This year I spent part of my summer in New York. It’s a place that’s close to my heart: I lived and worked here for six years as Monocle’s US editor, watching the country lurch from Barack Obama’s final months to Donald Trump’s first term. When I returned there for the first time in a while from my new home in Milan, the contrast was stark. At the time, the Lombard capital was beginning to shut up shop for the season; residents were heading to Sardinia or Liguria, or perhaps the mountains of Valle d’Aosta for a much-needed cool-off. New Yorkers, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be on holiday at all. Waiters wanted to tell me all about their acting gigs and PRs quickly followed up queries by email. It was a reminder that the city is full of hustlers and many people live to work rather than vice-versa.
The cities’ relationship with work couldn’t be more different. While, thankfully, no Milanese communications professional has yet suggested that we have a “desk-side” meeting (a New York staple that essentially means stalking you at your desk, rather than going somewhere nice), the difference goes much deeper than that. In New York, a sort of middle-tier friendship exists that is below full-fledged confidant but above colleague. You might have things in common – and even a shared sense of humour – but the relationship has a transactional element. It’s part of a network that promises the potential of an auspicious future career. I would often be invited to drinks at people’s homes and realise I was in that middle tier. Everyone around me worked in the media or other creative industries and the only question they could muster was, “What do you do?”
Italy is decidedly “work to live”. I recently refurbished an apartment in Milan; I lost count of the number of times that I had to chase workers for quotes. It was as though I was expected to be grateful to them for the chance to spend my money on their services.
A few years ago, I visited a tech summit in a northern Italian city and spoke to one of the organisers. He mentioned that Italian start-ups are more risk averse when it comes to making the next leap. Does an aversion to risk explain why they lack the same raw work ethic as their New York counterparts? Or perhaps they are simply content with their lot – no bad thing – which means not rocking the boat too much and living the good life when the opportunity arises. There’s probably room for these two very different tribes to meet in the middle. One thing is abundantly clear, however: there’s no need for a “desk-side”, wherever you are in the world.
Ed Stocker is Monocle’s Europe editor at large. For more insight and analysis, subscribe to Monocle today.
