Shownotes Transcript
关注视频号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】，主页【商品橱窗】中进入购买即可，满满干货不要错过哦~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. So what is the topic for today?Well, I thought today based on some of the comments that we've been receiving and also some of the people that would be meeting, events, I thought today we can talk about the workplace.The workplace. In particular, British workplace etiquette.Etiquette basically means manners, right?Yeah. 就是这种职场的礼仪. I would imagine British workplace etiquette is going to be quite different from the Chinese one. Very different. Very, very, very different.I have so many questions to ask. I mean, I worked with British people before, but I haven't really worked in the full on British environment. It is quite different. It's also a little bit different from America as well. So let's get started with introducing yourself. So you go to the office, first time there, what do you do?To be honest, I think that is one of those questions that is so common but most people don't even think about it. So let's just say we're in Britain first day in the office. I've been here for years and you are the newcomer. Am I to initiate contact or are you gonna come in as new guy and say, hi, I'm the new guy. You would be expected to start the contact. I would say, I haven’t seen you around, are you new here? that sort of thing. And these type of introductions are still relatively formal. So for example, handshakes are still used and also small talk as well. You would be expected to engage a little bit of small talk, which I know for a fact that you really hate. We can talk about small talk in a bit because that is basically an entire topic on its own. Let's talk about the handshakes. So British people don't kiss, don't do the social kissing.No, certainly not in a workplace environment. I think I've seen people doing that, but probably because they also friends?Very close friends probably, but for the first time you don't kiss or hug. What about women and men like, so for example, I've been working here for ages and you are the newcomer. Shall I extend my hand first?You probably extend your hands at the same time. I see and say, nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you.I see. And to talk about ‘small talk’, I absolutely hate the British small talk. I know you do.I don't mind if it's like getting to know each other. But sometimes you know this person very well already, you work with them for ages, and you really have some urgent business or tasks to talk about, but when you get them on the phone or see them in person, you still do a little bit of small talk first. Well, yeah, it's still important to do that. But ironically, in meetings, we don't really engage in that much small talk. But if it's one on one, you do small talk.You do. But how to address people? In Chinese we say 王总，张部长. In the UK, it's all first names.