Is culture a common topic of conversation at work?

Yes but I’m in education so we try to acknowledge cultures

@Daija I do community organizing

@Asha yea my husband knows his boss has a literal birthday and cultural birthday but still doesn’t know where she’s from 🥴 I’m like wouldn’t that be a common follow up question

Yes, every were I worked we most definitely talked abt culture & everything in between etc. I be bringing up that stufff even in job interviews! Personally I think, It’s a very nice way to connect with ppl! I couldn’t work with ppl that ur Partners works with. Omg going to work with ppl u know nothing abt

@Daija right personally I want to learn more because I don’t have a cultural birthday what is that? I want to know more? What culture is that? Because my culture doesn’t have multiple bdays Like unless you count half bdays

We work with tech teams in India so culture comes up a lot. We've fortunately got a migrant from India working for us who speaks fluent Hindi and helps us a lot with cultural disparities and miscommunications.

When I worked in a more diverse place, culture came up and was always an interesting topic of discussion. Living in a 98% white town culture doesn't come up nearly as much.

Sort of just by where they are going on holiday that year. I had one work friend and she used to share photos of the outfits she’d be wearing at nottinghill carnival. Sounds like it might be a man thing as they don’t seem to ask personal questions.

Not really, London is so diverse but we don’t really discuss culture that much. It’s just normalised 🤷‍♀️ I work with engineers and we don’t really have deep conversations other than nerdy stuff or at the pub.

@Karen I love carnival 🤣 I haven’t been in years but I’d get dressed up too my friends in college were Caribbean and introduced me to it and I was obsessed ever since

@Sarah That’s interesting… what does ‘normalized’ mean in this context? Do you mean people assume a shared “London culture,” or that it just doesn’t come up because no one engages? Diversity doesn’t necessarily mean cultural exchange is happening…just that different backgrounds exist in the same space and very commonly assimilation is used as a safety measure. In my experience, when given the opportunity, people do want to share it’s just that work environments and or individuals don’t always create space for it. I also don’t work in engineering I work in community organizing so culture sharing is a very important element of my work.

Very very common in the staffroom in my school, for sure! We have great debates and also share food etc. Outer London.

@Asha I think in my case living here for a decade, a lot of people I work with don’t really share as there’s not much to share after those initial talks getting to know each other. I wouldn’t ask someone where they are from, that would seem pretty rude but I would let them tell me if they wanted to. My manager is Nigerian and we had discussions years ago (we are both women though so maybe that’s why), people have asked 1/2 times about my irl name (it’s Irish, not Sarah) but other than that our cultures aren’t daily discussions. I work with a few Europeans, some Americans and a few people from South Americans nations. Maybe we are all just quite nerdy and introverted 😂

@Audrey I feel like food tends to be a huge vehicle Especially when someone else’s food seems similar to food from your culture it’s like oh snap look at the overlap I also think schools/teaching have a big relationship aspect and I think culture sharing is part of relationship building

@Sarah why do you believe that asking where someone is from is rude?

@Asha I just always think it comes off as a bit rude. Like I’m a white girl in London, I’d never ask a brown person where he’s from for fear of looking racist. You know when you see the movies and they say ”where are you from?”, “London”… “yeah but where are you really from?”…. “London” I also think some of it is being British. When I see family in America or visit I often get questions that I find odd to ask a stranger. Like where am I from, wheres my family from, what’s my job etc. I’d just never ask someone personal questions like that off the bat

@Sarah I get it I think delivery and intention matters and probably context when asking When I lived in miami a lot of the Black people that lived there weren’t Black Americans so they always asked where I was from where I was REALLY from and I was like yall… my people have been here for GENERATIONSSSSSSS we don’t know before we were brought here And when White folks ask me I can tell they travel a lot so they’re just asking for a point of reference for connection it’s rarely asked out of a reason to be prejudiced Typically racist White. Folks just tell you to go back to wherever you came from,.. and they have no idea nor do they care where that is 🤣

I agree with @Sarah. I think in the UK we try to stay away from ‘othering’ people. Asking someone where they’re from implies you think they’re foreign, they might be born and raised in the UK just have a different skin tone. That kind of thing.

@Asha I think as well, going back to my normalised comment I mean that we are quite educated on different culture through our life experience. My day to day I see multiculturalism a lot and most of us have been involved it peoples cultures for years. I’ve been to Nigerian and Ghanaian weddings (they were fun!), I’ve been to Pakistani iftars, my aunt and cousins are Turkish. I lived in a heavily Caribbean community in South London for years, my bf is Italian and my bfs in work are Peruvian and Greek. We see it and learn it every day, so I guess some of us might not really feel we need to discuss it much at work unless engaged upon. If that makes sense.

@Sarah If culture includes food, art, clothes, dancing, music, parenting, etc., then what do conversations look like if culture isn’t being discussed?

@Hind so how would you phrase probing questions learning more about someone else’s culture?

@Asha we talk about all sorts but tbh we are all pretty westernised. My Nigerian manager rarely talks about her culture, she talks about Church a lot and weekend plans with the kids, what’s on tv, we eat lunch together but rarely does she bring in something like jollof. We don’t talk about Yoruba culture (her tribe in Nigeria) much at all, her identity isn’t very centred around it. Same with my Italian best friend, she’ll fight you over which pasta you use but day to day it’s reality tv, nightclubbing and travelling talk. I don’t think I talk about Ireland much at all, or my upbringing, my religion, my culture like that. We destroy stuff for a job so it’s mainly a lot of cheering, data work, dribbling over the cars and planning the pub after work. I heard a colleague talk in fluent Welsh once and no one even knew she was Welsh 😂

@Sarah where I live and the people I interact with tend to be immigrants, first generation, or their family has held on TIGHT to their roots My family is American from the south but it’s a specific culture that’s deeply influenced the culture of the country as a whole Food is pretty ethnic including at public school lol Fridays they sell paletas and have tamales Because of the state of politics and the fact that I do a lot of work with immigrant communities “othering and belonging” campaigns are regularly discussed and everyone talks about when they visit family or when they were young in their country of birth And then I have an ethnic name so that raises questions from folks too We talk about everything in between but culture is so intertwined with it in my circle and it’s always been that way for me I would say my brother as well My partner who is first generation American it depends on who he’s around he works as an aerospace fabricator in defense… and they’re all ‘murica!

@Asha honestly, I avoid it lol. If the person mentions something about their culture voluntarily that would likely be the only context I feel comfortable asking. It’s beautiful to learn about other cultures and customs though, and I think most people don’t mind being asked, it’s just a fear that I might offend someone.

I run a restaurant in the UK and have worked in the industry for 15+ years. I’ve worked with and met customers from all over the world and I absolutely love it! I often get the question “is it a British thing…” etc. from my colleagues and I also ask them “in your country what’s the way to do…” because we’re all learning! I think it’s fascinating what other cultures/ethnicities find rude, normal, strange etc.