Norwegian Work Culture: An In-Depth Conversation with Karin Ellis

[@paularnesen]

🤔 Want a helpful PDF guide about working with Norwegians? 🇳🇴 | ► Support the podcast on Patreon: → www.patreon.com/paularnesen | You will get a guide for every episode and can also watch the entire interview without any ads!

[@TheSurvivor1963]

As a Norwegian senior-programmer, I always tell fresh employees, if you don't make any errors or mistakes you haven't done any real work at all. Meaning, I would rather have employees on my team that show initiative, engagement, responsibility, and willingness to learn and work,- and maybe do some mistakes in the process rather than an unmotivated and unengaged team-member or a person who is not willing challenge oneself to step out of her/his comfort-zone and learn or do something new.

[@juanpasten6077]

Interesting. One question, I really would like to work and live on Norway. I'm a Frontend Developer with 1+ years of experience. Tell me, can I have some conversation with you to know if I can be a good fit on your team? Thanks in advance!

[@TheSurvivor1963]

@@juanpasten6077 Hello, sir! Sorry to say, but I work for a rather large organisation. Hiring is unfortunately not my decision. The comment was more my general attitude and welcome statement to fresh employees. Good luck with the search for a job and I hope you will be successful!

[@juanpasten6077]

@@TheSurvivor1963 Oh, I understand. Well, if your company is hiring I really would like to participate on the prrocess. Nonetheles, thanks so much for answer and your good wishes!

[@lazygamerz]

Couple things I would add; 1. Norwegians like to get things done and go home. So don't mistake their momentary standing there thinking for lack of working, they are just thinking "is this really the most efficient way to do this the right way so I can get back home to my family?". 2. When giving instructions, any lack of detail is permission for the employee to figure it out for themselves. You can not then come after the job is done (fully or partially) to specify what you left unspecified at the start. A Norwegian will VERY VERY VERY rarely think about what the leader's expectations are, the Norwegian will just try out a few different ways to find a seemingly efficient method, or method they themselves prefer. 3. If you specify a less efficient method than what the Norwegian knows to do, ordering the Norwegian to follow your lesser habitual method will completely disintegrate his/her respect for your abilities to manage. The Norwegian will look for other job opportunities on the side from that day.

[@kezzler9556]

Very true. I hold my own leaders to that standard. I can be your best friend or your worst foe due to that standard alone.

[@tresvecesno7071]

Thanks for this interview!!

[@paularnesen]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@abdelrhmanmagdy4503]

Many thanks Paul for your time and sharing such insights from both your and Karin's side :)

[@paularnesen]

Very glad you enjoyed it! What is your relationship with Norway?

[@abdelrhmanmagdy4503]

@@paularnesen Thanks Paul, willing to relocate there!! :)

[@hydrogene2270]

Very interesting. Tusen takk.

[@paularnesen]

For more details and to listen on other platforms, go here: go.workingwithus.co/episode_1_details 🚀 TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:46 Guest Intro 2:13 Start of conversation 3:00 Norwegians and coffee 5:32 Facts about Norway 13:20 Frihet Under Ansvar or with freedom comes responsibility 17:53 Norwegians are the most independent people in the world 18:28 A typical person from Norway 22:15 Work-life Balance and careers in Norway 29:40 Typical misconceptions about Norwegians 31:26 Lack of clarity in Norwegian workplaces 34:00 Motivation and demotivation when managing Norwegians 39:10 Misunderstanding in a cultural context 46:27 Why should someone hire a Norwegian to work on their team? 48:50 Jante Loven, the Law of Jante 53:30 Where should you go to learn more about Norwegians? 56:30 A little story 1:02:55 The end

[@frankhaugen]

We Norwegiana certainly like our indirect speech and informality. I work with a super diverse team, and having colleagues from the middle east that pray multiple times a day was a little strange in the beginning, but nothing prepared me for how Indian "yes sir" -culture collided with Norwegian culture, because I will say yes with an assay of caveats because I will not be lying, however, Indian work culture don't see it as lying if you over-promise. Also, Norwegian hiarchy is painful to so many people. I had a team leader that was Indian and he wasn't happy with me talking directly to the CTO about specs for the software we were working on, and I ended up just, floating teamless because the the team leader couldn't cope with me, and I wasn't going to be a mindless minion of him 😂. We worked much better together when he gave up managing me 😊

[@gregor5815]

Godt jobbet 👍🙂

[@gregor5815]

Well done! I have been living in Norway for several years and many of these things I felt non-verbally, and you summed it up perfectly.

[@paularnesen]

@@gregor5815 Thank you very much for your comment. It is great to hear from someone with first-hand experience with Norwegians. Where in Norway do you live?

[@gregor5815]

Agder.

[@Robert_Kawalec]

Very informative video :)

[@paularnesen]

Glad it was helpful!

[@omarmahmoud2087]

Thank you for this interesting interview. I need help to find a job in Norway. Can I find help? in Junior Data analysis position

[@paularnesen]

Hi! The best way to find jobs in Norway is to choose Norway for location and what type of job you are looking for on LinkedIn. Other than that, you could see if www.finn.no have anything. If you don't speak Norwegian, I highly recommend you to find the link to Karin Ellis' services. Wish you the best of luck!

[@amilaperera1]

Only the interviewer talking. Useless

[@paularnesen]

Thank you for the comment; I appreciate the direct feedback. I agree with you that on this episode, I talked too much. This was my first ever podcast as an interviewer 😅 That being said, I’m also Norwegian, so I could offer my insights as well, meaning I talked more than on other episodes. I want to think I've become a better podcast host since this episode.