For those in international companies, which country’s coworkers are your favorite to work with and why?
July 26, 2025
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29 comments
Rarely had problems with anyone.
I think the Poles, the Spanish and the Italian are the more pleasant to work with.
The further east of me the better, as the time difference means that any meeting with them needa to be in the morning and then will I get time to work on my own in the afternoon
Scandinavians. Very polite, often fun to be around, patient and mostly quick learning. Also very reliable.
Italians and Spaniards are cool, but they often dont give a shit about anything.
Germans are nice and smart but too attached to the manuals.
The French are nice, but they always do things as close to the deadline as possible and panic. French people can literally give 0 shit 99% of the time and wake up when something is about to be delivered. Also they lack patience. But I like them very much anyway.
Edit – outside of Europe I like the Japanese, but they could be a little more chill sometimes. I absolutely hate to work with Americans.
Absolutely least favourite are Italians, they are way too loud, and they talk to people even when there’s no need to talk, even to people they don’t know.
Estonians and Norwegians are my favourite ones, although the sample size for both is less than ten.
The only Mongolian we have is probably the best and hardiest worker in the whole company. If Finland could have half a million more Mongolians I’d be happy.
It’s not an international company, exactly, but I’m working with people from all over (immigrants like me).
Have to say first place goes to Philippines. Too bad most of them got their nurse’s licence and moved on to work somewhere else (and a couple of people who just moved elsewhere in the country).
Second place goes to Poland and Lithuania (of course, they should be mentioned together).
Third place is for Eritrea.
Scandis. Swedes especially! They got a sense of humor, a good headset and they get shit doen within normal office hours!
Least favorite for me would be between india and egypt. Harder to understand and there’s often a big gap between what they promise and what they actually deliver.
Italians and spanish are always fucking great fun. And I really appreciate the Frenchs get fucked attitude
Germans
Really get on with them. No drama. Level headed. Fair. Similar sense of humour to mine.
Eastern Europeans work incredibly hard and have a great sense of humor. Take the work seriously but not themselves as a rule. Also a very can do attitude. They are an absolute joy to work with – I have worked all across the Balkans, former USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova) and Baltic. Have learned so much from having the chance to travel and work with them and it’s been an absolutely amazing part of my life.
I have worked elsewhere and the experience was almost wholly negative. Won’t say where.
Definetely not Indians.
I’d say Germans. They don’t do useless calls. But sometimes they are very picky about stuff that nobody cares 🤣
Dutchies.
Not so different from Germans, but everything is a bit more relaxed. They tell me directly what they want, I don’t need to be constantly afraid too hurt any feelings, bc it’s just about business and never personal and you can have a good beer with them.
With Polish or Nordic colleagues too, but it can end much more quickly in hard drinking on Thursday evenings, even though you have to work on Fridays.
Poles…hardworking, do what they’re told to.a high standard and great to have on a company night out.
Of those outside Europe, Iranians, Chinese and South Africans
Well, I worked with a Portuguese (actually 3) who became one of my best friends, so definitely Portugal. Great to hang out with and friendly and outgoing.
I also like Germans in that I like honest feedback and they usually don’t sugarcoat it and go straight to the point.
Best? I like working with Italians, though they can be weird – they will compliment you to hell for every minor help, but then they will be angry af for every minor hiccup. There is no inbetween. I also like people from US, they are pretty chill.
Sadly, the worst experiences I had were with my own people. A lot of people here, especially born in the 70s and working in international corporations don’t really understand the culture and how to talk with other coworkers and they have very 90s way of solving problems, which is “the more unpleasant and angry I will be, the faster I can get the solution”. This is a leftover from the older times, where rudeness was a common trait in business.
I also don’t like working with people from India, purely because of their cultural inability to say “no”. I don’t want your assurance that you can do this task, when in reality you can’t and you’re just wasting time instead of honestly telling me that it cannot be done. They are hard working though.
Germans and Scandinavians, without a doubt! (Almost) never late, usually excellent skills coupled with a chill attitude.
The worst – Americans and North Africans (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, etc.).
I have spent all of my working life abroad, and I have no experience really from my home country. Out of all the nationalites I like polish the most
I am from Austria and worked in two international companies. I travelled a lot (about 50 countries). My resumee: There are good and bad people everywhere. A person is defined by his actions and not by his country of birth, his religion, his skin color or his sexual preferences. I made friends all over the world, and I met people all over the world, where I am happy when I do not have to be in their presence. There are cultural differences of course (relationship to managers….) but when you get trough to the real person, all that labels are not needed any more.
Polish – sense of humour but no nonsense and straight to the point. Greeks – very loud but super friendly.
Maybe Brits. Great sense of humor and generally pretty chill. Although they’re not very direct and like to avoid any type of confrontation.
Czechs. Hard-working, humble, creative mechanical engineers. It’s easy to come up with an expensive solution to a problem, Czechs are good at coming up with a cheap, unorthodox idea.
Had really cool work experience with Slovenians and French. Never liked the Polish ones.
After 15 years in oil and gas I’d say the most brilliant people I worked with were Iranian. Calm, highly competent and team players. Only negative was that nearly all of them smoked. After them comes Canadians of Chinese decent. Found them very reliable and hard working.
I lived in Germany for over a decade. My favourite ones were Polish people. I found them to be extremely similar to us, Romanians. They’re hard working, reliable, modest, funny. They also used to have a bad reputation, but I guess theirs improved faster than ours. The ones I related the least with: Turkish people.
Greeks are no-nonsense competent people who deliver while outwardly not taking everything too seriously. Love it. Some Spanish people I worked with are like this too – it’s all just a joke, but still a joke to be taken seriously.
Working with french people otoh has not been very enjoyable I must say (barring exceptions ofc)
I find my India-based colleagues to be completely unreliable. Talk a big game all the time but never follow through
Danish and Polish, hard working and good sense of humour, specially the former. I’ve developed a deep love for Denmark since working with my nordic mates.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned before – my fav colleagues are from Croatia – very professional, reliable and actually involved in the company and the work they do, I just feel that they care and I work with 10+ countries on daily basis.
Romanians are great to work with. They just ‘get’ things and get stuff done, really pleasant.
I have a hard time working with Germans. Zero flexibility in anything,.way too formal about stuff.
Used to dread working with Americans who were in America. The expectation of being reachable outside work hours and on holidays – GTFO. Love working with Americans outside of America – always up for a laugh.
Any Europeans are fine.
US is mostly fine, but sometimes bad in weird ways.
Australians — I had only one encounter, and it was bad.
Indians are hit and miss. I’ve seen great buys, I’ve seen total incompetence. Former is more rare then latter. The worst are Indians with hiring power — they won’t hire literally anyone but other Indians.
Chinese are the worst. I have never seen a good one (doesn’t mean they don’t exist tho).
29 comments
Rarely had problems with anyone.
I think the Poles, the Spanish and the Italian are the more pleasant to work with.
The further east of me the better, as the time difference means that any meeting with them needa to be in the morning and then will I get time to work on my own in the afternoon
Scandinavians. Very polite, often fun to be around, patient and mostly quick learning. Also very reliable.
Italians and Spaniards are cool, but they often dont give a shit about anything.
Germans are nice and smart but too attached to the manuals.
The French are nice, but they always do things as close to the deadline as possible and panic. French people can literally give 0 shit 99% of the time and wake up when something is about to be delivered. Also they lack patience. But I like them very much anyway.
Edit – outside of Europe I like the Japanese, but they could be a little more chill sometimes. I absolutely hate to work with Americans.
Absolutely least favourite are Italians, they are way too loud, and they talk to people even when there’s no need to talk, even to people they don’t know.
Estonians and Norwegians are my favourite ones, although the sample size for both is less than ten.
The only Mongolian we have is probably the best and hardiest worker in the whole company. If Finland could have half a million more Mongolians I’d be happy.
It’s not an international company, exactly, but I’m working with people from all over (immigrants like me).
Have to say first place goes to Philippines. Too bad most of them got their nurse’s licence and moved on to work somewhere else (and a couple of people who just moved elsewhere in the country).
Second place goes to Poland and Lithuania (of course, they should be mentioned together).
Third place is for Eritrea.
Scandis. Swedes especially! They got a sense of humor, a good headset and they get shit doen within normal office hours!
Least favorite for me would be between india and egypt. Harder to understand and there’s often a big gap between what they promise and what they actually deliver.
Italians and spanish are always fucking great fun. And I really appreciate the Frenchs get fucked attitude
Germans
Really get on with them. No drama. Level headed. Fair. Similar sense of humour to mine.
Eastern Europeans work incredibly hard and have a great sense of humor. Take the work seriously but not themselves as a rule. Also a very can do attitude. They are an absolute joy to work with – I have worked all across the Balkans, former USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova) and Baltic. Have learned so much from having the chance to travel and work with them and it’s been an absolutely amazing part of my life.
I have worked elsewhere and the experience was almost wholly negative. Won’t say where.
Definetely not Indians.
I’d say Germans. They don’t do useless calls. But sometimes they are very picky about stuff that nobody cares 🤣
Dutchies.
Not so different from Germans, but everything is a bit more relaxed. They tell me directly what they want, I don’t need to be constantly afraid too hurt any feelings, bc it’s just about business and never personal and you can have a good beer with them.
With Polish or Nordic colleagues too, but it can end much more quickly in hard drinking on Thursday evenings, even though you have to work on Fridays.
Poles…hardworking, do what they’re told to.a high standard and great to have on a company night out.
Of those outside Europe, Iranians, Chinese and South Africans
Well, I worked with a Portuguese (actually 3) who became one of my best friends, so definitely Portugal. Great to hang out with and friendly and outgoing.
I also like Germans in that I like honest feedback and they usually don’t sugarcoat it and go straight to the point.
Best? I like working with Italians, though they can be weird – they will compliment you to hell for every minor help, but then they will be angry af for every minor hiccup. There is no inbetween. I also like people from US, they are pretty chill.
Sadly, the worst experiences I had were with my own people. A lot of people here, especially born in the 70s and working in international corporations don’t really understand the culture and how to talk with other coworkers and they have very 90s way of solving problems, which is “the more unpleasant and angry I will be, the faster I can get the solution”. This is a leftover from the older times, where rudeness was a common trait in business.
I also don’t like working with people from India, purely because of their cultural inability to say “no”. I don’t want your assurance that you can do this task, when in reality you can’t and you’re just wasting time instead of honestly telling me that it cannot be done. They are hard working though.
Germans and Scandinavians, without a doubt! (Almost) never late, usually excellent skills coupled with a chill attitude.
The worst – Americans and North Africans (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, etc.).
I have spent all of my working life abroad, and I have no experience really from my home country. Out of all the nationalites I like polish the most
I am from Austria and worked in two international companies. I travelled a lot (about 50 countries). My resumee: There are good and bad people everywhere. A person is defined by his actions and not by his country of birth, his religion, his skin color or his sexual preferences. I made friends all over the world, and I met people all over the world, where I am happy when I do not have to be in their presence. There are cultural differences of course (relationship to managers….) but when you get trough to the real person, all that labels are not needed any more.
Polish – sense of humour but no nonsense and straight to the point. Greeks – very loud but super friendly.
Maybe Brits. Great sense of humor and generally pretty chill. Although they’re not very direct and like to avoid any type of confrontation.
Czechs. Hard-working, humble, creative mechanical engineers. It’s easy to come up with an expensive solution to a problem, Czechs are good at coming up with a cheap, unorthodox idea.
Had really cool work experience with Slovenians and French. Never liked the Polish ones.
After 15 years in oil and gas I’d say the most brilliant people I worked with were Iranian. Calm, highly competent and team players. Only negative was that nearly all of them smoked. After them comes Canadians of Chinese decent. Found them very reliable and hard working.
I lived in Germany for over a decade. My favourite ones were Polish people. I found them to be extremely similar to us, Romanians. They’re hard working, reliable, modest, funny. They also used to have a bad reputation, but I guess theirs improved faster than ours. The ones I related the least with: Turkish people.
Greeks are no-nonsense competent people who deliver while outwardly not taking everything too seriously. Love it. Some Spanish people I worked with are like this too – it’s all just a joke, but still a joke to be taken seriously.
Working with french people otoh has not been very enjoyable I must say (barring exceptions ofc)
I find my India-based colleagues to be completely unreliable. Talk a big game all the time but never follow through
Danish and Polish, hard working and good sense of humour, specially the former. I’ve developed a deep love for Denmark since working with my nordic mates.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned before – my fav colleagues are from Croatia – very professional, reliable and actually involved in the company and the work they do, I just feel that they care and I work with 10+ countries on daily basis.
Romanians are great to work with. They just ‘get’ things and get stuff done, really pleasant.
I have a hard time working with Germans. Zero flexibility in anything,.way too formal about stuff.
Used to dread working with Americans who were in America. The expectation of being reachable outside work hours and on holidays – GTFO. Love working with Americans outside of America – always up for a laugh.
Any Europeans are fine.
US is mostly fine, but sometimes bad in weird ways.
Australians — I had only one encounter, and it was bad.
Indians are hit and miss. I’ve seen great buys, I’ve seen total incompetence. Former is more rare then latter. The worst are Indians with hiring power — they won’t hire literally anyone but other Indians.
Chinese are the worst. I have never seen a good one (doesn’t mean they don’t exist tho).