I worked in defense contracting for most of my ~20 year career up until a few months ago. So I'm experiencing this culture shock the other way around. Being the oldest person on a team is... strange.

Still have my clearance for a couple years I suppose - perhaps all this anti-remote madness will be over before then.

How do you solve the catch-22 of security clearance? It seems that a lot of jobs require it but not so many people want to pay for me to get it. Is it possible to get clearance by myself on the side (assume I'm willing to deal with the fees and paperwork)?

I run a website about migrating to Germany. I have to teol people that they should take sick days when they're sick, and that they should not even look at their emails when they're on vacation. It's not just laws, but a culture that backs them up.

A favourite fact of mine is that if you're sick when on vacation, you get your vacation days back.

I've never worked in Germany, but I worked for the U.S. branch of a German multinational company, reported to a German manager and visited Germany a couple of times.

Living in Germany felt like it wasn't for me. There is very little diversity in ethnic foods (doner kebaps and Italian was about as ethnic as it got, outside of a sprinkling of Chinese restaurants), and everything felt really old (in a conservative way -- not in an artistic way like in Paris). Foodies would struggle with Germany (great breads, sausages, pork, and beer but nothing else stands out).

German management was also not for me -- it felt really old-fashioned compared to American management, and it was hard to do anything new -- there were a lot of gatekeepers where it was their way or the highway. Ideas would get discussed and blocked at every turn, and there were lots of rigid egos.

The U-Bahn/S-Bahn/ICE train systems there were good (undoubtedly, better than anything in America), but compared to Asia or other parts of Europe, they felt a bit old and not really that punctual. The whole place just lacked dynamism.

It's ironic because I've admired Germany all my life. This is, after all, the land of Gauss, Bach, Goethe, Beethoven, etc. It's the land of great physicists and chemists.

Yet there is a sense that what was once great about Germany (all the great thinkers, high tech, etc.) is not really at the forefront anymore. Instead, I saw a nation resting on its laurels, and accepting too much bureaucracy in many aspects of life.

If I was into doing lifestyle optimization, I feel I'll find a decent, if unexciting, life in Germany where my basic needs are taken care of.

But I feel if you really want to work on something new and exciting, that's not the place to be. (I was in Munich where the money is but people are conservative when it comes to new things. I heard Berlin is much more innovative but generally have no money to scale).

> I'd never willfully move back to the US

Do you think there's benefit to working for an EU company from the US?

Any advice for an American in BigTech looking to move to Europe? I've been applying for EU jobs for awhile but that seems like a lottery

This difference is probably also why my brother who moved to US, and Now back to Europe (with his American wife) struggle with European colleagues.

They're both passionate about their work (game devs usually are) but feel like no one at their office share that sentiment. When it's 5Pm, even before deadline, people just leave. During breaks, they rather talk about local football teams than most recent news about their profession.

So that's the other side of the coin

The points are generally applicable to any decent employer in the EU and most non-EU European countries, white collar work in particular. This is the norm not because companies are so much nicer. Most of this is codified in law. Some countries have better conditions than others. Minimum vacation period, paid overtime, the healthcare system, the public pension system, job security (protections from dismissal), employee representatives or union, etc. Your mileage may vary if you work remotely.

The obvious drawback is the difference in pay. European salaries are lower for the same job. Probably still lower even relative to real hours worked.

There's a less tangible and harder to quantify benefit of not having to deal with the same kind of job related stress a US worker has to deal with. The boost in quality of life that can't be gleaned from the size of your house or number of cars you own. So it's hard to factor that in when making a data driven comparison.

I couldn't my finger on this myself, but you nailed my feelings well.

Having said that, it doesn't make anything she's said inaccurate in itself, and I would even back up her take. I've worked for and with a few US companies, and ... jeeesh.

I feel the main cultural difference is that people here _presume_ you're doing your best, whereas in the USA people feel like they have to _prove_ they're doing their best.

That’s because it is an advertisement.

I love it when HR commenters discover PR.

The EU is not a monolithic bloc, we have vast differences in overall culture, language, politics and more. Economy as well of course. To me, used to the northern parts, a place like Italy certainly feels foreign because so much is different. But employment laws are not as different as that.

Four weeks (20 days) of vacation is an EU-mandated minimum even if some countries give more. Parental leave varies a lot, but the EU minimum is 14 weeks of maternal and 2 weeks of paternal leave. The concept of "five sick days" or whatever other number doesn't exist in the EU, sick leave policy varies by member state but it's never limited to a few days. At-will employment likewise doesn't exist for normal jobs, there's no firing people on a whim because you don't like their work, and there's no place with less than a month's notice.

Healthcare is a bit different as it couldn't apply to a remote US worker, but still worth mentioning. The EU is very non-monolithic in the organization, quality and culture of healthcare, but each country has some kind of universal coverage model and so you cannot lose healthcare access by losing your job.

I would challenge you to find a country in the EU that has worse worker protections than the US, whether through statute or culture (for example norms about unionization).

I live in Denmark at the moment, and if my company wanted to lay me off without cause, they would have to give me three months notice. I have 6 weeks of vacation (with the option to take more unpaid; this 6 weeks is not including public holidays), private health insurance on top of the public health system through my company, pension both public and private, have no practical restrictions on sick leave, and work 37.5 hours a week (much of which can be done remotely). I have not once been asked to, or needed to work overtime, or be on-call unpaid. When I return home from work, unless I have planned to put a few remote hours in (to reduce my time spent at the office that week), I am neither expected nor required to answer emails or messages.

If I do lose my job, I will still receive a significant portion of my salary for a year, thanks to insurance through my union (I work as a software engineer).

It's not monolithic, but with freedom of movement inside its bound, it creates enough competition it's structurally harder to have any single country with really bad labor laws.

Sure there are cultural differences between countries, but everything she said applies to all EU companies as far as my experience goes. Work life balance, work not being identity, holidays, etc. it's all applicable to every country in the EU I've worked in regardless of the local culture.

When will Europeans realize that the USA is not a monolithic bloc?

I worked in Glu Mobile when EA took them over.

The US folks were all told to leave immediately.

In the UK they had to give us notice and pay, also negotiate with employee representatives.

A German-owned rag, courtesy of Axel Springer SE, the continent's most famous yellow rag sweatshop

When you find out, don't forget to factor in everything else she gets.

The things your higher salary gets you can be had _right this instant_ if you took a different job with a (potentially) lower salary. Money doesn't make you feel good, the things money can _get_ you makes you feel good, and they are often free!

She works in people ops, where I’d expect the US pay premium to be low or non-existent, at least as compared to tech.

The whole point is that this doesn't matter, it's a much less important factor than US employees would assume.

Wait till someone gets a serious disease (as it happens in many families) and lose their home, car, and their shirt because US healthcare is ....(crickets).

Also, imagine a woman having a baby and going back to work on Monday, and having to pay a full salary for care.. insane right?? Who needs babies.

But sure, salary difference..

Michigan's average salary is a it below Austria's average salary. Not having American costs covered (healthcare etc) may change the salary impact a little.

It's hard to tell without knowing what she does exactly, but as a white collar worker for a tech company she'll probably be earning similar to other white collar workers in Michigan.

You won't be able to enjoy the same comfort working for a Bulgarian company in Silicon Valley, but this seems like a rather balanced pick.

Not everything in life is about money