6 weeks in Liverpool

Mando Group Ltd

131 Mount Pleasant

Liverpool Science Park

The new offices have a central position in Liverpool. They are located near the Metropolitan Cathedral. As we can see on the pictures, there is a panoramic view where the natural light can enter in the offices. Why they moved in? The personnel didn’t like to be far from catering and quite simply because Mando is a creative company and the staff (specially the designers) has to be surrounded by a good environment. Moreover, Mando receives clients in its offices, it must take care of the meetings room, the secretariat,…. In business (more in a creative company) you must take care of every little detail because that’s what can make the difference.

All the people were friendly with me. The thing that was very clear for me is that you enter Mando like in a family, it is not a question of self-success, all the people who work in the different departments form Mando Group (if a developer has a problem, an another directly help him).

I had never met a group previous to this who are so aware of the environment:

Ø A lot of people go to the office by bicycle
Ø Coffee and tea are fair trade products
Ø They pay attention to recycling
Ø They drink a lot of water
Ø There is a fruit bowl present for the staff

I found something very nice: every Friday after work, the Mando staff goes for a drink in a pub near the office. It was the opportunity for me to speak with people, what was not possible to do during the working hours.

On 24th April in the afternoon, my supervisor invited me with her and the designers, to visit a shop that made books like our predecessors. This shop is located near Manchester.Basically, the shop was more or less like a museum. The owners showed different machines and how to use them. After visiting the different parts of the shop, we were invited to drink a coffee/tea with some cookies in their living room. It was a beautiful way to end the day.

My second day was in the new offices. When all the offices were more or less operational, I received a desk with a dual screen !
I was equipped to do a quality job:
* I helped on the direct marketing
* I contributed in brainstorming during meetings
* I worked in the database
* I realized a Powerpoint presentation
* I translated some texts in French to English
* .....

http://www.mandogroup.com/blog/latest/all/European_relations_/46.aspx

As you can read, it was so unusual to hug people that you know only for few days that the chairman thought that it was a day of celebration in Belgium! What was my surprise on the next Monday when I arrived in the offices: everybody said hello in a more friendly way. After this famous Friday, the next Friday became the “Hug day”! I hope that British people, with whose I have had the opportunity to hug keep, remember not only the fun but also the importance of the act. I stayed 6 weeks in Liverpool to improve my English and to learn more about this beautiful country but I also wanted them to have the opportunity to know more about Belgium. During our conversations, I tried to make correlations with Belgium. So they could imagine how is this small country where I live.

I come from Belgium but my mother is Spanish so I am able to do some different comparisons between English, Belgian and Spanish people. In the first place, what shocked me with English people it is that they are a little cold. I have the habit to kiss or shake hands contact but in U.K you never do that. In Mrs Billard’s course, we read the story of a Portuguese student who had been to Northern Country to study. He explained that he didn’t understand the day after the party, in the office, why people acted as if they had never spoken to him. Although I had some difficulty in believing this story, I had the experience in Liverpool. And I can tell you that I was angry. In fact, one day for lunch, I went with 2 colleagues to eat something. I was so happy to speak with people during lunchtime. I thought that it would be the same for the rest of my work placement. In fact, it wasn’t! I didn’t believe it! The day after, they went with others! Even if we spoke about this in class, I felt very alone and I was missing my home and my family. But the situation would have been worse if I had lived 6 weeks alone in a flat.
I remember that 5 years ago, young Belgian guys didn’t kiss other males. Now the trend has changed: every guy and girl say hello with kisses. I don’t know if English people are too shy or that they don’t like human contact. I don’t want to repeat a sentence that we learned in class, but for me, English people miss something that is very important: human warmth. So I explained this to my host family, and we had a conversation about the different cultures during 2 hours! I explained that I couldn’t understand why people are so cold with others. With Ian, we decided that on 20th April was a Belgian day in the company. When I arrived this morning, I explained that today was a Belgian day and I gave a hug (like we were very good friends).
My supervisor found this initiative very good. She could understand me because her husband comes from Brazil and there the human contact is important. I think that the Mando staff will not forget my work placement with them. The “Hug movement” was so unexpected and surprising for Mando’s staff that the Chairman (Matt Johnson) wrote this experience unique on Mando’s website!

My first weekend in Great Britain, I had an amazing opportunity: Aaron had to come back in his flat in Edinburgh to clean it and to recuperate things. He asked me if I would like to discover this beautiful city. So we were on the road for a trip of 3 days. It was amazing: I took 150 pictures and some videos. We drove 4 hours to arrive in Edinburgh, after we had left our luggage we went to a pub. On Saturday, we visited a big part of the city. We had lunch in a beautiful park where there was an Easter play. We walked on the main shop road and I saw the Elephant House where J.K.Rowling wrote in 1993 the first Harry Potter novel. On Saturday night, we watched Sunshine in the cinema. On Sunday, we had breakfast and after we came back to Liverpool. But on the road, Aaron decided to show me the famous Lake District. It is a beautiful place and that day was a sunny day.