What cultural norms guide professional small talk in Russia

Professional small talk in Russia is guided by cultural norms that emphasize formality, careful topic selection, and an authentic, trust-building approach. Russians tend to approach small talk cautiously in business settings, often avoiding overly personal or trivial topics until a closer relationship is established. Topics such as weather, general cultural or historical references, and work-related subjects are more appropriate, while politics, personal finances, and intimate personal matters should be avoided in initial conversations. Politeness and respect are important, and conversations may initially be more reserved or serious until mutual trust is developed. Russians value sincerity and depth in communication even in small talk, and conversations often serve as a way to establish trust and rapport rather than mere social pleasantries. Overall, professionalism, respect for personal boundaries, and indirect yet meaningful communication are key aspects guiding small talk in Russian professional contexts. ^{1, 2, 3}

References

• National Discourse Style: English and Russian Business Discourses

• Russians in Business: An Analytical Study of Culture, Governance and Behavior

• Communicative Category of Politeness in German and Russian Linguistic Culture

• British small talk as an ecolinguistic phenomenon

• The uses of small talk in social work: Weather as a resource for informally pursuing institutional tasks

• The “major mea culpa:” Journalistic Discursive Techniques When Professional Norms are Broken

• What can we talk about, in which language, in what way and with whom? Sami patients’ experiences of language choice and cultural norms in mental health treatment

• The Institution of Self-employment as a Factor of Small Business Development in Russia

• Small Talk Grooming

• Professional resistance forces as a defence framework for small countries

• «Small talk» как компонент профессиональной иноязычной подготовки студентов экономических специальностей

• Impact of the Full-Scale Aggression of Russia Against Ukraine on the Modern Ethno-Cultural and National-Patroitic Development of Ukrainian Students: Sociological Dimension

• Modern Russia: Communicative Situation under Postmodern Era

• Formal and Informal Russian Invitation: Context and Politeness Strategies

• Let Them Talk as “Encyclopedia of Russian Life”: Latent «Accursed Questions» on Russian Television (2017)

• Friendliness in Russian linguistic worldview

• Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic Diversity in Russian Megalopolises

• Russian-Culture-Oriented Discourse of English: Prospects of Corpus Research

• Ethnic Culture of Russian World: Development of Domestic Social Education

• Russian Language in the Intercultural Communication Space: Modern Problem Paradigm

• Volatile Conviviality: Joking relations in Moscow’s marginal marketplace

• Organizational Culture As A Condition For Forming Personnel Identity

• ‘Official Tears’: Signs of Sociocultural Type ‘Official’ According to the National Corpus of the Russian Language

• Dialogue between cultures: FL textbook as a foundation for high-quality education

• INTERCULTURALITY IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE