I guess someone, somewhere, somehow, could be insulted (people, what can one do?) For example, any time in my decades of work experience I've had anything to do with the English, it was just pressure, pressure, pressure, do it quick, quick, quick! It needs done yesterday. What do we have to do to get this done already!?! PANIC oh my if this isn't done IMMEDIATELY the world will end!!! Implied threats. Passive-aggressive tactic. Blustering. Bluffing.
But never any plan, never any specification, never anything except maybe a lonely Powerpoint presentation promising castles in the sky. Process? No process, that takes too long. And if there anything resembling a process, it's never formally documented, never enforced, and as soon as the next crisis breaks out, purposely disregarded. "Capability maturity model? Yeah, no, we obviously have no time for that..."
It's been both frustrating and fascinating watching it all these years: always panic, always guerilla style work mode, always no plan whatsoever, always pandemonium, always chaos. Completely the opposite of the Swiss or the Japanese. Different companies, different people, but with the English always the same modus operandi. And then they say that stereotypes are bad and not true at all. I guess at least I appreciate that they are consistent in being chaotic and disorganized (;-))
