Unwritten rules in Danish workplaces
URL: http://ing.dk/artikel/98173-en-fremmed-fugls-guide-til-danskerne-som-kolleger?highlight=udl%E6nding
A foreigner’s guide to Danish workplace
We are good in molding competent young leaders in Denmark but we look down upon someone who does not speak Danish or refuse to put remoulade in the fiskefillet. The guide book is filled with foreigners’ own stories in experiencing Danish working culture.
It is widely known that Denmark is not an easy place to live for a foreigner. The weather is bad, the tax is high and the language is more complicated than old Greek.
It is neither easy to adjust oneself in a Danish workplace, loaded with unwritten rules, whether you are an IT programmer from India or Wind Turbine Engineer from Spain. But the new book called “The worktrotter guide to Denmark” would make it easier for well-educated foreigners – who flood the country lately – to fit into the work culture.
The book is written by a German software engineer named Dagmar Fink who had worked on the guide for two and half years through her own experience and interviews with other expatriates.
A lot of unwritten rules
When Fink came to Denmark to work some project leader in IBM in autumn 2006, she felt that she wasn’t welcomed with open arms.
“Everyone has told me that the Danes had relaxed attitude so I expected that everything would go smoothly and painless. But what had surprised me the most was that all of these unwritten rules – the ones that you should comply with”
The book was released in April. Below are several examples from Fink’s own experiences and other expats at Danish workplaces:
Speak Danish, please!
Integration has become a hot topic recently in Denmark and there has been talk that well-educated foreigners are more than welcomed in the country. If one is headhunted to fill a position in Denmark, so it is absolutely ok that one is NOT able to speak Danish. However, things can quickly change when one is looking for a new job here – suddenly, Danish fluency is required.
This is not how we do it in Denmark, my little friend
Native Danes are not aware of certain rules, but they are actually holding a list of what is right and what is wrong. If a foreigner put the wrong toppings on a smørrebrød (open faced sandwich), then one would be corrected immediately and treated like small children.
Workplace is not the place to find friends.
Most Danes draw a clear line between working lives and private lives. When the clock shows 5pm, the Danes go home to pick up their children from the kindergarten or disappear to go to the cinema with their partners. It’s making it more difficult to make friends in working place, especially when one is a foreign enginer and would like to meet with the colleagues for a cup of coffee outside working hours.
Young managers do exist
It’s rare to find managers below 60 years old in Paris or München, but it’s not something extraordinary here in Denmark. One can become a manager even before he / she is 40 years old.
Weekly Working hours are kept under 40
The 37 hours per week rule is well-known in Danish workplace. This rule also applies for so -called career people. It is important to find “balance” between working lives and private lives that it’s actually easy to do so compared to workplaces in other countries. If one stays in the office long on Tuesday afternoon, so one gets to go home earlier in another day.
We are technologically advance
Everything in Denmark can be done through a computer: booking a meeting room, searching tax information or making an appointment with the hairdresser. Almost all workplaces in Denmark are equipped with modern computers and fast internet connection.
I am a tertiary educated Australian female married to an American. In 1994,my spouse was employed by LKM/Denmark, part of Alfa Laval Flow. We moved to Kolding with a two year old and eight year old. I was told I was on my own. I was not permitted entry into the
Corporate Offices. I have legal documents indicating we were treated badly. LKM does not treat its employees as well as other Danish Companies. I did not receive transitional assistance into this culture. My older son attended a local parochial elementary school. He was hit with sticks and chairs because his father took a job away from a Dane. My spouse traveled extensively throughout Europe and did not have time to discuss medical coverage and other issues pertinent to a young family’s needs. Our contract was broken and the Company was not going to honour its obligation to pay us out. Some Danes are very nice, and some aspects of the unwritten law make a lot of sense. It was one of the first things locals shared with me. I’m a very diplomatic person and was offended that the Danes felt a need to inform us to push our perceived arrogant ways aside. I had no access to a pediatrician, and my youngest son had no medical access. Back in America he was diagnosed with Autism. It was hard raising a toddler with terrible melt downs in this Country. I ended up with walking pneumonia, and when I tried to seek medical assistance, it was suggested by the Doctors that I was simply having anxiety attacks. It is easier to medicate a woman with valium than treat her condition. I was hospitalized, then kicked out as it was perceived I was taking up a precious bed. My white blood count was extremely elevated, but I was not treated. I survived a 6 week illness on American Thera Flu. I would suggest to mothers with young children. Before you contemplate a Corporate move, research the ethics and moral standards of the Corporation and how you and your family are going to be treated. Expect to live with social isolation. Language is very difficult. It is not phoenetic.
Ramute Polikaitis
January 23, 2010 at 3:13 am
I am an IT consultant working for a software company in Denmark and am very close to packing my bags and getting the hell out of here. I am nettet qualified in my field than any of my colleagues who often ask me to take over jobs they either cannot cope with or do not understand yet I’m the first one to be the brunt of jokes and to be excluded from decision making wherever it suits them. I find that with a lot of Danes, a very sinister degree of hypocrisy runs thick in the blood, and the double standards are very quickly denied (openly, collectively – for no Dane stands alone). They can do what they want but beware the foreigner who breakes the unwritten and nonsensical rules.
The way I feel right now is that I would rather be less well off than continue to live in a place where foreign expertise is so badly needed yet when you’re hired you’re often made to feel like a square peg in a round hole and it’s not just that you are made to feel like this , you are told it in so many different and cowardly ways.
I hate being here.
David
April 6, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Dear David,
I understand how you feel. It is probably not an international company you are working at. Well, it is very possible that you get ignored by danes because you have a higher level of expertise (and because you are not a dane). I would suggest that you try to find a job in a big international company somewhere in copenhagen. There are more open-minded in general.
Galina
May 1, 2010 at 7:21 am
Yes, I’m afraid all of this rings very true to me as well. I think I could almost stand the appalling supermarkets, bad restaurants, lack of good culture and even the ugly language, were it not for the overwheming hypocrisy and tribelike mentality of its natives.
Best of luck to both of you.
Heidi
April 9, 2010 at 10:54 am
at work i usually eat lunch in complete silence. if i’m not the only one in the breakroom, the other nurses rarely talk to me. the small talk that almost all physicians make with me is “how are you” and “how is your danish coming along?” the last straw is the cuts due to economic problems in the public healthcare sector. my work contract will not be renewed next year even though i’ve improved their productivity, brought them up to national standards, and took time to teach doctors and nurses when they asked. i’m a hard worker and all smiles but for some reason i am the first to go.
i’m lucky to know plenty of expats in the city and have a fiance with fairly alternative friends, so at least i don’t feel left out there. i’ve recognized the fact that i’ll always be socially awkward here (well, even more than back in my country) and i’ve embraced it. so fuck those smørrebrød nazis; i’m going to put WHAT i want on it, WHEN i want.
mina
April 9, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Mina, sorry to hear about your layoff. It’s really sad that hard work means so very little to Danish employers, but I fear it’s the case.
You’re better off not talking to your small-minded and boring coworkers. I avoid as many gatherings as possible with large groups of Danes for that very reason.
Fuzzy
April 9, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Just to leave a general reply to the debate on how to ‘understand the unwritten rules’ and hereby become a part of the new company. My first thought was that a mentor arrangement in the company could be helpful to newcomers. And especially to take care of social issues when new employees arrive.
Do you have any experience with this type of mentor support – and do you see any issues in this approach?
Best regards Morten
Morten Thygesen
June 22, 2010 at 11:11 pm
i am a chef in greenland in one of the hotel. been here for about 5 months ..in my 2 months i work as what is my designation as a chef in a small hotel but moved to another bigger hotel which is owned by a danish and work as a waitres ,bartender,housekeeper,reception and sometimes help in the kitchen…reason behind is they pay me a lil more than working as a chef and i am here to earn money so i took the jiob…just this lunch time all the chefs went home and one ´greenlandic guests aske to have an open sandwich..just out of pity coz she dont have nothing to eat so i made one…for me there’s no rule and no bounderies in making your own sandwich …what she did..take apicture post in facebook and made a comment and made my boss get angry because every people who read that and saw that in facebook laugh on his hotel…is it sounds unreasonable or they are just closed minded individual that is sick…
jc
August 28, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Wow, so many trues. Initially I was wondering if something with me is wrong – why they don”t treat me well but started to realize the same things, that you wrote. I am glad that tommorow I am packing my bagage, and will have no doubts that this was the right decision
The Specialist
September 17, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Absolutely true, my sister just made it to Denmark and she literally cried that she cannot adapt well with people over there. She said they all were generally very kind and friendly, but were often looking down upon her and found faults with her often. She said that despite she saying she did not know the native language, the people tried to talk with her in their language and asked her to learn it soon. She is attending classes now.
Progeria
April 28, 2011 at 9:04 am
Hi
Out of a population of 6 million people it would be strange not to have somebody being incompetent. My only fear when I read this is that Danes and the society in overall are being generalised.
Often I hear a story of somebody being treated in an odd way, which ends up in a conclusion that so are all Danes. Hope its wrong. Go for large companies if possible, chance of qualified leaders and good behavior is better. Thats the best advice, hope you all manage to have a good time in DK.
Morten
April 28, 2011 at 9:25 am
Morten, it’s very tempting to generalise because Danes, to make a generalisation, are themselves great at generalising. They generalise all day, in between spitting out the same 10 phases related to how great they are in comparison to country X, Y and Z.
It really is a jumped-up little country. I no longer associate with Danes. It is not worth the effort, because you get so little back. Once you have heard the same opinion trotted out time and time again, you kinda get fed up with it. I swear to God that most Danes share the same brain. How else would you explain that practically everyone of them, says exactly the same thing, wears the same clothes, has the same hobbies and eats the same food.
*Shudders*
Dude
April 28, 2011 at 9:53 am
Dude nailed it!
Heidi
April 28, 2011 at 10:44 am
If you are all so down on Danes, the Country, the way they conduct their lives, the way they run the companies, their traditions, their language – why are you there? you are not very fit to travel and should rather stay at home, where you know it all, accept it all and are close to your own language, your own traditions, your own way of relating to the company you work for – your own minimal ytolerances. STAY HOME! HLS
Hanna L. Silavwe
December 29, 2011 at 4:36 am
don’t travel, don’t get employed – stay home – the best you can do for yourself, when you have absolutely nothing positive to say.
Hanna L. Silavwe
December 29, 2011 at 4:38 am
Hanna, which part of your moronic brain that couldn’t understand that the article above was taken from Danish media and that the comments above were real experiences from people living here.
If you can’t get that info to your brain, you better stay home, don’t open your computer, don’t read blogs and don’t leave stupid comments.
selah
December 29, 2011 at 8:04 am