Herren Young

One of the things I love about my job is the opportunity to travel to different countries and experience everything about the culture. On this particular trip I've had the pleasure of visiting Germany (Langen-Stuttgart-Munich) to do some "special ops" consulting for a large German company.

Among the things I've observed about the Germans are that they eat, walk, and work rather efficiently. Also, they don't waste (although this might be more reflective of countries not U.S.) time, food, or natural resources. I'm so used to taking a wad of napkins at a self-service dispensers and using only three :), but here I'm more conscious of what and how much I take.

What I'm really not used to, particularly in the corporate environment, is being addressed as Mr. Young on a regular basis. The pecking order is quite pronounced in even in high-tech here, and you just don't address others (your superiors are a definite no-no) by first name -- there's definitely a level of respect that you have to give, almost to the point where it can seem counter productive (or I might just be naive). We're so used to just spouting our mouths back at home at work it's something we really take for granted.

I've also had the chance to visit Suresh and the Liferay GmbH office in Langen (near Frankfurt). Will share my thoughts about that in a later post.