The Australian Office

Today was nothing out of the ordinary at work, though I did come to a few realizations regarding parallels between the Australian office and the American workplace.  Additionally, between a chat with some co-workers and a lecture from the study abroad office regarding Australian workplace etiquette for all of the interns from Uni Sydney, some differences were made glaringly clear.
After my morning history lecture I made the trek into work and settled in at my desk to finish up some documents for a presentation on Thursday.  After a bit, a few trays of sandwiches, a platter of sushi, a dish of fruit, and some carafes of coffee appeared on the kitchen table.  As if on cue, many of my coworkers descended in the typical circling vulture manner to inspect the goods.  Turns out they came up from a meeting, leftovers, and were free for the picking.  I was suddenly transported back to previous places I have worked where similar scenes played out.  I have to say, the food was excellent, and it was reassuring to see that some basic office occurrences play out halfway around the globe.

Some of the spoils from the meeting leftovers.

I did some field work this afternoon, wandering around Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst.  I got to see a few neat mid-century modern buildings including a 1940s parking garage with hard wood floors which is currently in permitting to be converted to a cafe.

A wood-floored parking garage in Woolloomooloo.

On the walk back to the office via Hyde Park, I chatted with one of my coworkers about the titles bestowed upon politicians in Australia, and the antiquated nature of the justice system (judges still wear grey powdered wigs, even the women) in direct juxtaposition to office culture of little hierarchy between bosses and workers.  For instance, Sydney has a Lord Mayor, and the ceremonial garb and pageantry which accompanies such a title, but at the same time she is referred to simply by her first name, Clover.  Tonight the topic surfaced as I met with others interning in Sydney.  One girl, who works for an MP (member of parliament) of NSW said she was instructed to call him simply by his first name - that was followed by one of the instructors talking about how the Prime Minister even prefers to go by her first name!  I thought it was intriguing that with so much entrenched in the rituals of the British that when it comes to direct interaction with people, the pageantry and titles are often stripped.  I don't know how many Congressmen in the US would like to be called by their first names - though it might help ground them a bit (that being said, from watching the Aussie government sessions on tv, that might not be the key to sanity).