I have now completed my first week of the summer program at ESSEC. We have a new professor every day, and lecture topics this week included culture, diversity, ethics, and negotiations. The most interesting parts of the classes have been group discussions about the differences in our cultures. Here are a few interesting facts my classmates told us about their workplace cultures:
- In South Korea, adults are spending so much time working and having so few babies that there is a growing concern about the low birth rate in the country. So much so, in fact, that the government has instituted a mandatory "family day" each month in which workers are required to go home early, in hopes that this gives them time to make bigger families. Apparently the only way to force South Koreans to go home from their jobs is to literally turn off the lights in all of the office buildings.
- In Japan, it is very different to get a full time job after college. And if you are not able to get a job at that time, it is not likely you will ever find one, so you end up working part time for the rest of your life. However, if you are one of the lucky ones to get a job, you will have that job for life, and can not be fired for poor performance or even sleeping at work!
- In France, it is common to put your age, marital status, and number of children on your resume. There are age limits on some jobs, and the number of children is code for showing that you are bourgeois Catholic, which designates that you are part of the upper middle class.
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