Now that I have been working in a New Zealand office for nearly three weeks, I feel fully qualified to pass along my (admittedly first) impressions of the Kiwi working environment.
First, there is the delightful tradition of tea. When I mention tea to the girls I think they have visions of elegantly dressed people in a paneled room sipping from silver tea cups refilled from a gigantic silver urm on an ornate trolley. This is not the case. Tea can be delightful, nonetheless.
In my office, and a few others I have had the good fortune to visit, tea is a concept as much as a drink. Around 10 each morning various subgroups - rarely all or even a majority - head to the kitchen and grab a cuppa. One part of this that I find fascinating is that some drink tea but others drink coffee and the physical set-up of the office kitchen assist this. Most office have a boiling water dispenser, as well as a full size kitchen sink and a dishwasher. Someone pops in and makes a pot of tea, someone else may make coffee with the boiling water (they use those French coffee presses pretty universally, so no dripping or perking is required) and anyone interested joins in. If there is a special visitor or occassion, a few people might bring a bit of food for tea, but otherwise you bring your own or have just a cuppa.
(The multiple uses of the word "tea" seems to regularly confuse the girls. When we went to visit school before they started we were told that "tea" was a 10:30. Veronica immediately responded that she didn't like tea. Again - vision of quiet sipping racing through her mind, no doubt. She has since discovered that "tea" can also be used to describe a meal or, in this case, a combination of snack and recess)
Another highlight of the day as far as I am concerned is, I think, unque to my office. Each afternoon anyone nearby gathers around 2:30 0r 3 to take the daily quiz. The local paper, the Dominion Post, publishes a "5 minute quiz" each day with 10 questions. I have to say that I have been doing fairly well in contributing - today I was able to wow them with my knowledge that Anheuser Busch manufactured beer and last week was the only one who knew that a Denver boot was for cars with unpaid parking tickets. I am routinely unaware, comparative to my colleagues, of the doings of US celebrities and rock groups.
Of course, now they look at me whenever an American question comes up so the pressure is on. I plan to go to a quiz night at the "Dog and Bone" pub with them soon and hope to well represent America there. Just hope there aren't too many celebrity or rock questions. I knew I should have read People magazine once in a while!
Another thing that I am not familiar with happened this week when, during the afternews quiz break, two men arrived with a very large delivery. Apparently every office is mandated (or perhaps it is encouraged, I 'm not sure) to have a "civil defense" cabinet. In is there are food packs amd first aid supplies and a really impressive looking hatchet. It came with a huge number of large containers of water that we are each supposed to fill and keep under our desks. We are each supposed to keep comfortable walking shoes and some food in our desks as well.
What for, you ask? It really isn't 9/11 worries, although it is broadly entitled civil defense. No, what they real concern is earthquakes. You see, New Zealand, pretty much all of it, lies along the edge of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates.Apparently small "unnoticeable" earthquakes are a regular occurence, but - like California - they are waiting for the big one. I have asked that we avoid that until we leave.
There are some interesting results from this geologic activity. Later we will visit and post some of the interesting geothermal regions, and the plates are also responsible for the volcanic activity here. White Island is still an active volcanoe that you can go and walk around on.
Locally, though, there are other reminders. One is a pretty cool exhibit at the Te Papa museum. Another is a series of plaques on the ground on our walk to school. Along Lambton Quay there are these plaques which say "Shoreline 1855". What is kind of scary is that these plaques are about 6 city blocks INLAND from the current shoreline. Apparently, the earthquake just coughed up a whole bunch of new land, ruining the beachfront advertising of the old Lambton Quay owners. I can't but help to wonder how ownership was decided of this "new" land that suddenly appeared. How do you go about getting title to that?
Back to the office. I have to say everyone has been very nice, friendly, open and welcoming. The working environment appears generally more flexible then most American office. More than a few people work part time - some 2 days a week, others 4 - and yet everything seems to get done.
There is a far greater attention to waht they call "work life balance" - yes, they WANT people to have abalanced lives. Fancy that. Many office seem to have gyms available and significant employee assistance programs.
There is also a unique approach to accidents here. There is a national accident insurance program so there aren't really lawsuits. If you are injured in an accident - citizen, resident, on holiday, whatever - you are covered by accident insurance. Perhaps as a result there seems to be more attention and regulation of potential hazards in the workplace. Everyone is tasked with identifying potential hazards and noticing them on a board, and then the individual in the office charged with the responsibility must see that they get fixed.
Of course, you are allowed to skateboard in many more places than in the US and these are the people that invented bungee jumping, so I guess purposeful hazards are OK - just not those unintended ones.
I wonder how I'll do back in the bureaucracy when I expect tea time and a gym and want to work just a few days a week?
