Culture, innit? (Volume 2)

The next part of the cultural training was 4 hours going through business protocol. I was so tired and to be honest, though some of it was useful, I think actually it was a bit too long. He asked me what sort of stuff I’d observed working here with the team / office etc, so I told him some general stuff – time keeping, deadlines not being met, not really communicating issues when they arise, and he wrote all this stuff down and was smiling and nodding enthusiastically saying “yep, yep, yep” “hmm-mm, hmm-mm” a lot. He then said, now I shall tell you why that is so and what you need to do.

It’s all because during various colonisations, the Malaysians spent their time under the coconut trees and as the land is so bountiful, there is no reason to hurry anywhere nor worry about deadlines as there is no competition. I see. OK.

There was some useful stuff though, to be fair, like doing a profile of how I like to operate, and what values I hold etc, and compare them to a typical Malaysian, and there are differences (naturally), so as long as I am cognisant of this, I should be able to get the best out of the team. He asked me what it was like when I walked through the office and got into my Director’s office – how did they behave? I said that I didn’t really understand what he was on about because I don’t have an office, on purpose, so I can sit among the team as part of the team and get away form a typically hierarchical office environment.

He looked at me as though I was mad.

Oh well – we finished up and I felt a little more culturally aware (i.e. avoid these sorts of things and people!) and went shopping for a few more towels and a bathroom bin. I wanted some help with the towels but the girl in the department kept walking away from me, and as I walked out after buying my stuff, I spotted her in the corner asleep amongst the pillows!

I guess it would have been against my new cultural awareness to go up and go “BOO”.