Workplace culture shock — meetings, hierarchy, directness

The directness floored me the other way round — I came from a blunt culture to a very indirect one, where 'that's interesting' means 'no' and nobody says what they mean in the meeting. Decoding the politeness took me a year.

Hierarchy was my shock. Where I'm from you defer to seniority and don't openly challenge the boss; here juniors argue with the director in meetings and it's expected. Staying silent read as 'no opinions', which hurt me until I adjusted.

OP here — Rajesh, that's the mirror image of my experience and it's fascinating how the SAME behaviour reads as rude in one place and engaged in another. I've started literally asking colleagues 'how do people usually disagree here?' It's saved me a lot.

Meeting culture varies wildly too — consensus-driven and slow in some places, decisive and top-down in others. I misread a 'let's discuss' as indecision when it was actually how decisions genuinely get made. Watch how choices actually happen, not how you'd expect.

The after-work socialising expectation surprised me most. In some cultures the real bonding (and career progress) happens over dinner or drinks, not at the desk. Skipping it to be 'professional' quietly held me back until someone kindly explained.

Email and communication style too — I was far too formal and stiff, and it created distance. Watching how colleagues actually wrote to each other and copying the tone made me instantly more approachable.

Punctuality norms are a real one — in one job 'on time' meant five minutes early, in another the meeting genuinely started fifteen minutes late every time. Read the room in the first fortnight and match it.

Loving all of these. The theme is clear: the technical job is the easy part, the unwritten social operating system is the real learning curve. Observe first, copy fast, and ask a friendly colleague to translate the culture for you.