Angela Killian

When I moved to Thailand 4 years ago I started working as a teacher. I was shocked to learn that most schools require 6 day work weeks. Well, 6 day work weeks for the Thai teachers only. The foreign teachers are only required to work 5 days and are paid 3X the salary of the Thai teachers…try to figure that one out.

After teaching I moved on to work in hotels, which also required 6 day work weeks at the time. Currently most hotels in Thailand operate on 5 day work weeks, thanks to the international brands who set that precedent. Surprisingly there was some pushback from hotel employees when the work days were reduced. After investigation, I learned that many Thai people enjoy going to work for the following reasons –

1- To be social with friends. (Thai people only want to work with friends and often refuse to work with people they don’t like, or they may simply ignore them, even if it prevents them from doing their job)

2- To be in the “free” air conditioning. The shopping malls and grocery stores are packed on hot days for this reason as well.

3- To eat free meals. All hotels provide 3 – 5 meals per day in the staff canteen and people take full advantage of this benefit.

4- To not spend money. Saving money isn’t in the Thai curriculum so many people blow their meager paychecks mindlessly on clothes, food or gifts. I was told people aren’t “supposed” to save money until they are married.

Monday – Friday I leave my house near the beach (Okay, it’s Phuket. Pretty much everything is near the beach) at 6:30am and begin my 1 – 1 ½ hour commute to work fully equipped with homemade to-go coffee and soda water. The only real effort I make in the morning is the most basic make-up, which is required in the dress code. I’m pretty sure I wore make-up when I worked at Starbucks 5 times in 1 year, but who keeps track of these things…

Even though I only have to work 5 days, the hours are very long – 10 hours. This used to piss me off because I can accomplish more in 8 hours than the worker bees here accomplish in 10. That’s because the locals KNOW the day will be long so they pace their work tasks to fill the day. And because they are amongst friends, air conditioning and free food, why not stay a little while?

Mornings start at approximately 8:00am. I say “approximately” because Thai time allows for 15 – 30 minute tardiness.

The women’s locker room is packed at this time and covered in make-up, hair styling supplies and a cloud of hairspray. I dress and groom at home so I duck into one of the stalls quickly to relieve myself of my morning drive coffee and soda water.

Everyone piles into the staff canteen for breakfast (after clocking in, of course) which usually consists of some kind of soup and rice. I’m nice to the canteen staff and they are gracious enough to make me fried eggs every day.

After the morning coffee and breakfast gatherings everyone proceeds to their work location by 9:00am, 1 full hour after the official starting time. I respond to a few emails and catch up on admin work for 1 hour before the morning meeting. From 10:00am – 11:00am all the department heads meet daily in the executive office. It’s mostly small talk for 30 minutes and then we go around the table and share anything special for each department. Most people hate this meeting because it really is too long, but love hearing about what’s going on in other departments and making notes of hotel and finance terminology to look up on Google afterwards. Nerd alert, I know.

After the morning formalities it’s almost time for another social meal at the canteen. Lunch time is a much larger meal than breakfast and lasts about an hour. Many people mingle around the canteen eating, talking and watching Thai soap operas (which are mostly about love, relationships and cheating husbands). After lunch I walk to a coffee shop across the street to grab an Americano because the instant coffee in the canteen destroys my insides.

Lunch is completely finished by 2:00pm and everyone continues their daily tasks. The rest of the day flies by quickly because you realize that the first half of the day was basically wasted with meals and meetings.

Around 5:45pm everyone begins to change out of their work clothes and line up for the staff bus. I never use the locker room for dressing (unless I’m going out after), so I leave at 6:00pm on the dot, like a true American. The sun rises when I leave the house and it sets as I’m returning.

I used to be stressed constantly because of the laid back attitude of Thai people in the work place. “Calm down” and “don’t work so hard” are things they would tell me regularly. I finally realized, why would I overwork myself when everyone else is taking it easy? It IS possible to accomplish a lot even with a laid back attitude. Now my secret is to work hard, but look like I’m “taking it easy”. This keeps the Thai people at ease while allowing me to maximize productivity.

Respect of the local culture you work in is SO important. You cannot successfully challenge the work ethic of people who have more seniority than you in the company. If you push people too hard in Thailand, they will quit and go to a company that will not push so hard. You have to find the right management style to balance the culture with your own work ethic and goals. That is the most challenging part of all!

I must say that I thoroughly enjoy all the meal times and meetings, but I sure do miss 9 – 5.