By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Do Chinese employers like to control their employees' lives?
You know, when they organize something (not related to work but with the same people that you work with) on your weekend (the whole weekend) and absolutely want you to join in, oh and they wait the last moment to notice you about it (2 days before). Also they are trying to make you feel guilty for not joining in and being the foreign monkey.
I know that most Chinese mix work and private life, their best buddy is the person on the desk next to theirs until this person quit and then they don't know each other anymore.
They don't seem to get that back home most people have a personal life outside of work, friends, things to do that have been planned since weeks or months (in this case I must attend a friend's wedding), that we are not just waiting for our employer to organize something.
not telling you holiday schedules until the last minute is the communist system of control and making you remember that somebody above you expects you to kiss their ass. giving you books and schedule for a semester at 8pm on sunday night and classes are the next day at 8am is their way of saying, i own your ass, your nothing, then they cant understand why you want volunteer to do an english corner or judge an english speaking contest.
its just the typical neanderthal bulls it you have to deal with in china.
my students who went to canada were shocked to get a schedule of all holidays and school days for the whole year before school starts and know they can buy a plane ticket and nobody will screw them and change the class dates later. imagine that,
i have known bosses who would expect you to work overtime if asked at 450 pm that day as if your family is not important at all, perhaps the overtime is because you messed up their family time and now they work slower everyday on purpose. but that would require thinking and taking responsibility, cant do that.
I am self employed and still have a number of people that think they can control what I do and when (and I am not just talking about government related people). Other business people sometimes come swanning into my office and DEMAND that I help them with some English document they have or to develop overseas markets for them. I am sure that they are the same with their own employees if not worse.
ChineseAmerican:
What visa do you need for self employed? I was in an English training institute for TOEFL and they told me that they will make me part time first because I just graduated from college. But it turned out that I need to go to work 8 hours per day and that does not include lunch time. They also constantly change my off days. I suppose to be off on the weekends but they keep changing that for me. Then what is the difference between part time and full time in China? In the US, part time means that one only needs to work few hours per day. If one is working 8 hours per day and 5 days per week, that is called full time job not part time job. China is crazy.
Kaiwen:
I have a registered company in China with an active business license. That entitles me to a work permit and residence permit. You would have to do likewise to become legally self employed.
icnif77:
@Chinese: you're not legally employed, if you work without Residence permit, as you probably did (with F visa).
You're open to any abuse by your employer, because you work and receive salary without proper documents (Z visa---->RP).
Both, you and your employer are illegal by Chinese law.
ChineseAmerican:
@icnif77 I was holding a Q1 visa right now and they are indeed doing the Z visa for me (in progress) while I was trained there.
Just a funny story on that topic... When teaching in a public university, we got a directive from the top : all teaching personnel have to train for a choral singing contest because "It's good to build team spirit". We have 3 months for training, and there would be a competition between each department of the whole university. Each team have a predesignated uniform. Even me have to sing, even if I can't even read the lyrics. I felt it was borderlining on bullying, but nobody even questioned the decision. Despite it was causing most of us doing non-paid overtime, because, we have actual work to do to.o..
I managed to escape by singing really, really badly.
DrMonkey:
The year that followed, it was a ... team gymnastic contest ... where most teachers are completely out of shape, so it was mostly kindergarden level of gymnastics, with overweight university professors wearing shorts and tennis socks Borat-style. I managed to escape that one, thanks to a cunning plan.
sorrel:
The teachers in my department at my 1st Uni all had to dance to 'Gangnam style" at an end of semester event- i 'sprained' ankle to get out of it 
. It was laughable and somewhat sad to see middle-aged men and women up on a stage dancing around. For the other compulsory participation events, the FT's failed to receive any notification at all that they were taking place.
icnif77:
@sorrel: 'I'm the master of sprained ankles! Since my early age! I could even 'produce' medical for 'my sprain-y'.
I can tell the 'recipe', if anybody cares.
icnif77:
Recipe:
One needs:
- glass of water;
- some dust/dirt, maybe two spoon-fulls;
- 2 or 3 alive bees;
- 1 hand lab glove.
First, get glass and head to the fruit market. Grape or any 'mature' fruit will have tone of bees. Cover bees with glass, and then cover top of the glass. Put hand glove, and grab one bee, best is for her wings. Press bee to your ankle, to get stung. I suggest
, you repeat bee action twice at least.
Next step is water the area of bee sting. When area is fine wet, add some dirt dust, and make your ankle looking dirty.
Now, your ankle looks (don't know English word) not sprained, by 'after stung of any flying object' (IFO) ----> 'swollen'.
Whole process take about an hour.
Now, you're ready for MD exam. It is important, that you don't at MD's, because you're officially in pain, so you should pretend like 'it hurts'!
I guarantee, MD's certificate for at least 'week in bed' rest.
Bee stung will ease up in few hours. You just need to wash your dirty, smelly ankle, and you're ready for party or 'free school week'.
'master has spoken!'
Tell me about it man...
Chinese employers are like total control freak, always wanna do something on weekends in order to make each employee to know or to love each other more or something, and if you refuse to join in you'll be considered as an outsider. Shit. They even call you to do extra work even when you off-duty, and not pay. They'll never understand what is called "private life".
Eorthisio:
Kudos, that's exactly what I am talking about. They want you to be part of the group, the worst are the foreigners playing that game and putting you aside while licking the boss' ass, usually newcomers, short term expats, because long term expats don't care anymore about "hanging out with other foreigners" or "You are a foreigner? I'm a foreigner too! Let's be friends!"
I think the "entertainment budget" can sometimes be considered a perk of the job.
Take the foreigner out, have a couple of slap up meals, see some sights, and the company pays. Smart people might even be able to make a profit from the fapiao. It's better than sitting in the dorm having to pay for your own food.
Our company has cut back on "team building". In the past it was a regular thing, except in our case it was an idiot foreign manager who was the driving force behind it.
;In previous job, I always refused to join any weekend activity with them. they was not hard , luckily, to push me trough.
I have a strict, "If you don't give me notice well in advance you can piss off" policy. My wife has actually gone to a wedding alone on that account.... A wedding, couldn't be bothered to send an invite... or, just last minute filler for other cancellations, in either case. I think sitting on the sofa with the dog and a beer is better.
Some of the businessmen I've worked with in China have been very much holding their cards close. Then at times of big events they have become all pissy because we were already engaged with other activities because they couldn't be asked to contact us just a little bit in advance. This is for e,g, big international trade shows where the dates are known well in advance, but their participation not announced until weeks before.
Lack of advanced notice is on my list of reasons why China will ultimately be a second rate country.
icnif77:
Why do they do that? ''Unannounced 'important' meetings".
Phone rings, while I'm shopping for veggi and things:
Hello...
Rep.: 'We have meeting with Head at 16:30!'
I'm in T-shirt, shorts and sneakers.
me: 'I'm in the city! The best I can do is meet you at the School at 18:30.'
Come home, shower, maybe shave, get dressed for the School, 2 hours minimum.
Rep.: ooh, that's too late. Come to School at 16:15!'
me: 'repeat all above again, and then suggest 'we can meet tomorrow!'
Rep.: Head won't be too happy!'
me: 'OK! So, will we have meeting tomorrow at 10am?
Rep.: 'I don't know! I'll call you back!'
They know, that even in the emergency, I can replace missing teacher in two hours after the call, the fastest. Everything else must be announced 24h before!
Two weeks later, phone call and same discussion.
It's 'power trip', nothing else!
Scandinavian:
you are expected to sit on a bench outside your place of work and wait for the almighty to call
icnif77:
Sometimes, I'm very 'distressed'. My phone is on the charger, and I'm in the city. 'Battery must be preserved at all times' is my moto!
