Man Gets Culture Shock Moving From Chinese Company To GLC

The writer is criticised for generalising and stereotyping race.

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A Malay man who had worked in several government-linked companies (GLC) and Chinese enterprises listed ten major differences in the work culture.

A netizen named Chef Danial Hadi shared about it on Facebook, causing heated discussions and reposts among netizens.

He said one could look at employees’ working culture to understand why Chinese companies are more successful.

He stressed that it’s not that the Malays (companies) are bad, but the work culture is flawed.

According to Danial, after working in a Chinese company for a long time, his work attitude has gradually become the same as that of Chinese employees.

He thinks this massive cultural difference exists when compared to working in a GLC with 99.9% of Malay employees.

The top 10 differences he lists are:

1. Before 7:00 pm, the employees of the Chinese company are not in a hurry to get off work. The employees of the GLC company will clean up at 4:30 p.m. and leave work on time at 5:00 pm.

2. Chinese companies save construction costs, but GLC ignores the problem of high costs and losses.

3. The HR department of the Chinese company will remind employees to work hard, and the company will get bonuses if it makes money; in GLC, it is losing money every year, and employees are still fighting for bonuses.

4. Chinese companies can see the direction of the boss and the company. In GLC, we call it a company without a boss, and all people operate automatically;

5. In Chinese companies, fewer employees work more; on the contrary, GLC has less work and more employees.

6. In Chinese companies, almost everyone works hard, and there are few lazy people, but in GLC, the lazy are more than those who are hard-working.

7. In Chinese companies, if you say voice out a lot, you are a good employee because you want the company to improve, but in GLC, if you say too much, you will be labelled by the boss and other colleagues.

8. In the Chinese company, people get into heated conversations to get the work done, but if they do so in GLC, they will be accused of arrogance and heroism.

9. The Chinese company holds a meeting in June to set the company’s goals for the next year, while GLC holds a meeting in December to set the goals for the next year;

10. Regarding asking for leave, it is difficult for employees of Chinese companies to ask for leave at the end of the year because the boss must ensure that someone takes over the work. In GLC, the boss can approve all employees to take leave, and the entire department is paralysed because no one is at work.

He did not name any GLC, saying it was to avoid causing shame.

Opinions Divided

At the time of writing, the post has received 6,100 likes, 2,00 comments, and 2,500 reposts.

Many Malay netizens agree with the statement, but some disagree.

They said Chinese companies are too demanding on the workers and have no work-life balance.

Some noted it could be hard to apply for leave from Chinese companies even when there are valid reasons, such as wedding-related matters.

Others said there was no point going all out for the company as employees are easily dispensable.

Some said the writer should not generalise and stereotype race as every company will have its strength and weakness, whether privately owned by the Chinese or GLC.

At the same time, netizens pointed out not all Chinese employers are workaholics, nor do they impose unrelenting standards on the workers.