Hi, everyone and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hi, 安澜.

Hi Lulu, hi everyone.

That brings us to a very interesting question you mentioned briefly earlier, the power distance. Now I taught cross cultural communication before. So this whole 权力距离 power distance is the distance between just like an entry level employee, for example, and the CEO, and the management, if the power distance is like shorter, that means you are more equal. It is longer, that means it’s more hierarchical. There are many layers.

What would you say about British workplace? Is it more hierarchical or is it flatter?

In the UK, it's very much low power distance. So bosses are expected to be on first name terms with their employees, and also the idea of easy access to managers is expected. So for example, if I was working for a British company, and even if I was like a really junior position, I would still expect that if I needed to, I would be able to speak to the CEO or the boss.

Isn't that a bit idealistic though?

It is a bit idealistic, but it's obviously you don't go up to the CEO and to say, hi, can you help me kind of with this? No. But it's the idea that it's expected that they cannot just say no, they'll think of an excuse maybe, but they can't just say no.

I think the expectation is people who are actually in senior management position they should see themselves as part of the team instead of superior.

Exactly. And with a low power distance, there’s a certain degree of personal charisma that comes into it. So bosses are expected to be leaders. They are expected to lead by example and they are also expected to be there for their employees as well.

They don't just bark orders at people. They're supposed to be like the strong backing to support the team as well.

A term that you might hear in English is first among equals.

First among equals, I see.

You do have a little bit more authority because of your position, but just relying on your position is not enough. You also need to work hard and you also need to set an example.

You also need to have that personal charisma for people to respect you.

Exactly. And part of that is listening to junior staff members. Because they are also expected to give their own opinions and suggestions.

What about seniority? How do you regard seniority? If you, let's say there are two employees, A has worked with his company for 20 years and B has only worked here for a year.

It's all based on performance.

It's not an automatic seniority rules kind of thing, because A has 20 years of experience.

It depends on the experience and it also depends on the performance as well. So it’s not something as automatically given. And this is a big thing in the UK around recruitment exercises. So when you recruit people, it's... you don't, for example, share things like age.

Yeah, I think you get sued right, for age, discrimination for ages, but that's another, whole other topic.

Moving away from this really heavy topic about hierarchy and power distance. By the way, what we're saying is the generalized version. Obviously, there are specific companies, there are specific industries that are very different.

They have their own company culture.

Some industries can be very hierarchical wherever they are.

Let's move on to a more, let's say visible part which is dress code. Would you say British people at workplace are still reasonably conservative?

Very much so, it’s what we call business casual. So for example, wearing a shirt and shoes and trousers if for men, blazer, maybe skirts, and trousers for women. Jeans are not worn in an office.

Is it one of those like if you wear jeans, people will have some thoughts about, negative thoughts about you or is it just an unspoken rule?

It's in many companies. It's just not allowed to wear jeans.

Not allowed? I guess unless you're like directly client facing in some specific specialized industries, right?

Similar with jeans, shorts, T-shirts, trainers are generally not acceptable by anybody.

Trainers, so like sports shoes?

Can't wear them. Not allowed to wear them.

I see. I feel so much better about my dress code which is at the university we don't really have a dress code.

Yeah, but in the UK it's still very much a dress code. I always think it's better to be overdressed rather than under dressed.

That's true. I completely agree with 安澜 on this. It's better to be overdressed rather than under-dressed, which means if in doubt, always try to be more formal because if you're just more formal and everyone else is more casual, then all they're gonna say is like you look smart today. But if you are the only casual dresser among a bunch of people who are completely suited up, you are gonna feel so out of place. Unless you are the boss. Better to be overdressed rather than under-dressed.

As we're coming to the end of this topic, we talked about all these serious stuff. Let's talk about socializing. When every time I go to London or when I was living in London, it was so common to see in a pub, like after 4, 5, 6 around the time that people get off from work, you see a bunch of people wearing suits for business gear, they obviously came from directly from the office. They are obviously colleagues. They would just go into a pub and they would have a couple of drinks and talk. Is that very common?

Very, very common, colleagues in many companies still go for drinks on a Friday night or Friday evening.

Or maybe Thursday evening in the city of London.

So that's still a very important part of working for a large company and not even large companies, even smaller companies. You would normally go out for drinks with your colleagues on a Friday, maybe just one or two pints just to talk, just to relax. In these type of situations, you probably buy a round for your colleagues and at least offer to buy them a drink.

Two questions though, here. First of all, I heard from some of my students or fans before, they were a bit worried and these are mostly girls who don't really drink. And they're worried that I'm going to the UK, or I'm going to be working in the UK, does that mean that I will be left out of the company circle like the inner circle of the company, just because I don't drink, so I don't necessarily want to go to a pub.

The thing is that nowadays, actually nowadays in the UK fewer people are drinking as much as they used to. Particularly younger people because of the health, changing attitudes. So you could still go for a drink, but you can just drink a soft drink. There's nothing wrong with that.

Going is what matters.

You still have to go.

There's no such thing as going for coffee, probably when you get off work is too late for a coffee.

Exactly, but you can have a soft drink. It's about going and it's important to note that nobody is gonna force you to drink. Forcing people to drink is seen as a bit unacceptable.

But you will have to offer to buy rounds around for people.

It's just a very nice gesture, it’s a way of showing that your part of the team.

So you can easily just buy yourself a soft drink, but buy other people the drink they want whether it's alcoholic or soft.

Yes.

The other question is, do you actually, so in this socializing moments, do you guys actually still talk about work? Or do you also talk a little bit about your personal stuff, like family?

It depends on how close you are with your colleagues. Obviously, the same as any workplace, some people that you're quite close with, your friends; with other people you're less close with, probably still be talking about work. You'll be sort of letting off a bit of steam. So a lot of people would actually maybe complain about their boss, for example.

Unless you're going with the boss.

Unless you're going with the boss, it really does depend on the relationship you have with them. But more often or not, it's still gonna be a lot small talk. It's gonna be what are you doing this weekend? Have you watched this film?

Just small talk?

Yeah.

Okay, I just thought of one more question since we were talking about if the boss goes for this socializing drink after work, does that mean the boss is offering to pay?

The boss would probably offer to pay for a round. They wouldn't pay for the entire drinks. But yeah, I would say maybe the boss or the manager would be expected to buy one, the first round.

If he suggested let's go to a pub for a drink, he's probably paying.

Well, he'll pay for the first round or so.

All right. So that ends our talk about the workplace etiquette in the UK or in British environment. So I don't know if any of our listeners are currently working in the UK or for a British company. If so, leave us a comment, let us know what you think about we have just said, about our observations.

And also if you're working for a Chinese company, what would you say are the main differences?

Leave us a comment. We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.