Je pourrais vous parler des heures des Japonais chez qui je reside actuellement ou des Americains chez qui j'ai passe 10 ans mais les Australiens sont une enigme pour moi. Amis, aiguisez votre plume et decrivez-les nous donc dans l'entreprise:
Quels sont leurs qualites et defauts ?
Quelles sont les faux-pas a eviter avec eux au travail ?
Quelle sorte d'employes sont-ils ?
Quel est leur "drive" ?
Salut Lecoq, je suis Australienne et peut etre je pouvais t'aider avec quelques des questions.
Tu pourrais essayer ce lien aussi d'un auteur Australien writer s'appelle Robert Treborlang, l'auteur des livres tres celebre en australie dans les 1980's, comme 'How to be normal in Australia'. C'est tres drole, mais il y a aussi pour la plupart beaucoup de verite.
http://www.majormitchell.com.au/contents.html
C'est trop difficile pour moi de t'expliquer en francais, but if you have questions, I'd be happy to try and help. Australians love to share their humour and their anecdotes and their Aussie slang, but they won't want to share their secrets and their way of behaving (as exposed in the Robert Treborlang books, by a non-Australian who studied us very well indeed.....
These books taught me a lot about my own people, who even I have trouble understanding at times. It could be because I'm 'sitting on the fence' as we say - belonging to 2 cultures, as I am 1/2 New Zealander and 1/2 Australian. To the outsider, there may not appear to be much, if any difference, but to the insiders, there is a great deal of difference, especially with personalities, je crois.
New Zealanders are often open and friendly and they mean it, par exemple.
Aussies appear open and friendly, but often take things a lot more casually.
The smaller cities, like Brisbane, are likely to be a lot more friendly overall than bigger ones where residents feel under more 'stress' in their lives (even though many of us keep up the illusion that we are, in fact, 'taking it easy').
Ok: qualities of Australians.....when times are tough they are very supportive and stick together well. They work hard, but know when to 'take it easy' too (for the most part). Good sense of humour and the ridiculous (and good dry senses of humour that enable them to find something funny in even tragic situations or disasters). Know how to 'look busy' at work (even if they aren't!)
Faults: a little too superficial. Show a lot of interest in strangers but this can wear off after time, it seems. Women tend to gossip a lot in the office. Rumour and gossip seem to be important to them at work. Sport can be everything to them - playing or watching or both.
Faux pas to avoid at work: don't ask personal questions. After a long time, it become ok to ask, but not really in the beginning (depends on the type of people you're working with, what industry, etc)
Important: if someone asks 'How are you'? when they see you (as happens dozens of times every single day at work) it isn't an invitation to talk about what you've been doing. The correct answer is always 'good' (whether you are or not. The asker only wants to know that you are good, not if you are feeling bad) or better 'Not bad' (which might seem odd, being a double negative, but this is just the kind of 'non committal' answer that Aussies live by.)
If it's Monday and you have mates, and they ask you how you are, only then can you talk a bit about your weekend.
Also, you need to learn a fair bit of meaningless small talk to get you started: the 'hello how are you' thing, talking about the weather....stuff like that. Protocol. It's quite important in business. Only after you have covered these things is it really possible to go on.
Don't ever say 'G'day' at work. (that's for Crocodile Steve to say and Paul Hogan. At work we try to present the civilized side, even if many aren't so civilized outside work). A lot of foreigners seem to think we only say 'G'day' and never 'hello', but it's not so.
Bonne chance en Australie!