Both of us have found the obsession of different bosses we've had both in Auckland and here in Dunedin obsessing about staff having tea breaks together and eating together at 'lunch' time. It must be a kiwi thing as I've never known anything like it back home. My break times are my time, I've had many arguments about it and still refuse to piss about at work drinking tea or eating with all the staff hearing boring stories about what they watched on TV last night or what they have planned for the weekend.

I'll not start on how I'm forced to use more than half of my meager holiday entitlement at Christmas leaving me with hardly any holiday time for the other 11 and half months.

Someone (a longer-term ex-pat) told me - 'It's not that Kiwis are rude - it's just that they have no manners.' It's taken me a while to puzzle out the difference but I do get what she meant. And I agree (although some people, like everywhere, are just plain rude too!).

britsinnz - you may find voluntary teaching English 'one to one' to a refugee more rewarding. You and your 'learners' are treated well during training with high levels of political correctness all round.
http://englishlanguage.org.nz/wellington/teach-english

I had a TESOL qualification but still found the couple of Induction days useful. It's also good for meeting other like-minded volunteers.

Clearly it varies depending on what job you do. I worked in an office environment before university and had no wish to socialise with my work mates particularly.

However what I do now is different, it is seen as a vocation and that extends down to the support staff to some extent as well. As a result we all have something in common and most workmates become friends.
All my bosses in NZ and the UK have insisted on tea breaks, though not necessarily together. In fact it would be nigh on impossible to get every member of staff to take a break at the same time due to the nature of my job That mandated 10.30 break can be taken at 10am or 11.30 depending on circumstances, or not at all if the brown stuff hits the fan.

That break is a good chance to check on what people have been up to, ask advice on a difficult case from colleagues, look something up, have a bit of a laugh, zone out after an upsetting situation, have a rest after a mentally and physically challenging job, recharge, sit down for a few minutes and finally get something to drink. Even the rude boss understood that need

With you on the forced Xmas leave, that would drive me mad. Luckily that will never be an issue for me, my work does not stop just because it's a holiday. In fact we usually get busier

Thanks for this luvwelly.

I think that sums it up nicely actually.

You mention tea breaks. At least you get them. I rarely get a tea of lunch break at all. (Unless you count working at my desk while grabbing a bite and a cuppa a lunch break)

Yup, that was pretty much what I thought after my first trip to NZ in 1994. I don't know if they just delight in being difficult or off hand when they hear a foreign accent or what.

Can we have less of the "they" generalisations please. Some of the rudest people I have met in NZ have been expats.

This thread is spiralling down towards closure. Thank you!

Just to add my thoughts to Catchafire's ....


Often when we experience something and then later share that info or experience we tend to generalise (and I hold my hand up to that, I have done it too). So instead of writing/saying something such as "The people in <country A> all eat a lot", maybe we should say something like "When I was in <country A> I saw people eating a lot in the resturants I ate in" etc etc.

So it's not "all" but rather "some" or "I saw." However even using those terms doesn't, and shouldn't, mean that all the people in country A eat a lot. I mean how would we know we haven't met or haven't seen all of the people in country A. Maybe the day we sat in the restaurant and saw the person eating a lot they had missed breakfast and lunch and were really hungry. All that to say that in life we should be mindful not to generalize, and more mindful of how we write a post, or express ourselves when we are speaking to someone, and perhaps give some thought to when we use the word "all."

So for example one could say that it may have been better to title this thread "Are some Kiwi employers 'rude'?" Or "Are all kiwi employers rude? Discuss" or something like that.

But I do understand that it's only natural we are going to compare working culture and etiquette etc but lets try not to generalize and rather share our individual experiences.