The further east of me the better, as the time difference means that any meeting with them needa to be in the morning and then will I get time to work on my own in the afternoon
Scandinavians. Very polite, often fun to be around, patient and mostly quick learning. Also very reliable.
Italians and Spaniards are cool, but they often dont give a shit about anything.
Germans are nice and smart but too attached to the manuals.
The French are nice, but they always do things as close to the deadline as possible and panic. French people can literally give 0 shit 99% of the time and wake up when something is about to be delivered. Also they lack patience. But I like them very much anyway.
Edit – outside of Europe I like the Japanese, but they could be a little more chill sometimes. I absolutely hate to work with Americans.
Absolutely least favourite are Italians, they are way too loud, and they talk to people even when there’s no need to talk, even to people they don’t know.
Estonians and Norwegians are my favourite ones, although the sample size for both is less than ten.
The only Mongolian we have is probably the best and hardiest worker in the whole company. If Finland could have half a million more Mongolians I’d be happy.
It’s not an international company, exactly, but I’m working with people from all over (immigrants like me).
Have to say first place goes to Philippines. Too bad most of them got their nurse’s licence and moved on to work somewhere else (and a couple of people who just moved elsewhere in the country).
Second place goes to Poland and Lithuania (of course, they should be mentioned together).
Scandis. Swedes especially! They got a sense of humor, a good headset and they get shit doen within normal office hours!
Least favorite for me would be between india and egypt. Harder to understand and there’s often a big gap between what they promise and what they actually deliver.
Eastern Europeans work incredibly hard and have a great sense of humor. Take the work seriously but not themselves as a rule. Also a very can do attitude. They are an absolute joy to work with – I have worked all across the Balkans, former USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova) and Baltic. Have learned so much from having the chance to travel and work with them and it’s been an absolutely amazing part of my life.
I have worked elsewhere and the experience was almost wholly negative. Won’t say where.
Not so different from Germans, but everything is a bit more relaxed. They tell me directly what they want, I don’t need to be constantly afraid too hurt any feelings, bc it’s just about business and never personal and you can have a good beer with them.
With Polish or Nordic colleagues too, but it can end much more quickly in hard drinking on Thursday evenings, even though you have to work on Fridays.
Well, I worked with a Portuguese (actually 3) who became one of my best friends, so definitely Portugal. Great to hang out with and friendly and outgoing.
I also like Germans in that I like honest feedback and they usually don’t sugarcoat it and go straight to the point.
Best? I like working with Italians, though they can be weird – they will compliment you to hell for every minor help, but then they will be angry af for every minor hiccup. There is no inbetween. I also like people from US, they are pretty chill.
Sadly, the worst experiences I had were with my own people. A lot of people here, especially born in the 70s and working in international corporations don’t really understand the culture and how to talk with other coworkers and they have very 90s way of solving problems, which is “the more unpleasant and angry I will be, the faster I can get the solution”. This is a leftover from the older times, where rudeness was a common trait in business.
I also don’t like working with people from India, purely because of their cultural inability to say “no”. I don’t want your assurance that you can do this task, when in reality you can’t and you’re just wasting time instead of honestly telling me that it cannot be done. They are hard working though.
I am from Austria and worked in two international companies. I travelled a lot (about 50 countries). My resumee: There are good and bad people everywhere. A person is defined by his actions and not by his country of birth, his religion, his skin color or his sexual preferences. I made friends all over the world, and I met people all over the world, where I am happy when I do not have to be in their presence. There are cultural differences of course (relationship to managers….) but when you get trough to the real person, all that labels are not needed any more.
Czechs. Hard-working, humble, creative mechanical engineers. It’s easy to come up with an expensive solution to a problem, Czechs are good at coming up with a cheap, unorthodox idea.
After 15 years in oil and gas I’d say the most brilliant people I worked with were Iranian. Calm, highly competent and team players. Only negative was that nearly all of them smoked. After them comes Canadians of Chinese decent. Found them very reliable and hard working.
I lived in Germany for over a decade. My favourite ones were Polish people. I found them to be extremely similar to us, Romanians. They’re hard working, reliable, modest, funny. They also used to have a bad reputation, but I guess theirs improved faster than ours. The ones I related the least with: Turkish people.
Greeks are no-nonsense competent people who deliver while outwardly not taking everything too seriously. Love it. Some Spanish people I worked with are like this too – it’s all just a joke, but still a joke to be taken seriously.
Working with french people otoh has not been very enjoyable I must say (barring exceptions ofc)
Danish and Polish, hard working and good sense of humour, specially the former. I’ve developed a deep love for Denmark since working with my nordic mates.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned before – my fav colleagues are from Croatia – very professional, reliable and actually involved in the company and the work they do, I just feel that they care and I work with 10+ countries on daily basis.
I work in a huge-ass British-Dutch multinational, in a UK based team as a Dutchie, we serve internal customers globally.
I have very good experiences with Norwegians (very close to the Dutch business culture), Irish and Polish. However if you mind the cultural differences also Turkish, Malaysian and Basque can be great to work with.
Romanians are great to work with. They just ‘get’ things and get stuff done, really pleasant.
I have a hard time working with Germans. Zero flexibility in anything,.way too formal about stuff.
Used to dread working with Americans who were in America. The expectation of being reachable outside work hours and on holidays – GTFO. Love working with Americans outside of America – always up for a laugh.
Excluding other Nordic countries, the British (and especially the Scottish). Little to no language barrier, similar attitudes and good sense of humour. Brits are a bit more hierarchical than Swedes though, but British understatement is not that far off from the Swedish way, and none of us are big on confrontations. The biggest cultural clash has probably been that the Brits don’t understand week numbering.
As for least favourite, Indians and Germans. The Indians will work hard, but never let you know they don’t understand something and won’t show initiative or think up solutions for themselves, you have to feed them everything and check up on them all the time. The Germans are in general not that different from other Europeans, but their strict adherence to rules is very annoying, especially in projects where there’s constant or fast change and you want to try and make things as good as they can get without being bound by made-up rules that don’t fit the current direction. And don’t get me started on German hierarchies and insistance on using titles (“Hr. Dr. Dr. Prof. Müller” and other crap).
US is mostly fine, but sometimes bad in weird ways.
Australians — I had only one encounter, and it was bad.
Indians are hit and miss. I’ve seen great guys, I’ve seen total incompetence. Former is more rare then latter. The worst are Indians with hiring power — they won’t hire literally anyone but other Indians.
Chinese are the worst. I have never seen a good one (doesn’t mean they don’t exist tho).
I’d say Germans and Scandinavians – straight to the point, respect the work-life balance boundaries, always prepared for the meetings, during which they ask meaningful questions. You could joke with them, have a bit of a small talk, but never in an overwhelming way. And Germans use meeting agendas and actually stick to them, I love that.
Like many others in the comments, I had the worst experience working with Indians – most of them were terribly incompetent (lying about their skills or results, procrastinating tasks until the last moment, hoping someone else would take care of them or abandoning tasks they couldn’t do) and disrespectful towards female colleagues (ignoring them on calls, being rude or responding only to messages from male colleagues).
Danish, British and Dutch are probably my favorites, similar work culture, humor and they generally get shit done. I work alot with Germans and while they are very skilled and hard working but they have a tendency to get caught in small details and fail to see the big picture which can be frustrating. And to make matters worse their English proficiency is more often than not subpar which can cause even more friction.
The French mostly stick to themselves at our London office but in our Montreal office they’re more friendly, maybe because they’re happy im another European.
The Germans really live up to various stereotypes, most of them have to be autistic, no other explanation for how they just cannot understand various social situations in the workplace.
Spainish are my faves, nice lads who are always easy to get along with.
Italians complain a lot in very dramatic ways and are often overwhelmed.
Honestly – most countries have a fairly similar track record. Most people are cool, a few are not, and usually the sample size is too small to really see a pattern.
That said, I’ve worked with quite a few Polish people, and I’ve only had good experiences. They’ve generally been friendly and easy to work with, and also, they’ve all had this sort of… well, whatever the opposite of complacency is. It’s as if they’re out to prove themselves, and they’re willing to put in the work to do it. Good traits to have in a coworker.
Have had great experiences working with people from The Balkans and Poland. Hard working, chill, and open people. Worst experiences have been working with French departments. Incredibly hierarchical, every question or request had to go through three levels of management.
Except for other Nordic countries I like the Britt’s. I like their humor. I also like the dutch because it feels like they are also solution oriented.
I don’t enjoy working with people from overly hierarchical countries. A simple change request ends up involving half the department and three managers plus a pile of pointless paperwork.
Can make it hard to get any work done sometimes.
I’ve managed a huge international team and my favourite ones are Estonians, Dutch and Germans. Although Germans take their job slightly maybe too seriously compared to the Dutch and Estonians. The British and Norwegians were okay too, but I didn’t click that well with them. As a Finn, Swedes have too much of this social play and politics.
My least favourite ones were Japanese, Chinese and Serbians. With Japanese and Chinese you never knew if they actually understood the task correctly before they delivered and giving them feedback was like walking on egg shells. My experience with Serbians was that they were hard to manage since I am not a Serbian. Hardworking people, but some attitude problems.
A different take: I have taught Italian to migrants and the most uniformly hardworking and nice students were by far the Bangladeshi. Always in a good mood, always trying their best and ready to help each other and other students.
I’ve mostly worked in European companies and somehow always made friends with the Danes and Portuguese.
I also really liked the Brits and Irish, although I found them harder to become actual friends with.
Least favourite I guess would be French. I actually speak French, but never mentioned it when I went to a different company, because they often prefer to speak in their own language.
The longer this thread grows, the more one realises is that it is not just beauty that lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Everybody who chips in here has their own set of quirks, expectations and weaknesses that may influence their experiences with colleagues.
Portuguese, Italian and Irish for sure my favourite, the Brits are mostly okay too. Americans are also great, they are most of the time super nice and helpful but everything is urgent.
German and Swiss the least because I hate how formal they are with all the titles. Also they become obsessed with small details and refuse to see the bigger picture. Also they give zero fucks about our lunch time. Indians very much depends on the person, either they are great or a complete chaos.
As a Romanian working abroad in many countries and continents I like working with Scandinavian people (I like their focus on making things functional and simpler…no small talk at work ) and Irish ☘️ ( happy lads to be around)
After having worked in an international role for 2 decades, I’d say it all depends on the work that needs to be done.
Simple jobs, repetitive work… appear to be no issue for people in the East. Don’t ask Americans to do this.
Careful planning, uncertainty, solving issues, technically difficult, large teams cooperating, rules and regulations to follow… Germans, Scandinavians.
Anything involving lots of money.. Americans for the initiation, approvals. They will also be happy to take the lead. Well, they will take the lead anyway. They will not contribute if a non-US person is leading something of high profile or high value. They will stab you in the back if they see a benefit for themselves.
I never had any issues with Brits or Latin Americans, or people from the Mediterranean, so-called Eastern Europeans, Aussies, Kiwis… They will help you get to your goal. Just be fair with them.
Ukrainians and the baltic states. In my last job I ran multiple remote development teams there and it was an absolute joy. Super skilled, fun to work with, similar humor, just overall a great experience.
When I worked in one; Germans were the best colleagues – level headed, sensible.
French were the most relatable – honest in that they’re here for money not because they love the idea of work. Strong commitment to work life balance in the favour of life.
Americans were the worst. Too enthusiastic and it’s like work was a religion to them. Good news for management with them was you could contact them at any hour and get a response.
Love working with Italians cause we have an easy time forming the disregard-the-hierarchy front and be flexible to stirr away from the planned process when it’s the better option. And the proper lunch breaks !
Love the Poles too because they have that no bullshit attitude and just want to get the job done correctly and it doesn’t really matter how.
As a german, dutch an english (probably scandinavians as well, but haven’t worked with one in professional setting).
I realy personally liked my czech and slovakian collegues a lot but on proffesional base they were a little exhausting. If we had a problem they were more focussed on washing themselves out of trouble then fixing the problem and avoiding it in future (lessons learned is realy important in supply chain.
So, I was getting a call that something didn’t work out and delivery is delayed. So I start to investigate what the root problem was and what needs to be done to avoid it in future. Were safetystocks reduced, was the truck ordered in time and most important, how do we solve the problem. At this stage, everything I need is an honest answer if the parts are available now and if the special transport is already organised.
Honestly, I can’t count anymore how often I had to to an inquisation like interview to get to the information that often just should be “yes, we messed up the timeline and need some additional buffer to cover the delivery” instead of tiptoeing around and waist my time. I’m like, come on, I know you messed up and will require an 8D anyways, that is your time for creative writing, not now, when we actively try to fix the problem and avoid fees of several thousand euros becaus you just shut down a JIS production line.
I’ve worked in a few countries around the world, and one international company in Europe, and generally I’ve always preferred working with people from anglophone countries, be they Canadian, American, British, Aussie or Kiwi.
As a general rule of thumb I’ve found that they take themselves way less seriously than almost all other countries on the continent, and are great for banter and small talk. They make for a much friendlier and collegial workplace in my experience.
I’ve worked a lot in international environments, in Europe, and found positive and negatives in all. More general observations as everyone is different.
French are good with vision and planning but can go into painful detail and grandstanding.
Belgians are very chill but not always very responsive if there are issues.
Germans are very solution oriented and pragmatic, but can get hung up on the rules.
Dutch are very frank and out spoken, but not diplomatic when needed.
Brits can be very diplomatic and pragmatic but don’t not always direct and can be passive-aggressive.
Swedes what everyone to collaborate but can be very reluctant to lead.
Danes work hard to minimise the amount of work required, good with efficiency, but sometimes go a bit too much work in being relaxed.
Americans are friendly but do not understand the concept of an indoors voice or personal space.
I always try to take the best from each, and work around the problems. I have always enjoyed working with pretty much everyone and when there have been problems, it’s the individual and not where they are from (except maybe Floridians).
I worked in a university, not at an international company, but there was a Polish woman. She moved to Ukraine to work at this university, and she was a highly qualified specialist, it was a pleasure to work with her. And the students loved her because she knew how to make boring lectures interesting. No one skipped her lectures.
Polish ppl. Every single one I have worked with was a rockstar and not rude about it. Stuff just gets done and done well with no ego or politics it is wild
Germans are extremely easy to get along with and we actually get shit done without stress. The ones I work with now are basically my friends and we’ve visited each other a few times (I’m in Serbia)
Unlike US/Canada and their constant pushing and meaningless meetings that go on forever.
I see people bashing Indians so I’m not gonna repeat that, just to add that Vietnamese can be very similar and often extremely unreliable.
The Singaporeans of Asian descent will always be my favorite coworkers. They have the Asian gentleness and welcoming spirit and are also hardworking and smarr
I work with clients in >20 different countries. My clients in Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Netherlands, and Greece have all been delightful. Portugal and USA stand out as the ones I find most abrasive and difficult to work with.
Comments
Rarely had problems with anyone.
I think the Poles, the Spanish and the Italian are the more pleasant to work with.
The further east of me the better, as the time difference means that any meeting with them needa to be in the morning and then will I get time to work on my own in the afternoon
Always have happy to work with Turkish, Romanian and Chinese coworkers.
Scandinavians. Very polite, often fun to be around, patient and mostly quick learning. Also very reliable.
Italians and Spaniards are cool, but they often dont give a shit about anything.
Germans are nice and smart but too attached to the manuals.
The French are nice, but they always do things as close to the deadline as possible and panic. French people can literally give 0 shit 99% of the time and wake up when something is about to be delivered. Also they lack patience. But I like them very much anyway.
Edit – outside of Europe I like the Japanese, but they could be a little more chill sometimes. I absolutely hate to work with Americans.
Absolutely least favourite are Italians, they are way too loud, and they talk to people even when there’s no need to talk, even to people they don’t know.
Estonians and Norwegians are my favourite ones, although the sample size for both is less than ten.
The only Mongolian we have is probably the best and hardiest worker in the whole company. If Finland could have half a million more Mongolians I’d be happy.
It’s not an international company, exactly, but I’m working with people from all over (immigrants like me).
Have to say first place goes to Philippines. Too bad most of them got their nurse’s licence and moved on to work somewhere else (and a couple of people who just moved elsewhere in the country).
Second place goes to Poland and Lithuania (of course, they should be mentioned together).
Third place is for Eritrea.
Scandis. Swedes especially! They got a sense of humor, a good headset and they get shit doen within normal office hours!
Least favorite for me would be between india and egypt. Harder to understand and there’s often a big gap between what they promise and what they actually deliver.
Italians and spanish are always fucking great fun. And I really appreciate the Frenchs get fucked attitude
Germans
Really get on with them. No drama. Level headed. Fair. Similar sense of humour to mine.
Eastern Europeans work incredibly hard and have a great sense of humor. Take the work seriously but not themselves as a rule. Also a very can do attitude. They are an absolute joy to work with – I have worked all across the Balkans, former USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova) and Baltic. Have learned so much from having the chance to travel and work with them and it’s been an absolutely amazing part of my life.
I have worked elsewhere and the experience was almost wholly negative. Won’t say where.
Definetely not Indians.
I’d say Germans. They don’t do useless calls. But sometimes they are very picky about stuff that nobody cares 🤣
Dutchies.
Not so different from Germans, but everything is a bit more relaxed. They tell me directly what they want, I don’t need to be constantly afraid too hurt any feelings, bc it’s just about business and never personal and you can have a good beer with them.
With Polish or Nordic colleagues too, but it can end much more quickly in hard drinking on Thursday evenings, even though you have to work on Fridays.
Poles…hardworking, do what they’re told to.a high standard and great to have on a company night out.
Of those outside Europe, Iranians, Chinese and South Africans
Well, I worked with a Portuguese (actually 3) who became one of my best friends, so definitely Portugal. Great to hang out with and friendly and outgoing.
I also like Germans in that I like honest feedback and they usually don’t sugarcoat it and go straight to the point.
I liked it the most with the Dutch and British, least with the French, extremely bossy, unreasonable, uncooperative, whiney. Just some of the worst.
Best? I like working with Italians, though they can be weird – they will compliment you to hell for every minor help, but then they will be angry af for every minor hiccup. There is no inbetween. I also like people from US, they are pretty chill.
Sadly, the worst experiences I had were with my own people. A lot of people here, especially born in the 70s and working in international corporations don’t really understand the culture and how to talk with other coworkers and they have very 90s way of solving problems, which is “the more unpleasant and angry I will be, the faster I can get the solution”. This is a leftover from the older times, where rudeness was a common trait in business.
I also don’t like working with people from India, purely because of their cultural inability to say “no”. I don’t want your assurance that you can do this task, when in reality you can’t and you’re just wasting time instead of honestly telling me that it cannot be done. They are hard working though.
Hungarians are autistic. Have no sense of business.
Romanians know business but are like scamy.
I love working with Greeks. They are slow, but at least try really hard communicate well and are real.
Germans and Scandinavians, without a doubt! (Almost) never late, usually excellent skills coupled with a chill attitude.
The worst – Americans and North Africans (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, etc.).
I have spent all of my working life abroad, and I have no experience really from my home country. Out of all the nationalites I like polish the most
I am from Austria and worked in two international companies. I travelled a lot (about 50 countries). My resumee: There are good and bad people everywhere. A person is defined by his actions and not by his country of birth, his religion, his skin color or his sexual preferences. I made friends all over the world, and I met people all over the world, where I am happy when I do not have to be in their presence. There are cultural differences of course (relationship to managers….) but when you get trough to the real person, all that labels are not needed any more.
Polish – sense of humour but no nonsense and straight to the point. Greeks – very loud but super friendly.
Maybe Brits. Great sense of humor and generally pretty chill. Although they’re not very direct and like to avoid any type of confrontation.
Czechs. Hard-working, humble, creative mechanical engineers. It’s easy to come up with an expensive solution to a problem, Czechs are good at coming up with a cheap, unorthodox idea.
Had really cool work experience with Slovenians and French. Never liked the Polish ones.
After 15 years in oil and gas I’d say the most brilliant people I worked with were Iranian. Calm, highly competent and team players. Only negative was that nearly all of them smoked. After them comes Canadians of Chinese decent. Found them very reliable and hard working.
I lived in Germany for over a decade. My favourite ones were Polish people. I found them to be extremely similar to us, Romanians. They’re hard working, reliable, modest, funny. They also used to have a bad reputation, but I guess theirs improved faster than ours. The ones I related the least with: Turkish people.
“If you get to know the Danish, you learn to appreciate the Germans”.
Greeks are no-nonsense competent people who deliver while outwardly not taking everything too seriously. Love it. Some Spanish people I worked with are like this too – it’s all just a joke, but still a joke to be taken seriously.
Working with french people otoh has not been very enjoyable I must say (barring exceptions ofc)
I find my India-based colleagues to be completely unreliable. Talk a big game all the time but never follow through
Danish and Polish, hard working and good sense of humour, specially the former. I’ve developed a deep love for Denmark since working with my nordic mates.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned before – my fav colleagues are from Croatia – very professional, reliable and actually involved in the company and the work they do, I just feel that they care and I work with 10+ countries on daily basis.
I work in a huge-ass British-Dutch multinational, in a UK based team as a Dutchie, we serve internal customers globally.
I have very good experiences with Norwegians (very close to the Dutch business culture), Irish and Polish. However if you mind the cultural differences also Turkish, Malaysian and Basque can be great to work with.
In order it will be something like
Most: Poles, Ukranians, Russians, Germans, Italians
Least: Spanish, Brazilians, Indians
Romanians are great to work with. They just ‘get’ things and get stuff done, really pleasant.
I have a hard time working with Germans. Zero flexibility in anything,.way too formal about stuff.
Used to dread working with Americans who were in America. The expectation of being reachable outside work hours and on holidays – GTFO. Love working with Americans outside of America – always up for a laugh.
Excluding other Nordic countries, the British (and especially the Scottish). Little to no language barrier, similar attitudes and good sense of humour. Brits are a bit more hierarchical than Swedes though, but British understatement is not that far off from the Swedish way, and none of us are big on confrontations. The biggest cultural clash has probably been that the Brits don’t understand week numbering.
As for least favourite, Indians and Germans. The Indians will work hard, but never let you know they don’t understand something and won’t show initiative or think up solutions for themselves, you have to feed them everything and check up on them all the time. The Germans are in general not that different from other Europeans, but their strict adherence to rules is very annoying, especially in projects where there’s constant or fast change and you want to try and make things as good as they can get without being bound by made-up rules that don’t fit the current direction. And don’t get me started on German hierarchies and insistance on using titles (“Hr. Dr. Dr. Prof. Müller” and other crap).
Any Europeans are fine.
US is mostly fine, but sometimes bad in weird ways.
Australians — I had only one encounter, and it was bad.
Indians are hit and miss. I’ve seen great guys, I’ve seen total incompetence. Former is more rare then latter. The worst are Indians with hiring power — they won’t hire literally anyone but other Indians.
Chinese are the worst. I have never seen a good one (doesn’t mean they don’t exist tho).
I’d say Germans and Scandinavians – straight to the point, respect the work-life balance boundaries, always prepared for the meetings, during which they ask meaningful questions. You could joke with them, have a bit of a small talk, but never in an overwhelming way. And Germans use meeting agendas and actually stick to them, I love that.
Like many others in the comments, I had the worst experience working with Indians – most of them were terribly incompetent (lying about their skills or results, procrastinating tasks until the last moment, hoping someone else would take care of them or abandoning tasks they couldn’t do) and disrespectful towards female colleagues (ignoring them on calls, being rude or responding only to messages from male colleagues).
Danish, British and Dutch are probably my favorites, similar work culture, humor and they generally get shit done. I work alot with Germans and while they are very skilled and hard working but they have a tendency to get caught in small details and fail to see the big picture which can be frustrating. And to make matters worse their English proficiency is more often than not subpar which can cause even more friction.
I have loads of foreign colleagues;
The French mostly stick to themselves at our London office but in our Montreal office they’re more friendly, maybe because they’re happy im another European.
The Germans really live up to various stereotypes, most of them have to be autistic, no other explanation for how they just cannot understand various social situations in the workplace.
Spainish are my faves, nice lads who are always easy to get along with.
Italians complain a lot in very dramatic ways and are often overwhelmed.
Honestly – most countries have a fairly similar track record. Most people are cool, a few are not, and usually the sample size is too small to really see a pattern.
That said, I’ve worked with quite a few Polish people, and I’ve only had good experiences. They’ve generally been friendly and easy to work with, and also, they’ve all had this sort of… well, whatever the opposite of complacency is. It’s as if they’re out to prove themselves, and they’re willing to put in the work to do it. Good traits to have in a coworker.
Have had great experiences working with people from The Balkans and Poland. Hard working, chill, and open people. Worst experiences have been working with French departments. Incredibly hierarchical, every question or request had to go through three levels of management.
I’d say Brazilians, they’re always friendly and good company.
Except for other Nordic countries I like the Britt’s. I like their humor. I also like the dutch because it feels like they are also solution oriented.
I don’t enjoy working with people from overly hierarchical countries. A simple change request ends up involving half the department and three managers plus a pile of pointless paperwork.
Can make it hard to get any work done sometimes.
I’ve managed a huge international team and my favourite ones are Estonians, Dutch and Germans. Although Germans take their job slightly maybe too seriously compared to the Dutch and Estonians. The British and Norwegians were okay too, but I didn’t click that well with them. As a Finn, Swedes have too much of this social play and politics.
My least favourite ones were Japanese, Chinese and Serbians. With Japanese and Chinese you never knew if they actually understood the task correctly before they delivered and giving them feedback was like walking on egg shells. My experience with Serbians was that they were hard to manage since I am not a Serbian. Hardworking people, but some attitude problems.
I have worked with everybody. It is not even close. India. Hands down the best employees, co workers.
A different take: I have taught Italian to migrants and the most uniformly hardworking and nice students were by far the Bangladeshi. Always in a good mood, always trying their best and ready to help each other and other students.
I’ve mostly worked in European companies and somehow always made friends with the Danes and Portuguese.
I also really liked the Brits and Irish, although I found them harder to become actual friends with.
Least favourite I guess would be French. I actually speak French, but never mentioned it when I went to a different company, because they often prefer to speak in their own language.
The longer this thread grows, the more one realises is that it is not just beauty that lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Everybody who chips in here has their own set of quirks, expectations and weaknesses that may influence their experiences with colleagues.
Portuguese, Italian and Irish for sure my favourite, the Brits are mostly okay too. Americans are also great, they are most of the time super nice and helpful but everything is urgent.
German and Swiss the least because I hate how formal they are with all the titles. Also they become obsessed with small details and refuse to see the bigger picture. Also they give zero fucks about our lunch time. Indians very much depends on the person, either they are great or a complete chaos.
As a Romanian working abroad in many countries and continents I like working with Scandinavian people (I like their focus on making things functional and simpler…no small talk at work ) and Irish ☘️ ( happy lads to be around)
After having worked in an international role for 2 decades, I’d say it all depends on the work that needs to be done.
Simple jobs, repetitive work… appear to be no issue for people in the East. Don’t ask Americans to do this.
Careful planning, uncertainty, solving issues, technically difficult, large teams cooperating, rules and regulations to follow… Germans, Scandinavians.
Anything involving lots of money.. Americans for the initiation, approvals. They will also be happy to take the lead. Well, they will take the lead anyway. They will not contribute if a non-US person is leading something of high profile or high value. They will stab you in the back if they see a benefit for themselves.
I never had any issues with Brits or Latin Americans, or people from the Mediterranean, so-called Eastern Europeans, Aussies, Kiwis… They will help you get to your goal. Just be fair with them.
Ukrainians and the baltic states. In my last job I ran multiple remote development teams there and it was an absolute joy. Super skilled, fun to work with, similar humor, just overall a great experience.
When I worked in one; Germans were the best colleagues – level headed, sensible.
French were the most relatable – honest in that they’re here for money not because they love the idea of work. Strong commitment to work life balance in the favour of life.
Americans were the worst. Too enthusiastic and it’s like work was a religion to them. Good news for management with them was you could contact them at any hour and get a response.
Honestly? North Africans (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia). They focus on work and getting the job done and less on gossip and after-work activities
Love working with Italians cause we have an easy time forming the disregard-the-hierarchy front and be flexible to stirr away from the planned process when it’s the better option. And the proper lunch breaks !
Love the Poles too because they have that no bullshit attitude and just want to get the job done correctly and it doesn’t really matter how.
My boss is from Italy and I absolutely love the way she works and manages our team. She has a sense of humor and is pretty chill and relaxed.
The best: Germans, good communication, care about details.
Spanish and Brazilians: fun to work with, and get it done.
The worst: by far the French! Arrogance and classist at a level I‘ve never experienced before, and passive aggressive. The do the best lunches though.
As a german, dutch an english (probably scandinavians as well, but haven’t worked with one in professional setting).
I realy personally liked my czech and slovakian collegues a lot but on proffesional base they were a little exhausting. If we had a problem they were more focussed on washing themselves out of trouble then fixing the problem and avoiding it in future (lessons learned is realy important in supply chain.
So, I was getting a call that something didn’t work out and delivery is delayed. So I start to investigate what the root problem was and what needs to be done to avoid it in future. Were safetystocks reduced, was the truck ordered in time and most important, how do we solve the problem. At this stage, everything I need is an honest answer if the parts are available now and if the special transport is already organised.
Honestly, I can’t count anymore how often I had to to an inquisation like interview to get to the information that often just should be “yes, we messed up the timeline and need some additional buffer to cover the delivery” instead of tiptoeing around and waist my time. I’m like, come on, I know you messed up and will require an 8D anyways, that is your time for creative writing, not now, when we actively try to fix the problem and avoid fees of several thousand euros becaus you just shut down a JIS production line.
I’ve worked in a few countries around the world, and one international company in Europe, and generally I’ve always preferred working with people from anglophone countries, be they Canadian, American, British, Aussie or Kiwi.
As a general rule of thumb I’ve found that they take themselves way less seriously than almost all other countries on the continent, and are great for banter and small talk. They make for a much friendlier and collegial workplace in my experience.
I’ve worked a lot in international environments, in Europe, and found positive and negatives in all. More general observations as everyone is different.
French are good with vision and planning but can go into painful detail and grandstanding.
Belgians are very chill but not always very responsive if there are issues.
Germans are very solution oriented and pragmatic, but can get hung up on the rules.
Dutch are very frank and out spoken, but not diplomatic when needed.
Brits can be very diplomatic and pragmatic but don’t not always direct and can be passive-aggressive.
Swedes what everyone to collaborate but can be very reluctant to lead.
Danes work hard to minimise the amount of work required, good with efficiency, but sometimes go a bit too much work in being relaxed.
Americans are friendly but do not understand the concept of an indoors voice or personal space.
I always try to take the best from each, and work around the problems. I have always enjoyed working with pretty much everyone and when there have been problems, it’s the individual and not where they are from (except maybe Floridians).
I worked in a university, not at an international company, but there was a Polish woman. She moved to Ukraine to work at this university, and she was a highly qualified specialist, it was a pleasure to work with her. And the students loved her because she knew how to make boring lectures interesting. No one skipped her lectures.
Polish ppl. Every single one I have worked with was a rockstar and not rude about it. Stuff just gets done and done well with no ego or politics it is wild
Spanish for their energy and class, Swiss for their can do attitude to work and quirkiness. Scots,Irish, Dutch, German and Hungarian for the banter
Germans are extremely easy to get along with and we actually get shit done without stress. The ones I work with now are basically my friends and we’ve visited each other a few times (I’m in Serbia)
Unlike US/Canada and their constant pushing and meaningless meetings that go on forever.
I see people bashing Indians so I’m not gonna repeat that, just to add that Vietnamese can be very similar and often extremely unreliable.
The Singaporeans of Asian descent will always be my favorite coworkers. They have the Asian gentleness and welcoming spirit and are also hardworking and smarr
I work with clients in >20 different countries. My clients in Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Netherlands, and Greece have all been delightful. Portugal and USA stand out as the ones I find most abrasive and difficult to work with.