Cultural differences. Experience with the French

After reading articles on the topic of cultural differences, I decided to share my experience.

I worked in several foreign companies, currently I work in a company with foreign capital, specifically French, about the work with the French and I will tell you.

I work in Ukraine. In the main and several main offices of our company in Ukraine, there are a lot of French in management positions (top management, CIOs, department heads) and ordinary employees (sales managers, economists, logistics).
I want to say at once that those Frenchmen who have been working here for 3-5 years speak Russian well, speak English well (French accent is quite pleasant in English as for me), understand all traditions, understand jokes, slang and almost nothing in character and communication does not differ from other employees, who are mostly Ukrainians. The only difference is always the style of clothes, the manner of dressing. They all wear coats in winter, autumn, spring. No down jackets even at -20, always a coat and scarf, is the rule. And, yes, be sure to light unshaven.

Those Frenchmen who come to us directly from Paris (where our central office is located) are overly cultured in dealing with strangers and people they know. To ask where the toilet is located is very inconvenient for them, they apologize a lot and are very grateful when they are given an answer to their question. For us, any questions are normal things, they are very reluctant to ask subtle questions and only in a situation where they themselves cannot find the answer to this question. They are very happy when they are invited somewhere and always willingly agree. Inviting somewhere is always a reason to talk, and they love to talk. On any topic.
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Communication Basically, they have to communicate in English, as very few people know French among our colleagues, but the French do not like English very much. All French. Everything.
If you come to our Paris office and try to start speaking English with someone, in response you can see the disgruntled face of a Frenchman. If before that you try to ask something in French (consciously at the same time), mix the question with Russian words, and then still ask in English - the Frenchman will understand that you still respect their language, but unfortunately do not speak. Such a small trifle initially changes further communication with a person.

Regarding IT. The most important difference between us and the French is “IT polyglot. If our programmer can know, for example, Java, PHP, bash, perl and some more languages ​​at least at a basic level, then French programmers have a more precise approach to learning languages. There is a department where they develop in Java, there is a department where on something else, administrators - one knows the hardware, the second knows bash, the third is perl, someone else is SQL, but there is not one person who knows several languages ​​or works in several directions. The French are very surprised to us, as this one programmer can know so much and use several languages ​​in his work. Therefore, we are valued, we communicate even with ordinary programmers during breaks or simply at a meeting, they organize trainings and internships in Paris, if only all the staff would be satisfied.

Back side. The French as IT professionals are very good, especially at the executive level. Everything is always very correct, accurate and on time. They are great analysts. Very picky about the details (in a reasonable limit and a good sense of expression). They never suffer from bureaucratic inclinations, do not invent unnecessary rules and unnecessary procedures. Everything is always clear and well-developed rules. They are very afraid of any risks, because the risk operations departments are quite steep at them, although, according to them, our specialists are not worse than them and even better.

Attitude towards employees. The French do not consider us a cheap labor, on the contrary, they value every employee and support them in every way. For example, recently, when the new tax code was introduced, the amount of the tax contribution increased. When the advance came, everyone was very surprised that it was less than $ 100 to $ 300. depending on the RFP. In the end, it turned out that the salary will decrease by an amount of 40u.e. up to 200u.e. each, depending on the RFP. Trifle, but unpleasant. Especially since they have already been informed of this after the fact. The situation in our country was given to the leadership in Paris, the reaction came rather quickly, it soon became known that we would be compensated for all this, asked not to worry. They asked for information as quickly as possible to convey to employees of all ranks so that no one would worry and know that he would receive his full salary.

Finally, I can say that I really like working with the French. There is nothing to compare. He worked in an Israeli company, worked with Italians, worked with Czechs, worked with Americans, Hindus. The French are somehow closer to us than it seems at first glance. Everything written above is not only experience in my company, I have comrades in France + I communicate closely with foreign colleagues, I adopt experience, so to speak.

The next story will be about Italians.