
Toxic Work Culture in Europe - gabriellemic
https://medium.com/@gabriellemic/work-culture-in-europe-a398eaf2ab02
======
YeGoblynQueenne
The way those comments are reported, completely removed from the context of
the conversation, makes it very hard to draw any conclusion from them. It's
impossible to tell whether they go towards the point presumably made by the
title that there is a "toxic work culture in Europe" (full disclosure: I work
in Europe).

For instance, this comment: “Be a good soldier, do what you’re told and that’s
it.” Was the person being told to "be a good soldier" actually a soldier? Is
it metaphorical? What's going on there?

What about this one? “You need to learn, the contribution you can give right
now is very limited.” What is the context of this? Is the person being told so
a new graduate, and the person speaking a senior dev? Why are they being told
off? What's the situation?

“When I talk, you shut up and listen.” Again, what is the situation? Is this
really in a professional context (I find that very hard to believe)? Why is
this presented as evidence that the climate in Europe is "limiting
innovation"?

“You make it seem like you’ve been doing this for 50 years or something.”
Irony? Has the person really been doing that for 50 years? And what is "that"?
Mainframe programming? Washing dishes? Animal husbandry? What?

Besides, in the last few weeks I've read a bunch of articles on HN that are
very harshly critical of the work culture in the Valley, which I assume is
supposed to be the counterpoint to Europe's "cultural climate" (whatever
that's supposed to mean).

Maybe what's limiting growth in Europe is that we're still emerging from a
global economic crisis- and maybe the fact that despite all that Europe is one
of the most prosperous regions in the world with one of the highest standards
of living is actually a reason to celebrate its work culture.

------
DyslexicAtheist
"European" here[1], and I have no idea what I just read (lack of English
wasn't the problem). I think this article is a joke or maybe a bit surreal? Or
maybe written by somebody who had not enough sampling data from the rest of
the continent but only had 3 jobs and they were all in the same city in some
shitty place. Sure if you sample data exclusively from unhappy employees in
Europe your answer is predetermined: we're all shit.

[1]whatever that means because we all know every country here from Italy,
Spain, France, Romania, Croatia to Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Germany, UK
are all identical and can be lumped together :-)

