Workplace - Culture Shock!

[superhans88]

Started a new job as a design engineer recently, prior to this I was in an operations/production management role which I've been doing since finishing an engineering degree over 3 years ago.

I've become accustomed to working in a high-pressure, highly un-PC environment with lots of shouting and swearing, wisecracks and banter. To say it is a culture shock going from this to a quiet design office is an understatement in the extreme.

Has anyone experienced this too and what are the best ways to deal with it? I feel that I can't engage people in the same banter for fear of causing offence, but at the same time I don't want to completely restrain myself and make myself miserable.. I suppose it's all a balancing act!

[red_slr]

I did the reverse went from an office of engineers who spend their days sipping bad coffee and trawling thousands of rows of data in silence to a business that deals with tradesmen and public and a lot of bad apples in the mix. The first 12 months were like shell shock for me, I did not know this world existed and it took a lot of adjusting. 10 years later I am used to it and would probably last 2 minutes back in my old office before getting fired.

[AB]

I've gone both ways and it's weird how you adjust. Went from a Top 5 property consultancy where processes were in place for everything, monitored internet usage and a well educated, well spoken office full of mostly 50+ Directors to an M&E contractor with day to day management of electricians, scouse trainees and management who used the F word every opportunity they could, sent dodgy pics round the office and made very un PC jokes 24/7.

Without realising I started to swear a bit more and it was picked up on by my wife and family/friends.

Then I went client side into another well spoken office of slightly older ladies and gentlemen and had to adjust again to 'fit in' having become de-sensitised to the swearing etc.

[J1JPE]

Go darn t' pub wi' 'em and u'll b one o' th' lads then!

[AB]

J1JPE said:

Go darn t' pub wi' 'em and u'll b one o' th' lads then!

Pretty much this.

[Flooble]

I was a consultant for decades and would go from doing some work on a site with a bunch of "lads" to an office full of women and back again. You will just adapt, don't worry about it.

[HayesDC2]

Took me ages to get used to the silence, could almost feel the hatred whenever you generate any sort of noise.

For me it was finding the others that felt the same dotted around and then sending each other abuse via Skype.

[ChasW]

It's a vital part of your education. You have to adjust to the new culture and find out how to work it to your advantage. I find work culture fascinating particularly when organisations merge.

[jet_noise]

Did you spot the quiet when you were interviewed/shown round?
When I've gone for a new job it's pretty obvious whether there's a buzz about the place or not. Even within the same building different departments can be cheese & chalk.

In my workplace there's two electronic HW, 3 SW teams and a mixed test HW/SW team. One of the SW teams is on a different floor and their office is like a graveyard with some very odd uncommunicative people (as well as one or two normals). The rest vary with the most vocal being the mixed team.
My HW lot are pretty good. Being called a knobhead is a badge of pride. Much pisstaking and laughter in between the concentration. If it's too noisy then a PMP with in ear or noise cancelling headphones are the order of the day. I do it too when I need to focus

[Brads67]

try working offshore !

You develop 2 persona`s very rapidly because you could not act like that in normal society.

[CubanPete]

I went from production to design.

It was the lack of 'buzz' (panic) and the change from 2 hour problem solving to 6 month problem solving (different problems!) that I noticed the most.

[battered]

As you say it is very much a balancing act. Be careful, is my best advice. Be very careful. I work in consultancy, so I see typically 4 clients a year. All are different. The last role was 3 sites - Scottish highlands, Essex, West Mids. Totally different cultures as you can imagine. I managed to fit in each of them, which is not always the case. Every so often I catch a dud and it's bloody awful. Some cultures you just don't fit in, and I've been thrown out of places like that for an off the cuff remark.

So watch your behaviour and shift it to fit in. Be prepared for attitudes to shift over time. Jokes in particular do not age well. 20 years ago the George Michael/wellies joke was currency and could have been used in any office. 10 years ago, even. Try that today, you'll be gone by lunchtime. I think that jokes are more likely to land you in trouble than anything else, such as excessive swearing.

Another thing you may find useful to develop is the bland external persona. Regardless of your actual views, you don't want to get caught in the middle of "Gays are an abomination against God, they will burn in hell" vs "Actually my brother's gay" or anything else contentious, so the "Oh really" and "I can understand how you feel" is a very useful means of ensuring that you don't end up in the office being accused of suggesting that immigrants should be deported (or whatever). This is probably why the seniors at my current place spend all their time arguing about whether a 7 series can ever compete with an S class rather than anything of any importance.

You will start to learn what goes and where. I have one shift to whom I will cheerfully say "you'd better get this right, or I'll cut your balls off" without fear of recrimination, knowing that I'll get a laugh in addition to the desired result, another shift will get nothing other than "this is very important, I want to know this is going to happen, and I will be holding all here accountable".

[ruggedscotty]

Going from a technical helpdesk 24/7 role to part of a team that will be running a hospital has been a huge jump, quite different is an understatement and being in an office that is made up from different teams is an eye opener. Interesting but you do get used to it.

The biggest change is making that jump from shifts to working normal hours and dealing with a journey there at back at peak times.