Work Ethic

So after some complaints that I wasn't posting enough on this blog I figured I'd enlighten everyone to the English work ethic. To start off the word "late" does not exist in the English work place. This is due to what they call the "unreliable transportation" such as the tube and the bus system. Honestly the tube and bus system is much more efficient and easier to get around compared to Chicago or any other city in the States. The only problem with the tube is when you are in a city 7,556,900 people and a good majority of them are commuting the same way you are, things can get a bit packed and you may have to wait for the train or two. Other than that the Brits are just whinging (British word of the day for everyone). But back to my point since your morning routine can vary day to day depending upon the density of people in the tube system when you're travelling you might stroll into work at 8:45 or 9:45. The funny thing is that you will still receive the same reaction whether at both times which is an enthusiatic "Morning!" followed by "Would you like a cup of tea?" This attitude works out great for me because it seems that I can leave my flat at 8:20 am and arrive at 9:00am or if I am running slightly late and leave at 8:22 am I end up finally getting into the office at 9:30am. I still haven't figured out why those extra two minutes means an extra five thousand people are at the tube stations. Regardless of when I show up though it seems I'm always the first one there, except for my boss who sometimes gets there before me.
The second quirk about the British workplace is that there is a constant conversation going, and when I say constant I mean constant. There is never silence in the office which is fine by me! Also breaks are very frequent in the British workplace, you never work more than two hours at a time it seems like. I was given the job of going through my company's database and cleaning up some of the records and updating others and was given these instructions: "Rob I know this job might be a bit boring and tedious so please don't work on it for more than an hour at a time!" He wasn't kidding either an hour later he came by and said "Rob please take a break I imagine you're falling asleep!" This brings me to the next interesting little thing about the Brits, they never expect things to be done fast.
When my co-worker came to make sure I was gonna take a break I told him I was nearly done and his response was "Bloody hell that was quick! Brilliant, well cheers!" I have no clue why but anytime I finish something they always make a comment similar to that so I'm starting to think they drag projects out just to give them something to do haha. I'm not going to lie I could get use to this work ethic too seeing as how I wrote and posted this during a break at my work =).
If you guys want to know something about London or anything specific about what I'm doing leave a comment or just ask Marg and she can pass it along and I can write something up about it! Since some people cough cough Jay aren't satisfied with the frequency of the posts!!
Cheers until next time!