Tag Archives: Culture shock

Holiday Anomalies

Thursday, 11 December 2014 06:24
calendar By ROBERT PARKINSON

The week-long National Day holiday at the beginning of October is a firm favorite among Chinese employees. It is a prime time for them to ask for leave to go traveling or visiting relatives in other cities. However, if you are about to email to your Chinese boss to ask for 20 days of annual leave to travel somewhere in China, then I  have to stop you right there! It is confusing enough for expats to understand the complicated Chinese holiday exchanging rules–holiday anomalies rules, but you are about to discover another culture shock – the difference between East and West when asking for leave.

 

Many expats give their Chinese bosses a bad impression when asking for leave. In fact, “random” and “impolite” are often used to describe expats’ manner of doing so. So I would like to share with young expats the Chinese-friendly way of asking for leave. In particular it’s time for those who work in local private firms or state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to pay attention.

 

Let’s talk about taking sick leave first. Over the years I have heard from HR managers who complain about young expats who do not follow the correct protocol for taking sick leave: They don’t feel well, so they take the day off without informing the HR department or their line manager. The next day, they stroll back into the office. There is nothing wrong with asking for sick leave if you feel sick. However, you need to follow company procedure. For instance, in some Chinese companies it’s necessary to supply a note from the doctor to get approval for sick leave.

 

If you are seriously ill with a potentially contagious ailment, you should not come to the office and expose colleagues to your germs. If the condition is mild – one that does not affect your work or the health of your colleagues – then you are fine to come into the office. On the other hand, if you need to rest at home, it is important to notify your line manager before applying to the HR department for sick leave. It is also necessary to inform any colleagues you might be working with on a project or in a team to re-arrange the workload.

 

In some Western countries, when employees need to take a long period of leave, say, one month, to take care of sick family members, they still get their basic salary during the leave. The terms depend on local government regulations. Therefore, you should not take the labor rights you enjoy in America or Germany for granted in China. For employment of foreigners in China, such terms as working hours, leave and vacation, work safety, health and social insurance should be in accordance with local regulations. Therefore, if you really need to take a month of sick leave, then you must explain this and discuss the situation with your Chinese line manager. In some local companies, especially SOEs, line managers do not have the power to make the decision. In this case, you must go to the head of your business unit. Fortunately, most Chinese managers and colleagues understand that expats are different from them – at least, your hometowns are much further away than theirs – so expats are often granted holidays more readily than their Chinese counterparts.

 

In addition to sick leave, annual leave is confusing  for expats. If you currently work with local companies in China, then you will probably be shocked by the number of days of paid annual leave that Chinese employees enjoy – five days in the first 10 years of their careers, 10 days for the next decade and 15 days, the maximum, for the years beyond. Compare that to some European countries, where employees can enjoy a minimum of 30 days of paid annual leave and you might feel sorry for Chinese employees. Expats who work at the senior management level in multinational companies in China mostly enjoy the Western annual leave entitlement, but on the whole, the number of days of annual leave for expats varies from seven to 20.

 

Surprisingly, what to expats is one of the most valuable deal-makers when signing a contract is normally forfeited by employees in China. This often happens in small and medium-sized Chinese companies. When you ask for annual leave, it suddenly becomes awkward for your Chinese manager. If they approve your 20 days annual leave application, how are they to explain this to your co-workers? If they do not approve your request, then they risk upsetting you. This is just one of the difficulties a manager has to deal with.

 

I would suggest that you consider your holiday arrangements carefully before signing a contract with a Chinese company. It is also not the norm in European countries to take a month off in a company. Put yourself in your employers’ shoes – wouldn’t you be worried about your performance after a month away? Besides, you have to assure your Chinese boss that you can pre-plan your workload before taking the holiday. In this way, you help your manager out the problem of being short-staffed.

 

This is one angle to help expats get along with Chinese bosses. If you have never considered any of the issues described above, it’s probably time to check your record and get the leave application right next time.

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Culture Shock Is No Shock

Tuesday, 05 August 2014 08:54
111 Culture Shock Is No Shock By Robert Parkinson-CEO of RMG Selection

This article is about the new expat-executive in China. I am writing to offer my perspective on what it’s like to be the new boy (or girl) in a country that some people regard as the embodiment of culture shock itself.

First I’m going to talk about two typical situations that I have encountered over 10 years in the country. Then I’m going to offer some analysis. These are just my opinions, but I hope you find them helpful.

All Change!

The first pattern of expat-behavior which I have experienced as a new GM in China, and heard repeated by many others, is the “All Change Please” mentality. The confident expat is “pumped up” at being sent to “one of our most important markets,” delighted to have a chauffeur (how many middle managers have drivers in the West?), and still flush with the afterglow of flying at the front, or at least the middle of the plane. She or he wants to do one thing and one thing only: MAKE THEIR MARK! (If you’re British) KICK SOME BUTT (If you’re an American) or DEAL WITH ISSUES! (If you’re from down-under).

Logically, relocating to a place like China is something of a high-profile position so there is a natural desire to impress others and get results. However do keep the following in mind:

The road to Sino-Success is littered with the souls of expats who go back early or whose contracts are not renewed because they “fixed what wasn’t broken.” If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey says you should listen first; then you’ll be listened to. This is just logical — but it’s amazing how many people do not do this, and nowhere is it more appropriate than China.

It is true that Western culture and Asian culture are different. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to change what you do 180 degrees, but you certainly do have to respect the people (and their communication preferences, which I will address later).

The following is a good example for illustration. Imagine working in London, for a Chinese boss who speaks to you in Mandarin. If your boss insisted that the “British way” did not work in Britain, how would you react? I would think he needed mental health treatment. Isn’t it true that many foreigners make exactly this mistake in China?

Head-office

The second misperception which runs right through my network of GM level connections, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises, is that one of your biggest challenges is the “head-office.” An experienced businessman I know well, who has had enormous and repeated successes, says, “I’ve been doing business in China for 10/12/15 years (etc),” and that simply is not the case. Getting on a plane three times a year and coming to China for a week is not “doing business here.” It’s a tiny, jetlagged glimpse through a tiny crack in a window. This is not the real-time real-life day-to-day understanding of a community/country that you get from living somewhere.

The problem, of course, is that head-office believes it is. They think they do “get it” and that they are qualified to make judgements about “your market,” and actually they are – a bit – because what they lack in ground-level understanding, they gain in perspective.

Here are some points to think about:

Congratulations. You are now officially a juggler. Your job is not to general-manage, it’s to manage (cope) with the expectations of the local staff (and of course you spend your first two years tripping over your own mistakes — I know I did) and the demands of head-office. You are now more therapist than general manager. Congratulations again.

Whoever said running a business was unambiguous?  There will be things that never make sense. Get used to it. Ambiguity is part of the job. One major U.S. computer manufacturer actually tests for “ability to handle ambiguity” as an HR competency

Remember who you actually have to live and work with on a day-to-day basis.

Remember who pays for your driver and biz-class flights.

Ten Years on

Ten years after moving to this wonderful, crazy, frenetic, confusing, engaging place that’s called the People’s Republic of China, I consider that I have learned a few things that I’d like to share:

Yes, there are cultural differences, but there are far more similarities…however…

… Chinese culture is ancient, really ancient. Do you really think you can reverse how people intuitively think and do business? Remember my earlier Chinaman in London story.

I think the key point is listening and communication. Don’t obsess over getting “your own way,” obsess with being seen as someone who will listen (by the way, I still remind myself of this daily, and I am no expert).

Following on from the last point, DO NOT turn your internal company relationships into “us & them” situations where it’s your local staff vs. the head-office. This is fatal. We’re all people working for the same company, with the same goals. We will have the same basic needs.

The more interested you are in China, the more interested you’ll become.

Learn more Chinese. Just being able to order beer is not enough.

There you go. I hope this is useful to you. Good luck.

Read the original link at: http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/english/life/2014-08/05/content_633245.htm

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