People in different countries of Europe, and from Europe to North American and right back again, judge each others' work habits and schedules, and judge them often and vocally.  Of course, with current international business practices and the supposedly helpful diversity trainings (which, from what I have seen, are largely sources of successful transmission of  clichés), this should be seen as unsurprising in some ways.  The  economies are in real competition, although the structure of the economies is totally opaque for many of us.  Discussions that Deutsche Börse, the German stock exchange, could buy the New York Stock Exchange (Wall Street) are very confusing to the average person (like me).  Wall Streeters will apparently vote on this on July 7, and Deutsche Börse shareholders will do so by July 13; but I don’t even understand the implications.