The weird world of the Western workplace

Much has been said about Westerners adjusting to China’s work culture. But what of the opposite? Lennox Morrison finds out what culture shock is like for China’s workers abroad.

When Shanshan Zhu moved from Kunming, China to the Netherlands five years ago, she was looking to experience Western culture.

While she expected working life in Europe to be different to that of her homeland, one thing especially stood out — back home, office workers took one to two hours off at midday to go to a restaurant together, or slip home for a snooze. In her new home, it was normal to spend just 30 minutes to grab a sandwich.

Zhu, who works as a call agent and translator at a global data company, quickly adjusted to a shorter lunch break and has settled in happily. But, she says, “I do have friends at home who cannot survive without a nap. I don’t think they could survive with the work culture here.”

While English-language media warns about culture shocks awaiting Westerners in China, there’s very little from the opposite perspective. But for the growing number of Chinese heading west to work and study, there’s plenty they find startling.

And as more Chinese firms move abroad, bringing key executives with them, it may be Westerners who need to make a greater effort to be mindful. In the US alone, more than four times the number of visas for Chinese expat employees and their families were granted in 2015 compared to 2005.

“Chinese firms are looking abroad and making acquisitions at a terrific pace,” says Eric Thun, Peter Moores associate professor in Chinese business studies at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. “That’s why it’s useful to understand Chinese working culture and organisational practices.”

Change of pace

Upon arrival in the West, many Chinese find they have to firstly put on the brakes.

Yifeng Li, raised in northern China and now based in Birmingham, England, agrees. “The only thing [Chinese] people would be shocked by in the UK is how long it takes to do things,” he says. “For instance in China if you want to open a bank account, you don’t wait, you just do it at the counter.”

After working for a property agent, 32-year-old Li founded his own company, Essence Property Investment and Management, and returns regularly to China on business. “In China, if you see a property and you go to the sales office and say you want the keys tomorrow, then you can do it. Business is fast,” he says.

Thun says a lot of Chinese businesspeople are surprised by how sedate the pace is in Europe. “In China you are expected to work all hours until you get everything done.”

Out-of-hours and weekend work is standard in China, says lawyer Jack Chen, who left his homeland 12 years ago and is now head of China desk at DBB Law in Brussels, Belgium. “If I ask a colleague here to work with me at the weekend to visit a Chinese client or have a meeting, it’s possible, but it’s not normal. In Belgium, the weekend is for family and friends.”

Speaking up

Chen says office politics are simpler in Europe, partly because the hierarchy is less rigid than in China, where “the boss really is the boss and social class in the office is very obvious and important. You really should pay respect when you talk to the boss.”

As a result, he says, staff in a Chinese workplace think very carefully about how to present their views and ideas. He feels that employees in the West can share their opinions more freely.

“If I disagree with my boss I just say my opinion, even in front of all my colleagues. They will not see it as a problem. Here you can even make a joke with the boss.

“In China you should have the wisdom to say something in the appropriate way. But in Europe you can just say what you want.”

Before moving to Brussels, Chen worked in France, England, Holland and Germany. “When I come to a new office and there’s a meeting, I see how colleagues and partners give their opinion. You see what’s different and you adapt yourself to the new style,” he says.

But speaking up at work doesn’t come naturally to most Chinese, says Desmond So, founder of Hong Kong-based East-West Institute of Applied Etiquette, which teaches business etiquette and communications skills to executives from Greater China.

“Too often, I’ve seen Chinese people who are smart fail to speak up and present their ideas. Even worse, they sometimes brood afterwards about not having been recognised. But in Western business culture, that’s not how it works,” he says.

“We train people to be comfortable standing up for themselves and their ideas, and to graciously take credit for their successes . . . because in a Western business environment you must be willing to push yourself forward.”

That’s what Cindy Yin found after leaving her school teaching job in Guangzhou to move to North America. Today, the 47-year-old runs her own online real-estate platform, Rosypad, in New York City, but in her first job as a real-estate agent 20 years ago, she recalls she was encouraged to give her opinion and to be comfortable speaking her mind.

"I really liked it and I tried to give myself more voice. It was a process I had to get used to. In China people were very obedient at the time. So we didn’t have the habit to express how we think.”

Yearning for home

The newest Chinese arrivals have a very different outlook to previous generations, according to Beijing-born Sharon Jin, who moved to the US 20 years ago and is now an American citizen, working as a software developer near Chicago. As a consul with expat network InterNations, the 47-year-old organises events for expats of many different nationalities, including Chinese newcomers in their 20s and 30s.

“Sometimes they tell me they miss the luxury and comfort of China,” she says. “One girl said she missed Shanghai because you have so many places to eat and the city is much cleaner than Chicago. From a material comfort point they compare the US to China and they don’t necessarily feel the US is superior. Twenty years ago it was exactly the opposite.

“Almost 100% of people of my generation who came to the States, myself included, [arrived] thinking I want to get a green card and I want to stay here,” she says. But today younger Chinese plan to work for 10 years in the US and then return to China to buy a home or look after their parents, Jin says.

While a record number of 523,700 students left China to study elsewhere in 2015, roughly 70-80% of students abroad have been returning in recent years because of the attractive job market at home, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Says Jin: “Going back to China is becoming more and more popular.”

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