I caught my boyfriend Chalerm sleeping in the office a few times. I was alarmed by this and chided him.
- You think only me lazy office? asked Chalerm. – Is normal. When have no customer.
- You can’t get away with that in an office in Farangland, I said. – There must be something else you can do. Marketing?
- Is not my job. And Thai manager same. Him go shopping not come back.
Chalerm then provided me with the following list of activities the office boys do (they are all gay, of course):
Apply makeup
Speak on the phone
Play games on the computer
Gossip
Use the Internet
Sleep
Do homework
Plan their shopping
Show off their shopping
Eat
Read cartoons
Sleep some more
And every now and then, usually at an inconvenient time, a customer calls.
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August 30th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
This sounds about right, from my experience of Thai workers in all contexts. To be fair, their salaries are hardly high enough to inspire A-type personalities on the job.
August 30th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
Before being too dismissive, please ask yourself how you would feel if you were, for example, standing on your feet for 10 or more hours in a shift , or driving a taxi for 12 or more hours a day in Bkk, for 5,000 baht a month. I amimpressed withwhat we do get in these circumstances!
August 30th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
AHHHHH
We are plagued by our WESTERN work ethic!!
I am only working part-time, sort of retired. I go to the office and if nothing to do, I “clock out”.
Too boring to sit around the office and gossip. And “policy” forbids playing games or looking a pics on the office computer.
Wonder if I can get a job working with all those GAY Thai Guys???
August 30th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
My bf wonders why office workers in Farangland are paid more than office workers in Thailand. Maybe efficiency has something to do with it…
August 30th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
The taxi drivers make 30K+. They’re hardly starving. (ever moto-taxi guys usually make about 15-20K).
But a little-celebrated side benefit of most low-pay Thai office jobs is the right to sleep, gossip, and eat as much as you want, except when work occasionally intrudes.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
“Is not my job.”
Junior Thai staff will not do anything that they are not directed to do. Initiative is totally foreign to them. Their station in life is to do what they are told. Doing something they have not been told to do would be seen as disrespectful to their seniors.