Hello,
My name is Liselotte and I am a Dane now having lived in Austria for 17 years. I really like it here, still there are a few things that are frustrating to me.
I like the Austrians. Most of them have some kind of “Gemütlichkeit”.
However, there are also some things that really annoy me.
Something that really annoys me a little in Austria is for example the bureaucracy here. You need a special permission for anything. It really is annoying. I do not know what it is like in other countries, but I cannot imagine it to be as weird as in Austria.
Another thing that I have had a problem with in my professionel carrier is the strict hierarchies. Austria is a very hierarchical society and often you only get the information that is just essential to your job – not the whole picture. And the autonomy in your job is often not given. You will need the approval of your supervisor to do anything extraordinary. That really annoys me, but maybe again this is because I personally am a person who likes to take responsibility and is somehow creative with a lot of ideas.
Something else I have notices is that titles seem to be really important in Austria. This is something that is very alien to me as a Dane. I had a hard time accepting, that it is better for me to always state my own title (Mag.) before my name. In Denmark we have something called “Jante loven” (the low of Jante) – an unwritten law that states, that no matter who you are or what you do, you should not make the mistake to believe that you are any better than anyone else. Well, the law is not always followed in Denmark, since people are very different, but the principle is there. This is somehow hard for me to cope with living in a very hierachical society that places a lot of importance on titles and status.
However, I really like it here and believe I am going to stay for many years ahead.
