Life in Myanmar : Working Culture (3,000 vs 3/12)

** Article is also available on Vanity Shack here
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I think this ain't too shabby for Myanmar at all :)

Greetings from very wet and rainy Yangon!

Since I couldn’t sit at home and battle mold all day, it’s good to know that I’ve started working and it’s almost 2 months now for me, working for City Mart – the leading and largest retail format corporation in Myanmar.  I function as a MARCOMs consultant on a part-time basis and I’m helping them improve on all their MARCOMs efforts across the board. When I said “largest”, I wasn’t kidding. It wasn’t till I turned up on the first day at work that I realized it wasn’t just the supermarket we’re talking about. There’s the hypermarkets, the bookstores, the music centres, baby clothings & accessories, shopping centres, pharmacies – this is just to name a few. No wonder my boss offered me a higher salary than what I asked for! J

It had been quite a while since I had been on anyone else’s payroll. But I’m having a lot of fun doing what I do, actually. Certainly beats being a housewife and definitely a whole lot easier than cleaning house :P Whilst I may be on their payroll, I think my boss sees me more as an ‘outsourced idea house’ so much so that she is actually introducing other non-conflicting clienteles to me for consultancy work. When I met her the first time, I liked her immediately. Having been working with her and the team for the past couple of months, I am in great respect of her vision for the company. I now understand why CM is the leader in its category – from a small supermarket 16 years ago, to be where it is today – takes vision definitely. I also like any “bosses” or “clients” for that matter who are open to new ideas, new concepts, willing to take some calculated risks and all that jazz. Let’s put it this way – I’ve been doing this enough years to know that for those who don’t take that amount of risk, they end up as mediocre market followers. Not large leaders - especially in a dynamic environment like Myanmar where things are changing at such a rapid speed that nobody wants to be that idiot who didn’t take the first plunge.

Of course, rapid speed and all aside, there’s a huge vacuum amongst the local staff (and I can only refer to CM) when it comes to most of the key aspects of MARCOMs. But you know what? I’m not writing about MARCOMs today. I’m writing about how much fun I’m having learning about the local working culture here. Now, one of my expat colleagues in CM tells it as it appears to be – “The Bloopers in Our Work Life” – which is rather apt because it is funny.

Oh – if you must know – the internet is more or less the same even at work. Sometimes, you get the connection, and sometimes you don’t. And sometimes, the email from the CM server only reaches you 2 days later (and then something that is urgent becomes “required yesterday”) …. Again, one is hopeful – things can only improve and I have learnt to zen about the whole internet thing. It had been my biggest Myanmar sore point since day 1, but oh well, I chose, so I live.

Back to the ‘bloopers’. You see, out of the 3,000+ employees of CM, only 3 ½ are foreigners. The ½ being me – since I am on part-time only. If there are more foreigners around, I haven’t seen any (the office is HUGE, you know!) To say that my team is shy with the foreigners is perhaps understating it. For the whole first month that I was working in CM, not a single one of the team had dared to come up to my desk to ask questions or get my feedback, etc. Except for the Marketing Manager – but that is because she has to deal with me mostly.  And then there’s the head designer and another designer who sits adjacent to me – whenever I call out to them, they snap and stand up at attention! Again, I’ll have to clarify – Gordon Ramsey didn’t even show up. I’ve had to repeatedly tell them to please be at ease and there’s no need for ceremony. One might think that part of my entertainment in the office was to call their names for fun and see them stand up at attention in 0.1secs. I sometimes wonder – do I look all that mean and scary?

During my first week here too, once, I got down on my hands and knees to look for the plug point in which I could connect my lap top charger to. I didn’t realize that by doing so sent some of the staff panicking and 3 of my male colleagues came over asking to do it for me. I sent them off. Same goes for someone placing a glass and a bottle of water at my desk every morning – and I’ve also come to realize that I was the only one who had this glass & water treatment. After 2 weeks of not touching both glass and water, that person finally realize I don’t use it. He or she has now taken to placing just one large bottle of water at my desk.   It remains there as we speak. No, no. Don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate their gesture of kindness, but I don’t want them to think that some sort of ceremony is required when dealing with me. And therefore, after a month, they finally eased up a little.

Oh – and then there’s that bizzare phone calls that I simply must share. For some odd reason, they decided to place the marketing department phone extension on my table. Obviously, when it rings, I pick it up and I say “Hello, Marketing Dept. How may I help you?” There’s only two outcomes that I’ve come across after I do that – either the person on the other line continues rattling off in Burmese despite me repeating my sentences in English, or he or she upon hearing the first English word, would slam down the phone on the other end! I’ve checked – this happens to the other expats too. Too funny!

I mean, I’ve worked in enough different third-world countries to know what to expect, more or less but Myanmar takes the cake actually J

Now that they’ve kinda eased up with me, I’m starting to push them a little bit with ideas and deadlines. I encouraged them to challenge my ideas – a tall order, given the fact that the country had spent the last 50 odd years not being able to challenge anyone. But when they are actually pushed for ideas, they do sometimes come up with some good ones. But I still cannot understand what’s up with the rainbow colours in ALL their design work. Like – seriously colourful! Even for logos! *slaps forehead* But generally, here are people who are willing to try, willing to do and definitely a lot more hardworking than those from my last port of call. Of course, there’s the usual employee bad habits, you know – the tuning out from work after hours, tardy follow-ups, no communications, etc.. etc…. nothing I have not dealt with before. Looks like it’s the same in every country, this one. J And therefore, the stress happens here. I’m happy that I am just a part-time consultant. I can therefore afford to not dwell too much – as long as what I have on my plate is constantly cleared.

Myanmar potentially offers opportunities in abundance for those willing to step into a realm of …………..s-l-o-w internet connection. That aside, as with most still-not-developed nations, working life can be particular stressful, especially where deliverables and deadlines are concerned and I see many areas in which the country lacks skilled resources to get the job done. Workers – aplenty. But they need someone to guide them, to transfer knowledge to them and to help them achieve their full potential. Just the same as every country I call my temporary home, I hope to help the locals achieve more than what they think they are capable of. If out of the entire marketing department, I can help even just one or two of them to go for gold, I’ll be happy. Let’s just hope the Gordon Ramsey in me needn’t show to get this done J

So, till the next time around, folks! To all who are celebrating the Raya – Selamat Hari Raya and Happy Holidays!