Even though most workers are ‘entitled’ to a 10 min tea break you’ll find the majority do not physically leave their desks to take it. They will simply go and get their tea or coffee and, as Leonardo has noticed, return to their desks and continue working. Of course, the smokers all take time out to leave their desks as all internal spaces are ‘smoke free’. He may find it easier to socialise with his colleages during his lunch break as this is the time they would probably leave the work environment and ‘go for a walk’ or visit the local cafes etc. Also, meeting for drinks after work, particularly on Friday evenings, is quite common, especially now as our days are getting longer. The evenings are really the best time of the day to be outside – not too hot and quite lovely around the water at Darling Harbour, King Street Wharf etc. Glad you found Broadway Leonardo – our family who live down near the Rocks – travel to Broadway to do the majority of their food shopping.
Maple Leaf
November 28th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Like Katherine, I was going to suggest that socializing may happen outside office hours. When I started working in the UK I was surpised that the office was so quiet! Tea/coffee breaks are usually only a break to make the beverage and then everyone brings it back to their desk and drinks it while working. Lunch breaks where I worked were very rare. But, after about a year I finally starting making friends with colleagues and we decided to have lunch out once a month. Socializing was done on evenings (usually once a month on a Thusday or Friday) at a local bar and that’s how you get to know people.
I don’t know what the turnover is like at Leonardo’s new companym but where I worked/work turnover was so high that you needed to prove you were going to stick around a bit for people to invest in you.
Leonardo may try asking someone to tell him or show him where the best local sandwich shops are, etc. That’s also a good way to get someone to actually take a break with you and show you around.
Fraussie
November 28th, 2011 at 10:13 am
Thanks, Katherine and Maple Leaf, for your suggestions. I think the point about the turnover is important. It seem there is a high degree of what is called casualisation in Australia now, meaning that people don’t have fixed term contracts so don’t want to become involved with co-workers who are not going to stay long.
karlfest
December 1st, 2011 at 9:41 pm
It might also be this strange American work ethic creeping into Au working life. Broadly speaking, we see Europe as highly regulated, shorter hours, lots of holiday time, while the US has long hours, fewer holidays, lots of extra time expected to be spent at work ( with a lot of the day spent faffing around ) with long hours recognised as some kind of ‘going beyond the call of duty’, hence applauded. Australia is somewhere in between. Especially in tech. We all seem to be overworked and busy. And there’s definitely a shorter term view of employment, versus the longer term, ‘job for life’ that appears to be somewhat the norm in Eu/France ( well, from how we see it at least).
Fraussie
December 2nd, 2011 at 9:43 am
It’ll be interesting to see Leonardo’s answer to that. I’ve never worked in a company either in Australia or France as I’ve always freelanced. There’s certainly more holiday time with 5 weeks paid holiday, lots of public holidays and what they call RTT which is time off in lieu of extra hours worked. Also, in France, you can’t have more than one repeat of a fixed-term contract.
Actually I just found a place that’s open late enough : Broadway shopping centre, in Chippendale.
I’m saved !
http://www.broadway.com.au/trading-hours
Even though most workers are ‘entitled’ to a 10 min tea break you’ll find the majority do not physically leave their desks to take it. They will simply go and get their tea or coffee and, as Leonardo has noticed, return to their desks and continue working. Of course, the smokers all take time out to leave their desks as all internal spaces are ‘smoke free’. He may find it easier to socialise with his colleages during his lunch break as this is the time they would probably leave the work environment and ‘go for a walk’ or visit the local cafes etc. Also, meeting for drinks after work, particularly on Friday evenings, is quite common, especially now as our days are getting longer. The evenings are really the best time of the day to be outside – not too hot and quite lovely around the water at Darling Harbour, King Street Wharf etc. Glad you found Broadway Leonardo – our family who live down near the Rocks – travel to Broadway to do the majority of their food shopping.
Like Katherine, I was going to suggest that socializing may happen outside office hours. When I started working in the UK I was surpised that the office was so quiet! Tea/coffee breaks are usually only a break to make the beverage and then everyone brings it back to their desk and drinks it while working. Lunch breaks where I worked were very rare. But, after about a year I finally starting making friends with colleagues and we decided to have lunch out once a month. Socializing was done on evenings (usually once a month on a Thusday or Friday) at a local bar and that’s how you get to know people.
I don’t know what the turnover is like at Leonardo’s new companym but where I worked/work turnover was so high that you needed to prove you were going to stick around a bit for people to invest in you.
Leonardo may try asking someone to tell him or show him where the best local sandwich shops are, etc. That’s also a good way to get someone to actually take a break with you and show you around.
Thanks, Katherine and Maple Leaf, for your suggestions. I think the point about the turnover is important. It seem there is a high degree of what is called casualisation in Australia now, meaning that people don’t have fixed term contracts so don’t want to become involved with co-workers who are not going to stay long.
It might also be this strange American work ethic creeping into Au working life. Broadly speaking, we see Europe as highly regulated, shorter hours, lots of holiday time, while the US has long hours, fewer holidays, lots of extra time expected to be spent at work ( with a lot of the day spent faffing around ) with long hours recognised as some kind of ‘going beyond the call of duty’, hence applauded. Australia is somewhere in between. Especially in tech. We all seem to be overworked and busy. And there’s definitely a shorter term view of employment, versus the longer term, ‘job for life’ that appears to be somewhat the norm in Eu/France ( well, from how we see it at least).
It’ll be interesting to see Leonardo’s answer to that. I’ve never worked in a company either in Australia or France as I’ve always freelanced. There’s certainly more holiday time with 5 weeks paid holiday, lots of public holidays and what they call RTT which is time off in lieu of extra hours worked. Also, in France, you can’t have more than one repeat of a fixed-term contract.