Culture Shock; Learning the Culture of a New Office

Changing to a new culture -- for new employee -- can have its moments. Writing on Career Strategies for the Wall Street Journal, Reporter ERIN WHITE gives this account:

For six months after starting a new job a few years ago, project-management executive Lyria Charles didn't check her email over the weekend. Finally, a colleague explained that employees were expected to read email over the weekend. "I didn't know," she says. "No one told me."

Learning a workplace's customs can be a major challenge. Regardless of prior work experience, people often struggle to discern protocols, etiquette and culture when they change employers. "It's like going to a different country," says Michael Kanazawa, chief executive of Dissero Partners LLC, an Oakland, Calif., management-consulting firm. "There are cultural norms of behavior that go way beyond what anybody would have the capability to write in a job description."

One big issue: Tolerance for questioning the boss... (Continued) --