Working in America
Michael Recently, AOL had its semi-annual "Performance Review," the evaluation that determines whether you get a raise or not. I had to write down what I had done and achieved in the company over the past six months, in a truly American way, of course, meaning no false modesty! Then my boss, Tom, had to review the whole thing, add his comments, and evaluate my performance. I then had to respond to it, and the whole thing went up one hierarchical level to Gregg, Tom's boss (in the company, everyone calls each other by their first name, and even if Steve Case, the boss of AOL, were to drop by, it would simply be "Steve"). I did quite well, but the funny thing about their comments was that the only negative point they mentioned was that I was often a bit blunt and sarcastic in my emails, which is not customary here in America. If something doesn't work, you don't say, "Why the hell isn't this working?" but rather, "Great! Just one little thing: It would be suuu-per if it worked too!" By now, I've become much more moderate; an important American principle is to always highlight the positive aspect of a situation and mention the negative in passing, so as not to discourage people! This is also why schools are sparing with bad grades, and even those who only manage to get a high school diploma already get a graduation cap. Americans would never say, "I can't do it," they would try it in any case, and I do think that's a significant part of the economic success here in Silicon Valley. Especially in the software industry, things sometimes seem endlessly difficult when you tackle them. Oh dear! That's what the guy at Siemens would say and abandon the project, but the developer here happily dives in and casually tries all sorts of things--and eventually, it works out. Not right away, but after all, delivery dates can be postponed.
An important American principle that people in Germany should not hesitate to consider is that holidays falling on a weekend are not simply lost, no, no! When Germans are once again annoyed that May 1st falls on a Sunday, Americans can only laugh about it -- if the American national holiday, July 4th, falls on a Saturday, then Friday is a day off. Hooray! Holidays are, of course, primarily used for shopping -- when else do you really have time? The stores are, of course, open all day and lure people in with super bargain offers -- and they send out flyers leading up to the date until the mailbox is overflowing.
