Ranting about UK work culture

Anyone else feel that some Brits can be lazy?

I can tell you that nowhere have I encountered such a culture of adamant insistence that one is perpetually worth more than what one earns. This leads to a culture of haphazard “half-assedness;” people shirking responsibility because it’s “beneath them” and leaving assignments uncompleted because they really felt that their cup of tea was more important than company deadlines.

Additionally, they really can’t take criticism and FALL TO PIECES with the first remark unless your vocabulary, intonation, facial expression and body language are just right.

Feel like they have post-colonial empire superiority complex where they think they're superior to others, so they love to condescendingly explain things to these inferior Asian/Americans who actually do all the work.

They're terrible at actually fixing problems, but very good at setting up zoom meetings or events to talk about problems for 3 hours, or create them out of thin air, but actually do nothing to solve them. Such a waste of time.

Can someone help me understand why they are like this? 

10 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Depending on where you work, your cultural differences might not be specific just to Brits. A lot of Europeans have clearer boundaries between their well-being and company needs than Americans and Asians do. In fact to an European the American obsession with boasting about how much they work is crass and a bit strange. A bit similar reaction to seeing Indians wear kilograms of gold. 
 

With regards to feedback, there are significant differences across all cultures how feedback is perceived and delivered. It is argued that this is influenced by the schooling system and how children are treated for their failures in school. 
 

I would highly recommend Erin Meyer’s book “The Culture Map” to help you navigate your cultural journey when working with people that don’t share your background and life views. 

 

I have a feeling you have a small prejudice against Brits (post-colonial superiority? Really bro? What a fucking asinine thing to say) which is affecting your interactions with them.

Brits are very subtle and indirect. E.g. “that’s ok” = really shit, please redo. “A small issue” = this is a major problem. Americans can take a long time to get used to this. This, coupled with your apparent prejudice against Brits, is probably making it difficult for people to get along with working with you, and is going to cause friction.

As for the rest of your points (not my problem attitude etc) I dunno

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (67) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”