《闲话英伦》-"老张"or"张总"？在外企我该怎么称呼上级？

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Britain under the Microscope – British Workplace EtiquettePower DistanceoBosses are expected to be on first-name terms with their employees.oEasy access to managers is expected.oJunior staff members are also expected to give their opinions and suggestions. Dress CodeoBusiness casual is now most common.Wearing shirt, shoes and trousers or skirts/trousers for women. Jeans aren’t worn in an office. Ties aren’t worn as much.Shorts, T shirts or trainers are generally not acceptable. Better to be overdressed rather than underdressed. SocialisingoColleagues in many companies still go for drinks on a Friday evening. oImportant to buy a round or at least offer to buy them drinks. 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.

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