Lost in Translation: How Different Work Cultures Around the World Clash and Make You Feel Burned Out

The Monday Morning Conference Call is Scene 1.

Client (USA): “We need clearer action points and responsibility for every deliverable!”
Team (India/Philippines): “Yes, yes… got it.”
Client: “So, who owns what, exactly?”
Team: [Long, courteous silence] “We’ll talk about it internally and get back to you.”
Client: “Hold on, what does that mean?”
Team: “Yes.”
Client: “What do you mean by ‘yes’?”
Team: “Yes… to everything.”

And so starts another week of business diplomacy, emotional weariness, and cultural misunderstandings.

The Great Communication Divide

Respect, harmony, and subtlety are important components of workplace communication in many countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
You don’t say “no,” you suggest it.
You don’t face things head-on; you move around them delicately.

But things get tricky when teams from these cultures collaborate with teams from the US, Germany, Switzerland, or Scandinavia.

It’s a sport to talk to people in other cultures, not a dance.
They value being clear, aggressive, and responsible.

In Culture Drives Strategy, I said:

“Culture not only shapes organisational operations but also influences individuals’ perceptions of silence, tone, and truth.”

Scene 2: The Battle of the Emotions

Let’s picture what happens at these gatherings between people from different cultures:

“The project is behind schedule,” said the German manager. We need to find out what went wrong.
Kenyan Team Lead: “It’s being taken care of.”
Manager from Germany: “That’s not what I asked.”
Kenyan Team Leader: “We are working on the best answer.”
“Yes, but what caused the delay?” asked the German manager.
Kenyan Team Lead: “Do we really need to point fingers?” [Internally yelling]

This is a conversation based on facts for one side.
On the other hand, it feels like an attack on me.

This is where emotional exhaustion starts.
People who work in cultures that don’t use direct communication are always having to interpret, soften, and absorb.
They put more emotional energy into dealing with reactions than into dealing with results.

I wrote this in Navigating Through Emotions: “When people can’t say how they feel directly, their feelings don’t go away; they just go underground and come back as stress, disengagement, or burnout.”

The Unspoken Emotional Tax

The emotional cost is real.
People from cultures that are more respectful typically say they feel:

Scared by direct criticism.

Sorry for disagreeing.

Over-clarification requests have left me confused.

Even though they labour hard, they are invisible since their subtle hints go ignored.

At the same time, consumers from cultures that are forceful often feel:

Angry because there isn’t enough information.

Don’t trust unclear responses.

Not happy with delayed responses.

Confused by the civility that seems like avoiding.

Both sides think the other is “hard.”
They don’t realise they’re merely playing distinct cultural games with different rules for how to feel.

Why It Affects Work Efficiency

It’s not only a language barrier when people on multinational teams don’t understand one other; it’s also an emotional one.

When workers always hide their genuine feelings to keep the peace, three things happen:

Decisions take longer. People don’t like to talk directly to each other because they are afraid of disagreement.

Responsibility becomes less clear. No one likes to hurt someone’s feelings by blaming them.

Innovation is hurt. Honest brainstorming is killed by the fear of disagreement.

As I talked about in Culture Drives Strategy,

“When comfort is more important than clarity, strategy falls apart because people don’t understand it.”

The cost of not having hard talks is always bigger than the difficulty of having them.

Scene 3: Finding Things We Can Agree On

American Client: “I’d rather you just tell me what’s not working.”
Indian Manager: “Directly? Like, without the 17 courteous lines at the start?
“Exactly,” said the American client.
“Okay,” said the Indian manager. You want the truth, no matter how hard it is.
American Client: “I’m asking for speed.”

It’s not enough for one side to copy the other; both sides need to learn how to understand each other’s cultures.

From Navigating Through Emotions:

“Emotional intelligence isn’t about hiding your feelings; it’s about showing them in a way that takes the situation into account.”

Modern multinational teams need more than just technical skills; they also need cultural EQ.

Making Global Teams More Emotionally Intelligent

To close this cultural gap, leaders can begin by:

– Making a safe place for people to talk about their feelings.
People should be able to disagree without being afraid.

– Making expectations clear.
Set a standard for what “clear communication” entails between teams.

– Promoting emotional literacy.
Teach people how to say when they are uncomfortable in a helpful way.

– Respecting quiet.
In certain cultures, being quiet implies thinking, not fighting.

– Changing how you lead.
Being assertive is different on each continent, but being empathetic is the same everywhere.

As I said in Culture Drives Strategy:

“Today, global leadership isn’t about dealing with differences; it’s about figuring them out.”

Last thought

People don’t work in the same place anymore; they work in different communication protocols.
And if executives don’t learn how to turn emotional subtleties into mutual understanding, companies will keep losing time, trust, and talent.

Working with people from different cultures isn’t only about getting things done; it’s also about learning to think like them.

Everyone, no matter where they live, Mumbai, Munich, Lagos, or London is asking the same unsaid question at the end of the day:

“Do you really get me, or just my accent?”

And that might be the most significant feedback loop that the global workplace hasn’t yet figured out how to use.