PORTUGAL | Internship: At work | Dress code and manners

Adressing others at the work place

In Portugal, titles are respected. The polite way to greet someone is by using the honorific title according to gender, ‘Sr.’ (Senhor) when addressing a man, ‘Srª.’ (Senhora) or ‘D.’ (Dona) when addressing a woman, followed by their surname. This form is used when addressing someone with no academic education. People with academic education are treated by the corresponding honorific title followed by ‘Dr.’ (Doutor) or ‘Drª’ (Doutora) for someone with a general degree, ‘Engº’ (Engenheiro) or ‘Engª’ (Engenheira) when addressing someone with a degree in engineering, ‘Arqº’ (Arquitecto) or ‘Arqª’ (Arquitecta) when addressing someone with a degree in architecture.

When meeting someone for the first time, the person should be treated formally, by ‘você’. You should only address someone informally, by ‘tu’ when invited to do so. The same applies to the use of given names, you should only address people by their given names when invited to do so.

In business situations, a handshake between the participants is the norm. In more personal settings, it’s common for men to greet each other with a hug or between men and women by two kisses on the cheek.

Dress code

In Portugal, there is no mainstream dress code for all sectors, companies and labour force. In the financial sector and at management level people dress formally and presentably. An example is bank personnel who dress formally at all times. Some companies have a "dress-down" day policy where people can dress casually once a week. In other sectors, such as education, commerce and service providers’ personnel dress more casually but still presentable. Other services may require uniforms, like the postal services or public transportation.