UBC July 2024 - Work Environment

Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash

Welcome back to July's UBC. This month I'm going to be talking about cultural differences between Switzerland and the USA.

Today's topic is work related aspects like applications, work culture, benefits and the like. 

I am a Human Resource professional who has been working for international companies in Switzerland and completed a class on international / American HR practices at UCSD, where we talked about the differences. And there were many!

Some I would encounter first-hand when I started my job with Starbucks Switzerland (and Austria, but that'll be a story for another day).

So let's start at the beginning. 

You are looking for a job and need to update your resume. In the German speaking world we call this "CV" (for curriculum vitae) by the way, and we think it's an English term. I later learned it's not commonly used in the US. 

In Switzerland we will dutifully mention all the personal information that are asked of us everywhere we fill in forms and the like: 

Name, date of birth, home address, phone number, e-mail address, marital status, number and age of children, every school we have ever attended, same for jobs, and people that may be contacted to recommend our work. We will then go ahead and attach a nice portrait photo, plus all our written work certificates and school diplomas. Last thing to do is craft a cover letter providing a summary of our achievements and why our skills match with the job we're applying for. Some applicants will also mention their notice period (which can be anything between one and six months!!) 

What is a work certificate? 

It's a formal letter issued by the employer summarizing job title and responsibilities, the job performance in general and the personal attitude in general. It will conclude by stating who ended the work relationship and some form of regret about the person's leaving and good wishes for the future. 

In the olden days these statements would be somewhat "coded" since it's not allowed to basically write the person sucked, was lazy and stole money from the company. 

I know, if you're American, your eyes have been widening, and you're scratching your head. That's not what you're used to. At all!

Although we have had a ban on discrimination since 1996, in many places people continue to recruit as they did in the past. Employers want to literally get a picture of the applicant, i.e. see a photo. They also prefer to employ someone who has the professional experience of a 45-year-old, but they want to pay the salary of a 25-year-old. Managers (75% of them being men) want employees who preferably never get sick and certainly never get pregnant, because in Switzerland such absences have to be paid for. 

Don't get me started on how hard it is to find and keep a (part-time) job as a working Mom. 

Anyway, let's assume you managed to get hired in Switzerland, what can you expect, keeping in mind you come from an American work culture?

You may find that everything is a bit more formal. Unless your supervisor tells you "I'm (insert first name)" you will call them Mr or Mrs (last name) until further notice. After a while, maybe when your trial period is over or on occasion of an apéro, they will offer to be on first-name terms with you.

What is an apéro?

For the lack of better explanation: it is cocktails at the office, offered on the last working day of an employee who is leaving the company. Or on account of somebody being promoted. Usually on a late Friday afternoon. It usually includes alcohol. 

My American boss with Starbucks. He came to me distraught to find out if I was aware of it, and I told him it was totally customary, and I promised it wouldn't get out of hand. Frankly, of the many apéros I attended - being the HR person I got invited to many of them over the course of my career - one single person ever got drunk. He was very young and made the rookie mistake of mixing wine and beer.

Back to work though. 

On any other night with no apéro you will notice that people try to leave on time, except something really urgent and important needs to be finished. They will not keep working from home. Same goes for the weekend. They don't check their e-mail, and they're not expected to. 

In other words, Swiss employees try to keep work at work and use their free time to relax and do something fun.

This doesn't apply to management though. They put in way more hours, and they will use the weekends to finally get some work done after a hectic week of business trips, client meetings and trouble shooting. 

Wanna talk benefits?

Every employee gets at least four weeks of vacation every week, no matter how long they've been with the company. Five, if they're apprentices or older than 50 years. On top we have about ten paid holidays, some of which will fall on weekends, but this year there's still seven days off on weekdays. 

If we call in sick, it's going to be a paid day. There's no set limit for "normal" sick days for the occasional flu and the like. 

Long-term sickness, the costs of which are typically borne by loss of earnings insurance, comes to an end at some point. In the first year of service, the sick person can be dismissed after just 30 days of illness. From the second to the fifth year, they enjoy this protection against dismissal for 90 days, after which the number increases to 180 days. It can therefore take a long time before the employment relationship can be terminated. In addition, a new illness triggers a new blocking period. I've already had cases that made me despair. After a physical illness, such as back pain, the employee was put on sick leave due to "psychological problems". 

If the employee is no longer entitled to daily sickness benefits, they can apply for disability insurance benefits. 

All in all, we have a good social safety net in Switzerland to prevent people from slipping into poverty. Conservative critics like to call this the social hammock and complain that this generous solution is exploited by malingerers and profiteers. Unfortunately, they are not wrong in some respects; on the other hand, our system helps to keep social ills, with all their consequences, at a low level. 

Another thing that sets Swiss work culture apart from the American way, is the educational path. I will use a separate post to talk about it. 

For now, let me ask you: are you surprised? What sounds most exotic to you?