United in Diversity

By guest blogger LaFritte.

Sometimes discussions about Europe are like Russian dolls. The dolls get smaller and smaller but they are still the same dolls and you wonder when it will be the last one. Equally you can find Europe’s microcosm mirrored in many places, sometimes in places you didn’t really expect.

For example at our monthly company staff meeting two weeks ago. On the agenda: the use of our online signatures. Maria, our newly elected Spanish communication officer, saw it as her first duty to harmonize the corporate signature and bring order into our multicultural chaos.

“This is how it looks like at the moment” she showed a PowerPoint slide frowning her forefront. “A total anarchy of signatures! Some put their full title with their full name, others put Mr, Ms or Mrs in front and then the full name but without their complete job title, others use the company name in full form, others just the abbreviation. To be short it’s a mess. This has to change. From now on everybody will use the same signature!”

Proudly she showed a template of her newly created Master signature. “It’s better for the external image, people will know who they are dealing with and… we will follow the same rules ONCE and for ALL !"

The crowd around the round table was glued to the screen. “But isn’t it a discrimination if the receiver knows that the mail comes from a woman or a man? “ Why discriminatory, doesn’t it make things easier?!!” Maria exclaimed.

“No” someone raised her voice.

“I don’t necessarily want to let people know that I am a woman”

“ Are you scared they will hit on you or what?” People started giggling.

“I would prefer the new signature without the Mr but with the logo and without the full name of the company, it takes up too much space in my e-mails.”

“There shouldn’t be a different treatment of the sexes”

“ I agree”. People mumbled.

“ Actually nobody in Anglophone countries puts Mr or Mrs in front of their name” our only British colleague raised his voice.

“ Ah really ??”

“ Yes, it’s very uncommon".

“You see! Besides, I don’t want to let people know if I am a Ms or Mrs, it has nothing to do with my work. It’s private and simply unprofessional!”

Maria who had started a very innocent proposal to give a unified image to our signatures, was suddenly confronted with imminent hostility and resistance from all sides. 

“Can I make a suggestion..”The chattering room went silent. Our boss sighed, put his hands together and took an air of an army general planning his next war strategy. 

“Why shouldn’t we first make a survey about the cultural practices around Europe and evaluate the result by the Communication department before committing ourselves to anything? I mean it’s a sensitive issue, in the meantime everybody continues to use the signature he or she has used before”.

Agreed nodding. After having lost 45 minutes on this ‘burning issue’ we were now able to get back to less important matters, like our position on the European debt crisis or if we should sack one of our Greek company members.

This is what “ Europe- United in Diversity” really means I thought. Nothing changes because everybody just continues with the usual mess, but somehow it works anyway.

LaFritte is a blogger for Bruxpat. Conceived somewhere in the East-south, born somewhere in Eastern Europe, raised in the middle of Central Europe, she stranded on the Western shore of this continent a couple of years ago. She loves Belgian imperfections, the fact that everybody seem to be permanently stuck in an identity crisis, creative chaos and the rare sunny spells that occasionally fall on this country.  When this happens Brussels transforms itself completely turning into one of the most vibrant places - which reminds her why she is still living here.