Australia has several national holidays and many are similar to the national holidays celebrated in the United States. Holidays that are unique to Australia include Canberra Day, Australia Day, Anzac Day, the Queen’s birthday, Boxing Day, and Easter Monday (AU Government, 2022). The Queen’s Birthday is a national holiday in Australia because they are under a constitutional monarchy, the date of this holiday has changed as the monarchs of England have changed but it is celebrated on June 13 (Taylor, 2022). Another unique holiday is Anzac day which is a day of remembrance for the soldiers who fought in World War One (AFS, 2022).
Although a major part of Australian culture is being easy going and laid back this doesn’t apply fully to their business culture. At work it is considered to be extremely unprofessional to arrive somewhere late, as people prefer when you arrive at work or a meeting slightly early (Kimmorley, 2017). Being direct and clear cut in business communication is important in Australia, they want to hear the facts and not focus on unnecessary details (Evason, 2016). The work life balance is part of their laid back culture that they are so well known for, the average Australian spends on about 60 percent of their day dedicated to leisure (Hodges, 2022). This shows that Australians have more of a focus on life outside of work and not having their work life take over a majority of their day to day life. Australia is a low context society, so upholding contractual agreements is extremely important in Australian business practices (Sternquist, 2007). It is considered unprofessional to not follow through on that agreement.
