Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Cheena-Man Attitude

1. They never read their emails and will tell you that the emails you sent are lost in cyberspace so as to avoid claiming responsibility for a required action or any other form of liabilities.
Counter attack: Request for a read-receipt. Or call them up and read the whole email aloud and remember to jot down the date and time. Make sure they understand what you say though. May have to repeat a few times to get message across.

2. Their commercial mantra is to ALWAYS ask for a DISCOUNT. Even 5% would be good. Sometimes they will call you and disguise their motive by asking you technically-duhh questions or they end up not really listening anyways. They will tell you that other competitors are giving lower pricing than you are and that others' deliveries are better.
Counter attack: Mark up the price/quote you are giving them. Perhaps 15% so you end up making at least 5-10%? :D

3. If you work with these people and it’s your first day, expect to perform menial tasks like making coffee, printing copies, filing, sending boss’ car for service, among other things. They’ll tell you it’s to help you familiarize yourself with the office surroundings but really, they just want to ‘hup’ you.
Counter attack: Feign stupidity or ignorance. Mention what you have been doing in your weekly meetings or a chanced how-are-you-getting-along question from your boss, casually and tactfully, of course.

4. Be prepared to have discussions in Cantonese/Mandarin/Hokkien. Have nothing against this except they’d have to watch out if there are colleagues who don’t speak the language.
Counter attack: learn the language, if you can. Can’t? Remind them that there are those who don’t understand the language. If your business-needs tend to sway towards the use of Chinese, fine. But if not, you can’t stop them as they are probably the majority. Suggest you find a non-cheena working environment.. hahha

5. They will promise you the moon and the stars when you ask them something but they can’t even make it to the appointment on-time.
Counter attack: Pretty obvious that whatever they promise needs to be in black and white. If they are late for the appointment, refuse to see them or walk out. Time is gold.

6. They expect their lowly-paid employees to work long hours, as long as it takes to get the work done although they have the means to hire an extra hand. They believe those who work the longest hours are the most hardworking employees.
Counter attack: If you have already done what you’re supposed to do, go home. If everyone does this, then they would know better than to exploit their employees.


*Extremities are taken as examples here.. no offence taken i hope.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

truly cheebye working environment...been there, done that...sob sob....

Anonymous said...

they just want to 'hup' you ... that's hillarious !! Great creativity!

Anonymous said...

sucks when sometimes u have to even TALK like them so that they can understand you..."yar yar..canla..no problemlah..."

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