This blog post is an interesting one for me as my communications differed according to my colleagues. My team at StayCity was multicultural with members hailing from Ireland, Greece, Ecuador, and Brazil. While Ireland is a low-context culture and the team is adapted to the Irish workstyle, I could sense a difference in communication from my Greek and Brazilian colleagues.  

My guess is that both countries must have high-context communication styes as it was common for them to implicitly convey information. For example, My Brazilian colleague would drop hints in the chat for a larger meaning. He would mention that we got an invoice from a construction company then ask the person responsible for development invoices “How’s development posting going?” This was basically code for “You need to check the development inbox now.” The funny this is that the other team member is Irish (and uses low context communication) and would respond, “I know the inbox needs checking, but I have loads of things to take care of first.” He would give an explicit reply to an implicit question and that is how office communication tended to flow.  

We all adapted to each other’s communication styles (whether it be implicit or explicit), however, I found that it was best to simply say exactly what I wanted to convey.  In a case where I experienced miscommunication, I had tried to ask for more work without asking for more work directly. The day was busy for a while then slowed down so I thought it would be a good time to ask for another task. However, I was nervous to ask the team as I did not want to pressure them into giving me work if they had important things to do. I mentioned in the chat that I completed my tasks and was free to help if someone needed it. This resulted in the team simply replying, “thank you and good job”. I never did get something else to do, but I realized for the next time that I just needed to ask directly for something to do. The next time I was free, I sent a direct message to one of the team and asked if I could work on the German invoice excel. The response was exactly as I hoped, and he sent me the excel sheet and some invoices to go through.  

The lesson I learned on communication is that you really must adapt yourself to the office communication style and not expect the office to understand you otherwise. While my team may have been able to accommodate some high context communication, I needed to learn how to state what I wanted to say and not fear that I was being rude. In all honesty, the straightforward communication was refreshing. I did not need to try and figure out what someone said to me. I knew exactly where I stood with the team, and I also knew that their feedback was honest. If I had done something wrong, I was told exactly what that was and that it needed fixed. If I did a good job, I was told that I did well.  

As this is the final post, I must now say goodbye to my new friends in Dublin. I really did enjoy my time with StayCity and I do hope to visit the head office someday. The last few weeks were fun; I got comfortable joining in the general office chat. We had a long discussion about music tastes, shared examples with each other, and later discussed what is the best place to take a holiday. I also had regular meetings with one of our members and worked with her to reconcile our accounts that became unbalanced due to Covid. Some accounts were deferred and still paid, some were deferred and not paid, and others simply were direct debits missing invoices. There were a lot of accounts, and it took time to sort them out. In the end, it felt like a big accomplishment. I also got a look into French rent (this is not for the feint hearted) and was instructed on German invoice procedures and development. The experience was worthwhile. I got a look into the reality of managing international accounts, and I learned how to work in a multicultural office. It was the exact experience I was looking for and I would 100% do it again. I need to thank the IIP program and EUSA for giving me this invaluable opportunity. I also highly recommend IIP in Dublin to those who have yet to choose their study abroad program.