- Culture -
The biggest difference I’ve noticed thus far is the office culture. In the states, normal working hours are approximately 9am-5pm. However, I’ve realized that in HK people don’t come into work until 10am and it’s not uncommon for them to stay late into the night. For example, I’ve arrived at work by 9am every day this week as per requested on my contract, but besides the receptionist and a few other employees on the other side of the office, I’m the only one here. Throughout the day, everyone always appears to be hard at work or in meetings. Lunch is social time. Everyone eats together, whether they all go to the same restaurant or all order in. I didn’t realize that 1pm was the designated lunch time, but every day as soon as 1pm hits, everyone is out of their desks and off to lunch. It’s the little things that you don’t realize when you think of coming to a new company in a different country.
- Practice -
Our office concentrates on three areas of practice: Financial Communications, Corporate Technology, and Brand Marketing, and is split accordingly making it appear that the three parts don’t have much interaction (at least not that I have been included in yet, but it’s still early). I have also witnessed that the employees appear to be very set in their ways with not much room for change when a new employee comes onboard. Perhaps it’s just the busy time of the year, but I have been on my own without much guidance besides email exchanges from my supervisor since she’s usually in meetings or with clients. Hoping for more projects next week!
-Language -
The other obvious cultural barrier is the language. Most everyone speaks Cantonese all of the time, even around me. A few nice colleagues have filled me in on what the discussion is about, but for the most part I am very quiet in the workplace. On that same note, I unfortunately can’t do a portion of my assigned work because I don’t speak the native tongue. The majority of the phone calls and contacts that I have and need to book through prefer native speakers. It’s a helpless feeling and at times I get the impression that the employees here would rather just do the work themselves instead of having to do it twice (once in English and once in Cantonese). I’m hopeful that after I’ve been here for a while then I will know which contacts I can communicate with and which I will have to pass onto someone else instead of waiting to hear back from them and potentially wasting people’s (very valuable) time. It’s all Greek to me.
-Introductions -
So far, everyone has been very nice, welcoming and helpful. I toured around the entire office and was introduced to everyone that I could potentially be working with at some point. When they shook my hand they stood up from their desk first, looked me straight in the eyes, and spoke English. Even people that were away from their desk my first day have since sought me out and came to my desk to introduce themselves. A very nice welcome, to say the least!
The cultural barriers are many, but the experience is priceless.
View of the harbor from my office!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/global/24chinawork.html
Interesting article about the differences in work cultures between Americans and the Chinese - "In the West, there is such a premium on getting things done quickly, but when you come to work in China, you need to work on listening and being more patient and understanding of local ways of doing business."..."Likewise, America needs people who truly understand the Chinese, in order to compete and cooperate. Having Americans working alongside the Chinese in China 'is one of the best ways to cultivate and internalize this understanding in the future.'"
No comments:
Post a Comment