Cold Calls
Cold calling is rampant - just calling up and push forward their best offer for insurances/advertising spots/telephone surveys etc. I truly believe this is common across the globe, and should be one more common factor that unite us all :p
Office Politics
We noticed that office politics is not as political/not so much back-stabbing/CMA motivated agendas, as back home. Honestly, it is highly refreshing.
Organized Chaos
Yup, well.. I'm sure anyone who is in the workforce could relate to this. Templates and set procedures are not always followed...
Enough is enough
Clock hits 3 or 4pm, work hours' up, and it's time for life. I am in two minds about this - I admire the ability to execute this without any second thoughts/self-imposed guilt whilst on the other hand, when it is a "C'MON, it's URGENT!" & the house is gonna burn down type of situation... it does create some tension/frustrations..
Humans make mistakes
The tolerance for making mistakes is maybe triple times higher than back at home.. as far as I have experienced and heard. Sometimes, I feel like a child who got caught red-handed reaching into a forbidden chocolate cookie jar, yet, gotten away with a cookie instead of a scolding/punishment..
Welfare
It is phenomenal, at least to me. If you have been in paid work for at least six of the past ten months, you can receive 100 percent of your parental benefits for a period of 47 weeks or 80 percent of your parental benefits for a period of 57 weeks. It's paid leave and the mother gets to return to her old job. Have a look at NAV's website, The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, where they'll share the details and an estimate calculator.
The said weeks are split between the mother and father. The father has an allocated of 14 weeks out of the total. Back home, we only get 1 day for the father - on the day when the child is born. Most of the fathers in the company takes their allocated leave after the mother has spent a big bulk of hers. Most would stretch it over months, i,e every Friday is Papaspermisjon (Father's leave of absence). This is beside all the care the mother gets from day one and what the child gets once born.
The parental benefit is just an example of the welfare one gets here. Similar care is placed for those who are not able to work.
Holidays
5 weeks of paid leave. *Sigh*
Of course, it isn't as straightforward, in June instead of the usual pay, one gets the holiday pay and in our case, we also receive the tax refund. More often than not, it can be higher than the usual monthly pay. SO it is a case of happy holidays!