Work ethics: India vs. Singapore

Ever been annoyed with nothing to do and nothing to pass the time in an Indian office? Or ever been stuck with a never ending list of things to attend to immediately even after your designated leaving time arrives and passes by in Singapore? Sat and counted the number of hours left before work ends no matter where you are?

There are some subtle, some obvious differences as well as some basic similarities between work places around the world. Some are more relaxed, some more deadline oriented, while others operate with the sole purpose of killing their employees of exhaustion or boredom.

As Monica (in FRIENDS) so aptly put it, "Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're gonna love it."

It all boils down to cultural differences of where we're brought up and the underlying similarity in human nature. Asia, Europe, Australia and US, all have a completely different set of work values. My non-expert, hearsay based perception is that Australia is much more relaxed, with as much emphasis on sports as there is on work, with an unparalleled sense of dignity of labour. Europe for some reason feels more structured to me, maybe because they've been around for and developed for much longer than the other fellas. Based on the recent economic crisis, US seems to conduct themselves with a devil-may-care-about-how-we-treat-the-world-as-long-as-we-do-well-for-ourselves outlook, while Asia is trying really hard to break out of their own more or less self-sufficient little worlds to take advantage of globalisation. Ok I acknowledge I may be way off the mark here, but heck, I'm entitled an opinion.

Singapore, like in everything else, amalgamates, or at least tries hard to amalgamate, the best of all worlds. Which means that it has a killer worklife, a crazy nightlife when you're out drinking with office buddies late at night yet make it to office in time the next morning and somehow outgrow hangovers in the process, as well as a strange mix of Asian-ness and global-ness in its feel.

But I'm drifting off here, as I often do when we start on the topic of Singapore and how hard they try to stay relevant by importing 'talent', 'teaching' creativity, smothering opposition, caning offenders, hanging people found with drugs, and of course, banning chewing gums (I mean seriously, WTH!).

There, I drifted off again. Ok so back to the issue of India vs. Singapore work places. I did a summer internship in a bank in India, 2 of the most mind-numbing summer months I'd say. But it did make me think about how the way people work differs in different places.

We all know how slack many of the Indian offices are, especially those government ones. People will leave their desks, walk around, go meet their friends, chat about politics, corruption, cricket, weather, toot their own horns etc etc. The first hour after they reach work, that too an hour late, is spent socialising and talking about what has changed in the past 15 hours since they saw each other. And the more senior you are, the later you reach work.

In Singapore, it is more clinical. If you know the people around you, good for you. Otherwise its more of a keep to yourself kind of working mode. The moment you reach work, you check the office mailbox, follow up on any correspondence, and begin work, almost as if an invisible Big Brother is watching you. Maybe he is, you never know with this democratic, read authoritarian, government.

There seems to be a greater sense of urgency when it comes to Singapore. The need to get things done on time without someone breathing down your neck seems ingrained into the fabric of daily life. Life seems slower in India, people are more relaxed. We live and breathe the saying "aaj kare so kaal kar, kaal kare so parson. Itni bhi kya jaldi hai, abhi toh jeena hai barson". (What you have to do today, do it tomorrow. What you have to do tomorrow, do it day after. What's the hurry anyways, we've got ages to live!)

Of course, everything in Singapore is computer based. Technology plays a key role in giving Singapore an edge at least over its Asian competitors. In India, the transformation has only just started, specially in government agencies. Many, many people still wouldn't know where to begin if you sat them down in front of a computer, and told them to access the files from there, instead of the big bundles of papers that are sent from one section to another, with their recycled cardboard-ish cover papers tied together with strings. In that way, Singapore is miles ahead.

Singapore work force also seems younger at the first glance. Or at least smarter, better dressed, more professional looking. Maybe I am just using the wrong example. There are of course up and coming companies mainly run by young professionals in India. Also, IT companies seem to be more populated by youngsters. But the older places of work (whatever that means) seem to be frequented by the older generation, where the proud possession of a paunch is a pre-requisite to fit in.

The concept of 'lunch' hours in India can encompass much more than the usual 1 hour break that is standard in Singapore. There is also a definite exodus of people as time nears 5:30pm, or whatever the working hours are like. People rarely stay back to work after that, and within an hour, the entire office is deserted. And there is that delightful concept of extra overtime pay in India, something that would make employers go broke if introduced in Singapore.

Many find the professionalism of personnel lacking and the amount of work minimal in Indian offices. I've personally seen that it is a matter of choice to work hard or not. I think that you can breeze through 40 years of service and stay at the exact same spot because you're content in the knowledge that as long as you don't majorly screw up, your job is safe; or go out of your way to work hard and really make great strides up the ladder.

I was actually surprised during my internship to find that many of the people were brilliant. Most people really did seem to be very well informed about banking, government policies as well as the latest news in the finance world. They were very interested in what they did, and had quite entertaining discussions over lunch, specially since everyone had their own interpretation ready at hand for every situation.

In Singapore, working hard is not a matter of choice. If you want your job tomorrow, you always have to stay on your toes. While waking up at 6am just for the purpose of reaching work on time is fairly unimaginable in India, it is not even something you can complain about in Singapore, simply because half the people around do it. The rate at which people join and leave companies is really high as well, especially for start-ups. That's another thing about Singapore, start-ups ABOUND. You can't throw a stone in any direction in a conference without hitting someone who has started their own company. In India, getting a job in a company which no one has heard of is almost as bad as having no job at all. And your parents and relatives will keep reminding you of that distant cousin or neighbour's niece who got a job in such-and-such hi-fi company till you get one yourself or kill yourself trying.

The concept of hierarchy is important too in Asian workplaces. Your boss may be half your age, but you have to talk to him like he owns you. I remember being scolded for not being respectful enough when I didn't bow down and act like a slave to some GM. While Singapore has that Chinese-ness and hence Asian-ness when it comes to respecting those more powerful, it does provide more equality at least in the way in which one interacts with the higher management.

By the way, don't you agree that the middle management sucks everywhere? The people right at the bottom and right at the top are always the nicest and down-to-earth. It's annoying really. I guess the ones in between always have something to prove, to make people believe that they are important too.

On a side note, I don't think we in Singapore or India appreciate how natural English feels to us enough. Today, after a 10 minute call to a Korean association, I was not even able to establish whether the number I was calling was indeed the company I was looking for. Made me wonder why the whole world just didn't use English. But then as someone very aptly pointed out, all the jobs would go to the PRCs and we would be left to "khaak-chanofy".

With that, my rant for the day is done. Until next time, folks! Ta.