Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Differences in Workstyle Across the Planet

by Sally Augustin, Ph.D. | October 3rd, 2022

A recent article on bbc.com confirms how problematic it can be to think that even all of those living in the “developed” world (whatever that means anymore) work as people in the United States do. Mark Johanson (“The Countries Resisting Remote Work, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220511-the-countries-resisting-remote-work) reports on the return to work at corporate offices in countries worldwide: “while many countries march head-first into a work-from-anywhere future, workers in locations including France or Japan are often returning to the office full-time, rejecting the notion that a five-day in-person work week is a relic of the past. . . . [In France, employees are] ‘really attached to the physical office – to the place where they were working – because it was a sign of identity and of belonging to the organisation’ [Levillain, IESEG School of Management quoted] . . . Social interactions are also a key tool for decision-making in the French office. …