Deloitte

Work
The other reason for moving to Germany

As you have noticed, I have not been very good about updating my blog very often. My excuse this time is WORK! My project this summer was, "Learn how to live in Germany." I seem to have gotten this project under control so it was about time I found some client work to do.

In September, I joined a project in Brussels, Belgium that is being led by a U.S. Deloitte team in St. Paul, MN. How funny that I move across the world to work with people that are an hour away from where I grew up! I have been splitting my time between Brussels and Munich for the last couple months.

For my friends and family that used to describe what I did for work to other people as "Something confusing with computers", this no longer will work! We are helping the client to implement a Human Resources Shared Service Center. This allows the company to centralize and become more efficient in the administrative tasks of HR, while letting HR in each European country focus on building strategic relationships with their businesses. Basically, this means that we help the company reorganize how their Human Resources department functions and serves the business.

This has been a great project so far to experience a global project from a new point of view. It is quite different being on the other receiving end sometimes of the global team in the U.S. telling us what to do and then we, "Europe", have to figure out how we will actually put these processes in to practice following the laws and business culture here. Luckily, the client is great and my Deloitte teammates are really wonderful people to work with.

The client is actually located near the Brussels airport and quite far away from the city center so I have only been there once. I stole these pictures from Michael when he was there last summer. :)

There are a couple narrow streets that are lined with restaurant after restaurant all serving amazing seafood. We passed them up for a local favorite of one of our teammates. I ate rabbit for the first time that night and loved it. We all managed to save room to try a few Belgian beers and a famous waffle covered in chocolate, strawberries, and whip cream.

At night there is a light and music show in the main square. We were lucky enough to catch it after dinner.

Hopefully I will be able to see more of the city on my next trips to Brussels. Celine, is the Belgian Deloitte colleague that I replaced on the project. Since she is now working internally in the Diegem office, I am sure that we will have more fun adventures.

French and Flemish
Celine has taught us a lot about the political unrest in Belgium over the relationship between the Flemish and French speaking people. According to Celine´s experiences lately the tension between the two groups has been increasing over the last few years and it is surfacing frequently at the government levels. There are actually some people that believe that the Flemish and French speaking parts of the country should divide and become separate countries. Belgium has three official languages, German, Dutch, and French. Only a small portion of the country in the east is German speaking. The northern part of the country is Flemish and the southern portion is French. Brussels happens to be a city in the Flemish part of the country, but it is a French speaking city. Many people speak French, Dutch, and English, but would only identify themselves as Flemish or French. The schools are divided by the language as well. However, many French parents are sending their children to Flemish schools so that they learn Dutch. The Flemish parents are doing the same with the French schools. My client is Irish, married to a French speaking man, and has her daughter in a Dutch speaking school. Just a little bit different of a language environment then we are used to in the U.S....