior management.

I much prefer working with smaller organizations. Employees tend to have a much clearer understanding of what the organization is trying to achieve, and how their own efforts impact on its success.

However, I don't see this as a UK / Canada issue. It is pretty much endemic in all western economies.

dormy

I worked over in Ontario in Peterborough for a couple of years, same company I now work for, and it was completely different, everyone helped each other and worked towards the same goals. I think its a Nova Scotia thing.

The "cant accept change" thing is massive here, if one more person tells me that my predecessor (3 years ago) always used to do X Yor Z, I am going to throw them off the MacDonald Bridge!

SAW 04

Again Ive found the same thing. The old boys club mentality here bothers me as well. Ive always been measured on my attitude and performance whilst here Im measured on who I know and how well I can a**e lick. Got to the stage where were thinking about a move else where.

dormy

I'm in the same boat, have been looking towards Ontario, NS is too small, everyone knows each other and that is how jobs (on the whole) are gained. There are so few jobs that past history, performance, experience, attitude etc all count for nothing, its about how well you brown nose and who you or your sister is sleeping with etc. The Unions and the related attitudes will also destroy NS in time, they are unbearable.

Rob_999

We've found it much more relaxed here than working in London, but then some of our friends work crazy hours. It all depends on your employer....

acer rose

That's my personal experience as well. I work in a great office with good people. There's no blame culture, fine teamwork and very supportive local management. It was a very pleasant surprise after my previous experiences and I'm enjoying it tremendously. However, I've seen a few new starters who appear to be unused to working within that atmosphere and take a while to trust the team spirit. They are clearly not used to it. Even with my employer, I suspect I'd find a different atmosphere in a different office. I guess it depends on the style of leadership that prevails.

SambaDeAmigo

My workplace is the Canadian version of The Office!

We certainly know how to have a good time everyday.

allyincanada

I dislike the seniority thing too. Especially when you're trying to book vacation time and you can't get the time off you want as someone who has worked there for 20 years gets first choice all the time - grrr!!

The lack of humour is very noticeable, and I've worked at different places since living here.

rae

i have experienced this. a lot.

rae

all the time.

gryphea

Wow

You all seem to have a totally different experince to us. Like Cassie's OH my OH is an engineer (civil). In UK they get a fairly hard time, probably underpaid (certainly on global market scale) , definately over worked- blame culture fairly evident , little money for training, bonuses, pay-rises etc. Its a dog eat dog situation and anyone really really senior was likely to have trampled on lots of people on the way up and eaten his granny. I work in an allied industry and I saw the way people were treated in the early 90s (at a company with a chronic blame culture) and it was fairly miserable. Over competition has made working in the industry fairly miserable too as there is no money to do anything properly or really interesting and innovative.

Not like that here. Its fabulous by comparison. Pay far better, hours far shorter, far nicer atmosphere at work, people at high grades far nicer and more holistic. Far more pizza lunches. Really find the 'corporate uniform' funny here- all these logoed outfits etc. Had lots of training since we got here etc. Sure there are some downsides to this, like getting people to actually deliver, not really really thinking about things leanly because there is no driver to, but these badpoints are definately outweighed by the good points.

Of course we could lose our jobs here- but frankly that's no different to the UK (in fact probably less likely given what we hear from friends back home)).

Both me and OH work for companies awared '50 best managed' this year. So our experiences may not be entirely representative.

Gryph

Novocastrian

Most of the people on this sub-forum work in either the UK or Canada.

It'd be interesting to analyze the times the two groups post in terms of working vs non-working hours.

<and, no, I can't be bothered unless I can get a grant>

Essex_Man

My company is totally free and easy place to work. I want people to come to work because they like me and the place. I find we all have fun and people like me so much they work much harder. Nobody wants to work in a horrible place. Not when you spend most of your life doing it.

Oink

I'm sure you can get some gullible grad student to collect and crunch the data.