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Tea breaks are as ubiquitous in Britain as ... well ... tea. In America, not so much.
- There are several notable differences between the way Americans and British people work.
- Thanks to a global economy, some of these trends are beginning to shift.
- For now, though, expect Americans to put in more hours at work and British people to enjoy more tea breaks.
In a working world that's more global than ever, American workplace trends have begun cropping up in the workplaces of other countries, including the UK.
And, despite some resistance, we see the reverse beginning to happen in the US, too.
Based on anecdotal observation, the differences between the way Americans and British people work appear to be less stark than one might expect.
One trend that's caught on in the UK, for example, is the "sad desk lunch."
Pam Engel, a deputy editor who has worked in Business Insider's New York and London offices, points out that, though it could be the product of working in a busy newsroom, with some exceptions, the people she worked with in the UK mostly ate at their desks.
The "sad desk lunch" as it's come to be known is a fairly common phenomenon in America. As Business Insider's Mark Abadi reports, only one in five Americans spends their lunch break away from their desks. Most people end up eating their midday meal while they continue to work, and others skip the meal entirely.
This trend has apparently caught on in the UK, as well. As the Telegraph reports, two thirds of British workers recently admitted in a survey that they don't always manage to take even 20 minutes for lunch.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "The once-stalwart tradition of a long, liquid lunch is drying up in London."
Of course, other traditions die hard. Here are six differences between the way Americans and British people work, and how some are beginning to shift: