Nothing inspires creativity like travel. With a strong value in flexible work experiences, Work Your World is a program offered by Boomerang x Publicis Groupe that gives employees the opportunity to work from any accessible country where the Groupe is present, for up to 6 weeks a year. In this column, we interview employees who have recently spent time abroad to see what they learned exploring this big blue planet.
Name: Ellis van den Reek
Position: Search Consultant
City: Rome, Italy
Season: Fall
Duration: 5 Weeks
If I had 24 hours in … what would you suggest I do/visit/explore/see?
Rome is one big open-air museum, so you won’t get bored at all! Of course go and see the Colosseum (really impressive), Forum Romanum and Appia antica, but also take your time to try the best Italian wine, coffee and food. We did a great pasta-workshop in Frascati and visited an impressive Opera show in the historical theatre.
What was the most surprising things you learned/experienced?
Italian people eat ‘stamppot’ the same way they eat pasta (with a fork, circling)
We threw a dinner party for Italian colleagues and of course served Dutch stamppot and apple pie.
How did your workspace / working day look like, where did you work, how did you manage to work with the time difference?
In Italy the workday usually starts around 9:30. On my way to the office I would get a nice cappuccino in one of hundred small coffee shops. We would work until 13:00 and then go out for a real Italian lunch. There were some nice small restaurants in the neighborhood in which you could eat some pasta or pizza, always a warm meal. After lunch, we had an espresso and sat in the sun of course (which shines all October!). Around 14:15 we would return to the office and finish the work. I went to the Publicis office almost every day, which was really modern and well-located in a Italian neighborhood.
What was the biggest culture difference regarding the work ethics? (e.g., In the Netherlands we are ‘’down to earth’’, in the US they drink loads of coffee)
I think in terms of work ethics, we’re quite similar. Hard-working, but also plenty of time to laugh. One thing though is that Italian colleagues really took time to drink their coffees. No coffee-drinking at your desk, but a get-together in the canteen and no talking about work.
What were your magical moments?
In my first week I could join the ‘back-to-school’-party from the Italian Publicis office in Rome. It was a great cocktail party on a boat on the Tiber. The perfect way to get to know more colleagues and try-out the Italian drinks
