I am in Sweden as a Sofware Developer — Work environment
Hey! 👋 I am Pakistani living in Göteborg, Sweden and working as a Mobile developer at Eliq AB.
As an outsider, I have had a chance to work with IT guys both in Pakistan and Europe (Poland, Germany, and Sweden). The key differences, that I experienced, are given below:
Let me start with a short experience in my current working place in Sweden. We have a list of all employees who have a weekly duty of garbage and dishwasher. Every week one employee has to throw a garbage bag into a garbage room and take care of the dishwasher and kitchen. The amazing part of this story is that CEO, funders and all employee’s names are included in that list.
Another experience is that we all eat our lunch together and yes including CEO, founders, and all other employees.
The purpose of sharing the above-mentioned experience is that Pakistan has a bossy attitude culture in the work environment whereas Europe has no such culture and they are very down to earth. This type of work culture creates creativity, productivity, thinking outside of the box, sharing ideas, self and organizational improvements, knowledge…
Following are the key differences:
1. Timings: In European countries, there is nothing more strictly defined than the office hours :). People do not come late and very rarely do they stay after office hours. It’s not as if the office hours are monitored by anyone but still they do follow the code. In Pakistan, people generally creep into offices. Reaching late is part of the routine. And then, to impress bosses and many other reasons, people stay back till late. Staying back is a norm and this generally helps the people get good reviews.
2. Productivity: In European countries, productivity is generally higher as compared to Pakistani offices (there are survey figures around this). Small things make a lot of difference in this regard. For example, in Europe, people generally drink their tea/coffee on their seats reading/replying to emails. In Pakistan, we have long breaks for Tea / Coffee / Sutta (Cigarette). Meetings last only up to the scheduled time and no longer, unlike Pakistan where 30 minutes meeting regularly run up to 45–60 minutes. And yes, Lunch breaks are shorter. Strolls are not included in lunch break timings. All in all, the focus is on work and getting the work done quickly is the first priority.
3. Processes: In the Pakistani IT industry, we love to make complex processes and follow them even if they do not make any sense. I have seen people spend an entire day trying to get access to a certain area in the office. While on projects, if the process has a step that requires approval from someone in Europe, the team wastes an entire day. In European countries, things are a lot simpler. You can simply go and talk to the person, explain the situation and get the work done much quicker. It’s not as if there are no processes in place there. But they realize that Processes are meant to make our lives easier, and ensure error-free and quick execution, and if the processes are failing on any of these criteria, they are willing to do what is logically correct. All in all, it is an entirely different experience to work with IT resources from Pakistan and with those abroad. We have a lot to learn and improve. We need to move away from process-centric execution and move towards people-centric ones.
4. Hierarchy: Almost all IT companies in Pakistan have a very hierarchical structure. There are so many hierarchical levels having almost no hands-on work. Also, the hierarchy is very strongly linked to the work experience of a resource. Even a phenomenal performer will not become Manager without 7–8 years of experience. Also, people take a lot of pride in their position and often treat others based on their titles (e.g. Managers and above having lunch with others at the same level and not with members of an immediate team). It is slightly different in Europe as I described above. Also, the hierarchy has nothing to do with years of experience a person has. Performance is valued and there are no minimum work criteria for promotion to a particular level.
ALRIGHT ALRIGHT.. Too much bad wording for Pakistan.
In simple words, I would say Pakistan has amazing software developers and project managers. Only missing parts are mentioned above.
