FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE PART III, THE END

I am loosing my patience. Monday
started out with a serious marketing
meeting with my staff. Half way through
my stay in St. Pete and we were still far
away from what we have to achieve.
There are so many cultural differences
at work, which you wouldn’t believe until
you work in this country. The old
communism is still present. There is no
sense of responsibility. Everything has to
be structured and organized for them.
And if you don’t tell them clearly their tasks, they will not move until their next
orders. They can’t do two things at the same time and can’t work under
pressure. They have to think about every step they take over and over again.
Before they take action, hours and hours can pass. It happens that writing a
protocol for a three hour meeting lasts a full day. No wonder everything takes
so much time and evolves at a speed of a snail. Some people would say they
are lazy, but I wouldn’t go that far. What about motivation? I don’t know if that
word exists here. Russian people are hard people. You will barely see a smile
on their face. They work to
survive in a tough life. To achieve
a goal doesn’t mean much to
them. It is more the pay check
which allows them to eat. So how
do you lead such a team? You
have to be very autocratic,
showing them who the boss is,
plan every step they do and
control it to the end. On the other hand you have to be a mom showing you
care and participate in their life. You need a lot of vodka to stay calm;
otherwise it just drives you crazy….
On Wednesday we received the good news, our box arrived in St. Petersburg
after being 5 weeks stuck at customs. Paying a fortune to send it, you would
think they deliver it to the direct address, but no, you have to pick it up. Not at
the closest post office, no, one
outside of St. Petersburg. No wonder I
couldn’t find it on the map, it took us
an hour to get there. After showing
them passport, VISA, registration,
custom-entry-form, paying another
amount of money and signing about 5
papers, they handed over the box. It
felt like Christmas, but with one
exception. It is not cold anymore. The
sun is out and we enjoy 18 degrees
every day. Our winter clothes we sent
weren’t needed anymore…
To enjoy the nice weather we decided to discover
St. Petersburg by the most romantic way, by boat
through the canals. Peter the Great really did his
job right, taking an example from Amsterdam on
how to build his city. We enjoyed the views, since
we couldn’t understand a word the tour guide was
saying. No English tours available.
Three months have passed in Russia, next week we come back home, a great experience (sometimes exasperating) and with a better end, start a new job in one of the most valorating companys in the world.

FROM RUSIA WITH LOVE PART 2
Beginning of April and the weather hasn’t
changed. It is still freezing and the wind is blowing
hard from the Gulf of Finland. I don’t know how
people survive in winter time here. Maybe that is
the reason why so many are drinking, to keep
them warm inside. Drinking is quite a problem in
Russian male society. I read the average living age
of man is 53 and women 79.
The pollution is also quite heavy. Nobody is
conscious in this part of the world. I think they
never heard of recycling. When I mentioned it,
they looked at me as if I was crazy. I don’t want to
know what kind of gasoline they are using for all
these old, rotten cars. And the apparently nice
river Neva which is running through the heart of St. Petersburg is not worth
taking a bath. Around 500 industrial firms just dump their garbage in the river
and least not forget all the sewage of the private households. They are far
away of a clean environment here. Getting to know the city more and more,
you realize that the most wonderful city
with all those majestic buildings is a
façade. Looking behind, you see how run
down the structure is. It is falling apart.
Nevertheless looking at the bright sight,
you find wonders of the world.
Two weeks have passed. We are
starting to adjust to our new life.
It still amazes me that you can survive
with 20 kilos of luggage everywhere in
the world. (We are still waiting since
more than three weeks of another 10
kilos to arrive. Who knows when or if
we will see this box again.)
I realize you don’t need much to be
happy. The more you carry around,
the more preoccupations you have.