JohnThePom

You've got a point tiri, but it's nothing specifically to do with NZ culture. The companies that I have worked for in the UK (They were American owned) went on and on about encouraging input from the workforce and asking for good ideas on how to improve things - but as soon as you challenge the way a manager or even a peer does things then many people feel threatened and they either nod and do nothing, or knock you back. It's just human nature.

There are some people who are good at listening and there are a few that are both good at listening and putting things into practice as a result. Those people are real diamonds and correspondingly rare.

It also depends on the diplomacy of the person with the suggestion. I have to confess I'm not that diplomatic and as a result some good ideas I've had have been passed over because I've not presented them ideally. I'm at least partly to blame for that.

AndyR

Personally, when I joined my company 10 months ago there were about 40 staff, but we were growing quickly. After 6 months this number was at 120. BUT, from that I've seen about 15-20 leave after 2-3 months of joining, 8 british, 3 americans, 3 australians in that. All of them have left because they dont feel they can make a difference because there suggestions are not being listened too.

I'm the same. Got 12 years experience in my area, come into the company but I'm being overruled by other staff and managers with zero experience in the area I'm employed in. So I'm just waiting for my visa probation to finish and them I'm outta this place to find something else.

Seems to be a similar pattern with othere expats I've met too

JohnThePom

I'm not challenging your experience here, but I do find it surprising that people think that they can join a company with a hundred or so people and that the existing staff will do things their way when they have been there only 2 months.

Just seems unrealistic to me.

Think of it from a managers point of view. He has 80 new-hires all wanting to do things their own way. Nightmare.

tiri

Ditto, except with me I left the country because there weren't many other employers I could go to. Every other country I've worked in does things more or less the same but in NZ does it its own way. Great I say if you can adapt to arcane working practices and are ok with ineffeciency, not so good if you just want to do a good job and go home at the end of the day feeling that you've accomplished something.

lisamct

Well they've already implemented one of the changes I suggested and so far the feedback on it has been good so maybe my unit is in the minority of being able to actually work as a team and respect everyones opinions.

AndyR

Thats the big problem. Here you've got a company who've had pretty much the same staff for 10 years. They have recently been taken over by a larger company and are expanding rapidly, hence the new staff, but when the new staff suggest improvements you get shot down or ignored.

I'm basically having to do things "the wrong way" because thats how the company did them in the past. There is basically no point me being employed as my experience doesn't count for anything as no matter what I suggest or say, i'm overruled by other managers and staff with no experience. Found out today on my lunch break that another person is leaving, he has been there 4 months, and told me he's leaving because he feels like he's getting dumber by the day

I've always been pro-active at work, looking for ways to improve the business, but it seems that wanted to improve the business is frowned upon here, and if you can find a complicated way to do something simple, that'll be the preferred choice. Made friends with a couple of couple since we arrived to, all recent migrants from the UK and USA, and both have the same experiences.

Oh well, work again tomorrow so another day of getting dumber