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there is still a general reluctance in France towards remote working and they still prefer the traditional office set up although this seems to be changing slowly.
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It's a similar situation in Germany. When I was in the process of registering my company I had one civil servant smugly inform me what a virtual assistant really is; a bored housefrau who can't get a real job and wants the government to pay them a grant to stay at home all day typing up the occasional letter for their husband's business.
Germans have a very rigid mindset in general and with work in particular. When I explain to people here that I work from home they simply cannot get their heads around the idea that I can make money without having to go into an office every day and have someone else telling me what to do.
***DOES NOT COMPUTE!***
Worse still, though they cannot articulate their feelings, they see it as something inherently wrong, perverse even. And by rejecting accepted norms and not doing things the proper German way I therefore doom myself to disaster.
Although Europe is really a community of many nationalities with many different and often conflicting national mindsets and virtues, they do share a common history. Europe has always been more traditionalist and its people always sceptical of new ideas, certainly if it's a foreign idea, particularly if it's a business model that originated in the United States and especially if said business model involves the Internet
I believe the difference has historical origins; in European countries (and also Japan) with their centuries of feudal monarchies we still retain many of the traditional notions of class and patriarchal hierarchy. Therefore in Germany there are so many laws to protect us from ourselves, when simple common sense should suffice, in Britain you can't travel 20 meters without being caught on camera and in Ireland 50% of all airtime is taken up by traffic safety ads. Our leaders all share the same belief that the general populous must at all times be supervised and cannot act independently, nor can they be trusted to work from home as the temptation of the TV would be too great.
Also more prevalent is the perceived virtue of work for the sake of work, rather than it being a means to an end. And we tend to see the only way of advancing oneself is within the structure of an existing company or organization whereas Americans in particular are pre-wired to favour entrepreneurship.
North Americans (Aussies and Kiwis too I've found) share a common pioneer culture; those who abandoned the stifling conventions of old Europe, venturing forth into uncharted territory in search of one's fortune is very much part of the national mindset. So it's no wonder, then, that the virtual assistant business model is more accepted in those countries, as there has always been more of a spirit of individualism and entrepreneurship there.
