US business etiquette for Europeans: how meetings, email, meals and gifts work in America

Americans are easy to meet and quick to call you by your first name. That friendliness misleads many Europeans in both directions: some take it as a sign the deal is done, others as a sign nobody is serious. Neither is right. American business has its own rhythm, more informal on the surface and often more demanding underneath, and a few of its rules are written into law.

First contact: names, titles and small talk

Expect first names from the first email. Your counterpart signs as "Mike", not "Michael Johnson, Vice President", and expects you to do the same. Academic titles are rarely used in business; a European who introduces himself as Dr. Engineer So-and-so will be politely amused. Use first names back, unless you are speaking to a judge, an elected official or someone clearly much senior who introduces themselves formally.

A firm handshake, eye contact and a smile are the standard greeting. Kisses on the cheek, normal in Paris or Madrid, are not part of American business. Exchange business cards if offered, but do not expect a ceremony; many people simply connect on LinkedIn while you talk.

Small talk is short and positive: the trip, the weather, sports, the city, family in general terms. Avoid politics and religion with people you do not know well. Both are part of daily life here, and our guides to conservatives and liberals and to religion in America explain why, but a first meeting is not the place to test opinions.

Meetings: on time, on agenda, on to the next step

Be punctual for video calls and in person; five minutes late without a message signals carelessness. Meetings tend to be shorter than in Europe, often 30 minutes, and end with a concrete next step: who sends what by when. If you leave without one, the meeting failed.

Reading the American yes

Americans are encouraging. "That sounds great", "Love it" and "Let's definitely talk more" are polite, warm and noncommittal. The real signals are actions: an introduction to a colleague, a request for pricing, a calendar invite, a trial order. Europeans from more direct cultures, the Dutch, Germans and Scandinavians in particular, often hear enthusiasm as agreement and then wonder why nothing follows.

Critique softly, decide quickly

The reverse also applies. Blunt criticism, normal in a German or Danish meeting, can land as hostility. Americans package criticism: something positive, the problem, a proposed solution. At the same time, decisions often come faster than in Europe, and people expect you to be able to decide in the room or within days. A European who must "check with headquarters" on every point loses momentum, which is one reason we encourage clients to give their US lead real authority.

Email, response times and working hours

Speed is respect. A reply within one business day, even a short one saying when the full answer will come, is the norm. Long silences are read as lack of interest. Keep emails short, with the request in the first line.

Americans also work long days. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey for 2025 found that full-time employed people worked an average of 8.1 hours on the days they worked, 8.5 hours on an average weekday. 30% of employed people worked on an average weekend day, and 35% did some or all of their work at home on the days they worked. Expect some emails on Sunday evenings, and do not be offended if a client answers yours at 6 a.m.

Practical details that mark you as an outsider if you get them wrong:

• Dates are written month first: 03/11/2026 is 11 March, not 3 November. Write "November 3, 2026" in contracts to avoid mistakes.
• Time zones. The mainland spans several time zones. Always state the zone in invitations ("10 a.m. Central").
• Units. Quote in dollars, feet, inches, pounds and gallons. For consumer products, US labelling rules require the net quantity on the package in both metric and inch/pound units.
• Paper is Letter, not A4. Documents formatted for A4 print with odd margins.

The calendar: holidays and vacation

The federal government observes eleven holidays. For 2026 the Office of Personnel Management lists:

Private employers decide which of these they give off; banks and federal offices close, many businesses stay open on some of them. Thanksgiving week and the days between Christmas and New Year are slow for decisions. Note also what is missing for Europeans: no Easter Monday, no Whit Monday, no Ascension Day, no national August shutdown.

Federal law does not require paid vacation at all. The Department of Labor states that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations or holidays; these are matters of agreement between employer and employee. American colleagues therefore often take one or two weeks at a time, and a European who announces four weeks away in August should explain coverage in advance. Our page on vacation days and holidays goes deeper.

Business meals, tipping and gifts

Meals

Breakfast and lunch meetings are common; long lunches with wine are not. The person who invites usually pays. An invitation to dinner with spouses usually comes once a relationship has grown.

Tipping

In restaurants, the tip is part of the price in everything but name, because federal law lets employers pay tipped staff a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour and count tips toward the $7.25 federal minimum wage (state law may require more). A Pew Research Center survey in August 2023 found that 92% of Americans who eat at sit-down restaurants always or often tip there; only 2% said they would leave no tip for an average meal. As host, you tip; leaving nothing is noticed.

Gifts

Gifts are modest and optional. A good bottle from your home region or a box of local chocolates at the end of a successful project is welcome; an expensive gift early in a relationship can make people uncomfortable, and many companies have compliance rules limiting what employees may accept. If you deal with federal employees, the rules are strict: under the federal ethics regulations, an employee may generally accept unsolicited gifts of no more than $20 per source per occasion, and no more than $50 from any one person in a calendar year, and never cash. State and local governments have their own rules.

On the tax side, your US company may deduct only 50% of most business meals and up to $25 per recipient per year for business gifts, as IRS Publication 463 explains; entertainment such as sports tickets is generally not deductible at all.

Hiring and running a team

The US hiring process contains a trap for Europeans: questions that are normal at home can be evidence of discrimination here. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission advises that pre-employment inquiries be limited to what is essential to judge whether a person is qualified, calls information about race, sex, age and religion irrelevant to that question, and states that employers are explicitly prohibited from asking about disability before a job offer. It also advises that employers should not ask for a photograph of an applicant. So: no photos on CVs, no questions about age, marriage plans, children or nationality in the interview.

In daily management, American employees expect regular, specific praise and clear goals. Annual reviews matter, and feedback is given privately and constructively. Titles carry weight inside companies; a "manager" title can matter more to a candidate than it would in Europe. Our guide to hiring qualified staff in the US explains recruiting and employment basics.

Selling the American way

American buyers want to hear what your product does for them, in numbers, in the first minutes. European modesty ("we are a small company, but...") reads as weakness. Lead with results, customers and a clear price. Case studies from known names carry more weight than technical depth.

Follow every conversation with a short written summary. Americans put agreements in writing early and expect contracts to be complete and precise, partly because the legal culture is more litigious. A handshake opens the deal; the signed document closes it.

Finally, show up in person. A buyer who meets you at a trade show and sees you again a year later begins to trust that you will stay. Our guide to trade shows and business events explains how to use them.

Seven habits that cost Europeans deals

None of this requires you to stop being European. Americans enjoy a European accent, European quality and a European view of the world. They simply buy from people who are easy to do business with. For more on daily life, see our guide to living in the US as a European, and for a lighter take, Sebastian's list of things that annoy him about Americans.