Wednesday, 13 March 2013

#4: Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour



After the release of my Alevel results, I remembered asking for advice from my father about my future career path. He remarked to me then that finding a job I love doing is no doubt important, but the working culture plays a crucial role too. Having had a number of different work field experiences under my belt now, I now understand the significance of his comment.  In this blog post, I will talk about two part-time jobs I once held.  

The first job was as an administrative staff right after my A levels. I was in a department with a new head who had just entered the company a few months back. Eager to prove his capability, he pushed his staff hard. Almost everyone had to work overtime every day. Furthermore, the new boss was relentless to sections that were unable to deliver. Needless to say, tension grew between people from different sections and people were unhappy. They started taking care of their own interests just to be able to return home early. I experienced such a bad working culture at this company that I decided to never work as an administrative staff again.

The second job was as a photographer for the Harry Potter Exhibition held in Singapore last year. The overwhelming response for the exhibition was unanticipated, especially so in the first month. We were severely understaffed and the job was tiring. Even so, everyone was helpful and considerate to one another. Giving up our break time to help our colleagues handle the crowd was common. Also, even though I had no prior training in photography, my experienced colleagues were also patient in guiding me. Furthermore, when the crowd becomes significantly smaller towards closing hours, our supervisors also gave permission for us to take unofficial breaks. Later on, I heard that even when the exhibition ended its run in Singapore, many of my colleagues went on to find jobs within the company.

I can finally understand the importance of being in a suitable working culture as I reflected on these two different work experiences. Even though both jobs were demanding, I ended up having an enjoyable time in the second job since my colleagues there shared similar working values (such as teamwork and patience).

As I am about to graduate in a year’s time, I cannot help but remember what my father told me three years back. I may be able to decide what I am working as in the future, but I will not be able to decide who I am working with. I will only have to learn to accept the working culture then.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Min Yu,

    I thoroughly enjoyed your post on the different work cultures. Your post is especially insightful to me because I hardly take up any part-time jobs which do not involve teaching so I am quite clueless about jobs in other sectors.

    This post easily fulfils the 7Cs hence your post is a pleasant and easy read (:

    However, there may be a minor grammatical error here: "After the release of my Alevel results,..." Perhaps it should be "After the release of my 'A' level results,..." instead?

    Overall, an effective & concise post on intercultural scenarios! (:

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    1. Thank you for your comments! Yeah, I have really learnt alot from my part time jobs that I hope to translate to my teaching career next time!

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  2. Hey Min Yu

    While most of us have written about intercultural behaviour in terms of different countries, races, I like that you brought up different working cultures. The advice that your father gave you is really sound advice. There is a certain extent to which we can adapt to our working environment,beyond that, if we find that the culture is not one that we like, going to work would be a chore. As we have discussed class previously, the extent to which we adapt will depend on how much we need the job. One thing is for sure though, whichever environment it may be, there would definitely some adapting that we would have to do.

    Some grammar errors that I noted:

    "Also, even though I had no prior training in photography, my experienced colleagues were also patient in guiding me." - In this sentence you used also twice, you could perhaps do without the first also.

    "I can finally understand the importance of being in a suitable working culture as I reflected on these two different work experiences." - Here you begin in the present tense, so instead of using "reflected" you should use 'reflect' instead.

    That's about it! I enjoyed reading your post! By the way, just attending the HP exhibition was exciting enough but getting to be a part of the team must have been an amazing experience!

    Darsh

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    1. Hi Darsha,
      Thank you for all your advice! and yea, it was great being part of the HP team, We even got to take photos with the weasley twins which was one highlight. :D
      Cheers, Min Yu

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  3. Hello Min Yu!

    I completely agree with your post! I had quite an experience during one of my internships that enabled me to fully understand your post. Your first job experience also shows how workplace cultures are heavily influenced by those in managing positions. Perhaps one thing to note is even if workplace culture is enjoyed initially, as with your harry potter job, when there is a change in managing personnel, the culture might be completely rewritten.

    Anyhow, I enjoyed reading your post because I could identify with it. Look forward to your next one!

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    1. Hello Jane Austen !
      Yup! i do agree with you when there is a change in managing personnel, the culture changes too and hence it is then up to us to adapt again to the new culture.
      Thank you and keep working hard!

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  4. Hi Min Yu,

    I, too, agree with your post! The only way to survive in a work culture we cannot really identify with is to try to adapt to it, if not, we will have to try to seek for changes if circumstances permit.

    From a recent internship experience I had, I found it so tiring to go to work everyday because the culture there was so different from my own personality and beliefs. Employees were not allowed to interact with each other during working hours unless the content was related to work. I could not agree with that because I think that productivity and creativity blossom from interactions among people and only through sharing a dynamic working relationship, workers share a greater bond and sense of belonging to the company.

    Luckily for me, it was just a three month long internship and not my long term job. From that experience, I have learnt to try to find out more about a company's culture in my process of job hunt!

    Thank you for sharing your experiences, hopefully we get to find ourselves jobs that will suit our needs and have a culture we can identify with! This way, we will find job satisfaction in our career!

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    1. Hi Jieying!

      I hope you can find a working culture that suits you in the future and you are able to adapt even if you cant! :D

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  5. This is a fascinating post, MinYu! You touch on the whole idea of a company's culture (or subculture), and by comparing two environments where you had very different experiences, you illustrate perfectly the importance that a workplace's culture has on the workers' psyche/well being.

    Thank you for sharing this with us.

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    1. Hello Brad,
      Yup, I do believe that a company tends to be more successful with happy workers.
      Thank you for your comment.

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