I have across an article yesterday, and it was about things that you should look out for when you are choosing on your new job. One of the point I find quite irrelevant in the place where I lived in would be the point where you try asking the interviewer what they will be normally doing at 5 pm of the day. The article suggests that if they replied hanging out, having a beer with a friend then it will be probably a good job with good work life balance. However, it is not an effective question for us to ask here as 90% of the job requires you to commit to over time work and if you were to ask that sort of question, I doubt you would be able to secure any job at all. Therefore, I know that the targeted audience for the particular article are definitely not for people who are living in the Asia region. I heard about people in my office saying that they like the Western cultures and countries as they believe in work life balance, and there is even a law stating that no one should reply email after 6 pm. Comparatively, it seems that the working hours are much lesser in the Western countries as compared to the Eastern countries. Of course, it's an unfair comparison, it would depend on your nature of the job and the company policies and culture itself. However, this is generally true as in the Eastern countries, most of us know that work life balance does not exist anyway. Most of the time is work and family, apart from that the life part is missing. We could catch up with our friends, however, for the majority of us, our job does not provide enough after we pay up for the necessities. Hence, it's difficult for us to enjoy life when almost everything you do require money.
Apart from that the article also suggest people to look at the company culture, whether only those with managerial position have their own office, while the other employees work in a crowded area. Based on my working experience for quite a number of part time, contract and the current full time position, most of the companies have such arrangement where only those in managerial position have their own office where the rest work in the crowded area with just their own desk which is sometimes shared with others in the case where there aren't enough space. The only two companies which does not have this arrangement was a start up advertising company that I worked for and an small IT education provider company that I work for. Even though they may not have such arrangement, it certainly does not mean that they are not as hierarchical as compared to other companies. The advertising company is pretty much hierarchical and the only reason they do not have that arrangement because it has not been long since they start a small Singapore office here. However, as for the IT education provider company, I had a pleasant working experience there, the boss and manager are generally very nice and understanding. The office itself is feels at home instead of work. Also, they generally do training for trainers like us in the office and the real work are done in schools and education centres, this allows the office to be a "get together place" for the like minded and the stress level is generally manageable. So why did I leave? It's because it was a part time job for me to study while working at the same time. After I graduated from school, they were unable to offer me a full time position as the company was not hiring, however, they do ask me to do some part time and freelance assignment now and then. Yet, because I am too busy with my current job now, I am unable to help them with much of their assignments now even though they pay quite well. It's unfortunate to leave actually. Besides this one exceptional company that I worked for, the rest are all hierarchical and most of the time you have no right to deny what your supervisors want you to do even though it may be against your personal values. I have had jobs which I have to lie to different corporations all day long, jobs which I have to lie to customers all day long, jobs which I have to smile even I don't feel like smiling at all and more... You just got to do what you are told, if not the only outcome is that you will get fired with no income to survive in the society where you still got to pay your bills every month. You can't survive without a job unless you are lucky to have someone earning more than enough to support you.
Well, apart from the above two points which I would like to complain about, the rest of the point from the article is pretty relevant and good points to consider when you are going for interviews for different job position and really want to enjoy your job and not hate it. :)
Well, that's the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/05/19/10-signs-that-a-company-has-a-serious-culture-problem/
Take a look at the article if you have the extra time, or are simply curious about it.
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