An observation of European and Malaysian work culture

I work for a European-based multinational company at their
regional office in KL. Let me try to explain what I
find interesting about European work culture and
Malaysian (or Asian generally) work culture.

Half of the staff in my offcie are Mat Salleh and they
bring their work culture here i.e. we are not
monitored on how long we stay in the office, but
instead on our deliverables. The first day I reported
for duty my boss told me that he was not going to
monitor where I work. All he is interested in is I
deliver what I am supposed to deliver in the given
time.

We practise "work from home policy". I can work at
home if I like. I just need to inform my boss that I will
not be in office, but I will be working at home. We
have Virtual Private Network by which I can get access
to all my office files on the office server. I can
check my mails, run applications, and even have
telephone conference with people in office as if I was
in the office. Not just that, some depts within the
company (mine not included though) even get their
broadband Internet bills paid by the company so that
they can access their mails and office files from
home. It's quite a "culture shock" for me being so
used to the Malaysian way of monitoring the person and
not the product!

The other culture is "work life balance". I dont think
I can ever get used to this practice after a decade of
spending 10 hours a day in the office. We place too
much emphasis on how much time we spend in office. To
us spending long hours in office is good, honourable
and productive to the company. They have completely
different view. They feel guilty if they spend too
much time in office or don't go on holiday when they
are supposed to. Many times I was asked why I was
still in the office late in the evening by the boss on
his way out. And I can tell you the way he asks the
question is definitely not like he's going to give you
a pat on your back!

To encourage staff to live a balanced life, all staff
are entitled to use the well equiped gym located on
the ground floor of the office building. Most of the Mat
Salleh use this facility. As for me, getting stuck in
traffic jam or getting squeezed in an armpit of a
fellow commuter in the KTM train is enough to raise my
heartbeat as much as I could get from running on a
treadmill!

They try their best to make the office environment as
relaxing as possible. That may sound conflicting as
you are supposed to work in the office, not to relax!
But you won't belive me if I tell you that they plan
to install a massage chair in the office so you can
sit on it and treat youself to a relaxing massage
after long hours at the workstation. Just recently
they installed a Starbucks-like coffee brewing machine
( I heard it costs as much as a Kancil) so staff can
treat themselves to freshly-brewed coffee in the
office. Instant Nescafe is just not their taste!

They also place top priority on safety. Every week an
electronic newsletter will be circulated with reports
of incidents, near misses, and lesons learnt. As most
of us are consultants and need to travel a lot to
client sites, they issue Travel Alerts every week
advising staff of possible dangerous situation in the
place where we're going. And according to company
policy, we have to fasten our seat belts even if we
are sitting at the backseat whenever we travel on
company business.

In some of these work aspects, may be we are already
moving in the right direction. But I think there's
still a lot we need to catch up with them.

Kajang
19/5/2007