US Counterpart

Soft reminder: this post may be boring because it is about work

An email exchange with a friend this morning did give me a little thought/enlightenment about my past working experiences.

Having that thought, I think now is the best time to do a little reflections, about what I have learned from the past working environments, as well as my current attitude towards work, comparing the past and present once in a while, as part of rediscovering myself

Besides, within a month time, I will be celebrating my one-full-year-of-liberation-anniversary from previous pressure-cooker-ex-company, as well as one year anniversary here at my new work place, with lifestyle changes in a positive way for myself, and it is a all good things so far for me =)

For this post, I would like to share my thought about "US counterpart meetings".

When I was in my ex-company, the job requires frequent interaction with "US counterpart".

At that time, I was still naive, and blended into the already fixed culture, where we all ex-company employees in Malaysia have to wake up very early in the morning regularly for meeting at 6am/7am/8am/9am, and sometimes ridiculously at 4am/5am, just to have an overlap of a few hours to have meeting with the "US counterpart", where the "US counterpart" are still having their normal 9-5 office hour before they knock afterward.

To be partial, one hand cannot make a clap. So, on one side, some US counterparts take it for granted for ex-company employees in Malaysia to wake up early for meetings, while some ex-company employees in Malaysia (asian in general) likes to look up to 'kuai lo' (caucasian) as if perfect/holy/what-so-ever.

Well, the case in point is, ex-company employees have to accommodate/suck-up to the "US counterpart" most of the time sacrificing our sleeping time. And the pathetic part is, to some (not all) "US counterpart", we all are just 3rd world class labor who work like hell at low cost, yet ruin the market of normal "9-5 office hour".

But after working in another US company now, I observed the other way round, where the US counterparts do stayed back late or sacrifice their dinner time just to have a meeting with people here in Malaysia, and that is like already 10am or so over here in Malaysia.

The main point is, US or no US, they are just human like us, is just all about commitments. And the specific that I want to comment is, the ex-company culture has always been "corrupted", but yet majority employees there still got hypnotized into believing such culture. This is my opinion that I want to convey, and it is my pure opinion, got nothing to do with any other person's views or organization's view.

Just penning my thought, and you do the math yourself. If you agree, is about time to stand up for yourself, and do not treat norms/conventions as a habit/culture, because norms/conventions are the killers for all creativities/innovations. Quite a mouthful of words isn't it =) Well, until next posting about work & sharing.