Eastern European consultants not good enough for the UK

[m0n1k3r]

Is it for a role that involves pre-sales, direct contact with customers or senior management? Heard that a few times before from people who perceived eastern europeans as very strong minded and/or very direct (e.g. one engineer was making his TL 'look bad' in meetings because he would argue for what he thought was right, even if that meant proving that his manager was wrong)

must be something that falls under 'cultural fit'

I used to be the UK MD for an EE (outside the EU) software outsourcing company. Yes they are very direct, and instead of seeking a mutual understanding or common ground, they instead tend to ramp up in order to 'win' the argument, as backing down is often viewed as a weakness.

[m0n1k3r]

+1

Here in Copenhagen now - work language is English but as 90% of the staff are Danish they speak Danish to each other, ie most of the time in conversation, not in rude/excluding way, but I'm listening, and learning, I love language and already speaking patterns are emerging.

Danish on the face of it isn't that hard, non-inflected, regular verb conjugations, just none of the written down words sound like the spoken ones.....

"ikke" is 'igge", 'Kvinder' is 'Kvinner', and ''Broen" ie The Bridge as in the TV series is 'B-ever-so-slight-R-sound-but-if-you-do-it-slightly-too-much-they-don't get-you-at-all, then 'ur' like vomiting 'ur' and 'n''

Swedes told me that Danish, despite being very similar, is just mumbling, ie no Swedish Hurdy-Gurdy....

Compared to its close relatives, Norwegian and Swedish, Danish is more akin to French in the sense that they tie all the words together into a long string of sounds, and leave endings out to make that happen. That makes it quite hard to begin listening to Danish in the middle of a sentence. It is a bit like mumbling.

[m0n1k3r]

And French ones on JS that state 'French Nationals only'.

Might be for defence or security classified roles. Most countries require local nationals for security classified roles, unlike the UK where only a certain number of years of permanent residency is required for most classifications.

[LondonManc]

Agreed, my gay friend had an absolutely frightful time dealing coke with a "team" of Slovaks .

Oh.............................shiz, wrong forum

You're friends with Keith? YMMS

[TNA57]

And............................................... .......Employment laws all over the world are broken every day of the week

You're spot on MMM... Doesn't make it right to do though, does it?
Personally if I was affected by some sort of subjective/selective/unusual treatment at interview stage or pre interview stage which can be construed as discrimination or illegal, I would most likely feel sore about it , brush it aside and move on. Injustice happens when people stay silent though but as contractors why would you want to go into all that hassle?

[MrMarkyMark]

You're spot on MMM... Doesn't make it right to do though, does it?
Personally if I was affected by some sort of subjective/selective/unusual treatment at interview stage or pre interview stage which can be construed as discrimination or illegal, I would most likely feel sore about it , brush it aside and move on. Injustice happens when people stay silent though but as contractors why would you want to go into all that hassle?

Had a few things happen to me here and I'm a British national, you have to get over it and move on.
Mostly you won't always know if rules have been broken, i.e. a dodgy reference or prejudice as this all happens behind closed doors.

[Bee]

UK business culture is quite different from that in, say, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and even more different from that in most of Eastern Europe. I can understand that they don't want to risk a relationship with a client by sending somebody who is not used to UK business culture to work alone for a client.

If it is about working as part of a supplier team, then it is different as there should be an engagement lead who takes care of most of the bumps.

Why is different?
Could you please be more specific.

[northernladuk]

Isn't that swear filter avoidance?

[logozz]

F**k this kind of p***y attitude makes me mad! If you have to eat s**t in order to stay busy, then you can't be any good - so you are probably better of doing permy stuff.

It is exactly this type of chicken sh*t attitude that encourages SOME agents to walk all over folks! Sure - one has to keep things professional and not winge out over every little thing. But taking serious s**t because you're afraid of getting sacked - GROW A PAIR, will you!

Get this: end client's don't give a cr*p about who sends them CV:s as long as they get them. Agencies are way replaceable - and much, much more so then you are (that is if you have skills).

I had agencies removed from the PSL in a blink of an eye because they tried to pull all kinds of sh*t!

Geeez!

...sorry, didn't mean to get too personal, but people have to learn to stand up for themselves. This is exactly why this "model" is about to completely fail and soon legislation will be the only way to get it right!

[MrMarkyMark]

Isn't that swear filter avoidance?

Hot day.

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