A 180 routine flip

Never would I’ve imagined that I would be saying this... But I miss waking up early, I miss dressing up and I miss actually going to work! I thought teleworking from home would be a breeze and easy to manage, but let me tell you, that hasn't been the case. Only now have I realized how a workplace routine is extremely important. There is something with being there, and not having to hear “Charlotte you need to do the dishes!” or “Charlotte when are you going to sweep the kitchen?!” that completely changes your work routine by 180 degrees.

Right about now, Susanne would be calling Dirk and I to have coffee at her office and talk about what is happening around the world or what they will be working on that day. As the saying goes, it is only when something is taken away from you that you learn how to value it. And how I’ve learnt that now. I value the time and space I had to dive deep into my work without being interrupted, I value how Dirk and I diligently worked in silence at our desks and I value the European way of working. It seems that their quality exceeds others quantity, as Chris Bailey nicely put in the NY post. I like when he furthered his argument by saying: “It shifts the focus away from who stays at the office the latest to who actually gets the most done.” And this, is one of the arguments used in the article to prove why Europeans work 258 fewer hours (or 19% less) than Americans.

My time in Spain was a much bigger culture shock. Did you know that they have 14 public holidays a year? That they are entitled to an annual 30-day paid holiday? (Business Culture). They have odd working hours, especially through an American’s perspective. They typically work from 8:30/9am to 1:30pm, have a nice long relaxing lunch break, may or may not opt to take the famous siesta, then work from 4:30pm/5 to 8pm (Business Culture). Different, right? One of the Spanish professors I had there once told us that their workplace routine is certainly more relaxed, but they typically accomplish less due to their social personalities.

Nevertheless, I would say that my time working in Brussels would fall in between the Spaniard style and the American style. We certainly weren’t workaholics, but also weren’t interacting with others all the time. I worked from 9am to 10:30am, our office would have a coffee break, then I would continue to 12pm, have lunch for an 1h-1h30, and then power through to 5pm. According to Brussels Times, Belgians averagely work 24 hours per week, and most of the time, they only work 73.3% of the total time written on their contracts. Overall, Belgium, and specifically Brussels is a very cosmopolitan city, so we certainly need to take into consideration all the different nationalities that live there, and how that can play a role in their statistics. But overall, it has been great to have had the opportunity to be in so many unique countries and see how their work environment is. That has allowed me to value setting a routine, as I currently navigate through mine.

Picture taken from: https://wanderwisdom.com/misc/Ten-Basic-Differences-Between-the-USA-and-Europe