Well, contrary to popular
belief, I’m not on a constant vacation.
Closer than before. But not
quite.
Yes, I do live at the
resort, which I will say has it’s benefits. No cooking, cleaning, or laundry to
be done. The gym is a flight of stairs up and the beach bar a flight of stairs
down. There’s a private beach, two swimming pools, and a spa.
But living on-site does
also have it’s downsides (very few and relatively speaking here), but I basically
live on an island, on top of another island.
Trapped. Double-style. I now feel like I know what it’s like to live and
work on a cruise ship. Here, the entire staff
lives in dorms just down the road and are essentially one big family; the
management team lives on-site, so everyone always seems to be here. No need for a phone, big brother (or a little
Thai worker spy) always knows where to find me. Obviously the benefits outweigh
any of this by far…but it is an interesting lifestyle change.
Throughout the week I
rarely leave the resort. My typical day consists of: waking up with the sun
(and the roosters and the sounds of breakfast being set-up), going to the gym,
eating breakfast at the restaurant overlooking the Andaman Sea, showering, heading down to the office (a 3-minute commute), and working until 5pm (exactly). And
my evenings are generally spent reading or entertaining a special guest,
watching the sunset with a drink, relaxing by the pool, dining, and then heading
off to bed to do it all over again in the morning.
So, I’m still working for
the man…he just happens to be a bit more easygoing.
I had to laugh when I Googled
“working for the man”, and this was Urban Dictionary’s definition:
Performing a task, manual labor, or any type of
assigned duty for a stupid, spineless, gutless, lazy, self-serving, worthless,
anal retentive, unappreciative, disrespectful person, or organization, for
money.
Yup. Sounds
about like what I was used to.
In my
opinion the office culture here is pretty much how it should be everywhere. Work
the hours you’re supposed to work. Take
breaks, real breaks. And smile and have
a good time all while doing so. Performance-wise, meh, a little bit less stress
and a little bit more fun never completely ruined any bottom lines.
Working
for the man there v. here.
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USA
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Thailand
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Lunch
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A lunch break? Those are still a thing? You must mean the
lunch I take every day from my desk as I answer emails, right?
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The clock strikes noon, bam,
off go the office air conditioners and lights. We all head to the lunchroom together
(there’s a kitchen that makes lunch for everyone daily – I seem to have
thrown them for a loop being vegetarian, but each day there is fish or meat
they have a bowl of eggs ready and waiting for me). The lights don’t go back on until 1:01
pm. You take the whole hour, or you
work in the dark, like me.
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Meetings
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“My Outlook calendar is
up-to-date, find some time for us to meet...”
The utter inability to perform
any task or project without first meeting has always been mind boggling to me. Then, you must check-in on said project by
again meeting. And so on and so on. It’s a vicious cycle. Pretty soon you’re meeting to schedule your
next meeting.
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I haven’t seen one Outlook
request in the past two weeks. I also
haven’t attended one single meeting.
And somehow this resort hasn’t collapsed?!
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Emails
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Have question. Send email.
In the past, on a normal day, I
would see about 100+ emails going in and out of my inbox.
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Have question. Ask in-person.
Here, I now see about 4-5
emails per day.
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Working
9-5
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Every organization always says
how great their work/life balance is “our hours are 9-5”. But what they are
really saying is, “we expect you to work much longer hours if you hope to
remain employed for your family.”
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I actually have no clue what
the starting time is here, was never mentioned as it wasn’t high on the
priority list. What I do know is that
come 5 pm, half the staff is already out the door and the others are asking
you to wrap it up. The lights, A/C, and
internet are all off by 5:15, at the latest.
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Always “online”
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Work never stops. With work
emails on your phone, you’re always accessible. If you don’t respond during “off-hours”,
well then…you obviously don’t care about supporting your family. See above.
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You get emails to your
phone?! Why don’t you just chat with
your friends on Line or Facebook? I
don’t understand?
Not once does it cross most of
their minds to “do work” on their phone.
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Ahhhh so
here I am. Working for the man, trying
to gain awareness in the American market for “his” business. But you know what, for once in my life I don’t
mind trying to make him money. It truly
is a little family here and the teamwork it takes to seamlessly run a resort is
not a small task. So all of our successes are actually ours. And all of our failures, also ours. It’s just a different feeling. Almost as if “he”
doesn’t actually exist.
It’s “our”
resort. It’s “our” home. And with that, comes pride.
“Do what you
love, love what you do.”
