Group culture 100 % Luxemburgers

Luxembourger I know in my private life are all welcoming, nice and pleasant in general. Sure, they are my friends, so it creates a bias. However, even strangers and random people have more often been nice than not.

I speak luxemburgish fluently it probably helps.

However, I begun to work for the government last summer, in a department where there are almost only people born in Luxemburg.

Individually, people are not mean. But there is so much judgement, comparisons and a general sense of harshness. People are very hard / rigid with one another and their empathy / emotional intelligence seem very very limited for the most part. I heard a lot of mobbing stories in the administration so far also. There is an arrogance I'd never seen so far, as if they were doing the most serious work in the world and were the best in the world. Everyone also seems afraid of everyone else, gossiping, reputation and so on.

I seriously don't understand it at all and work feels like a nightmare because of this. All those people earn a very good income, have a privileged life and they don't have to compete to advance their careers.

Is my perception skewed ? Or are these cultural traits when you have 100 % luxemburgish people in a place ?

I would really like to understand and to align my views / expectations.

I'm not posting to criticize but to gain insights and adjust better at work.