Posted by
samy06
18 yrs ago
Hi.....I am an expat wife...Jus wanted to knw that is working late (gettin back hme always after 9
) a regular trend with husbands in hk or i am unneccessary gettin ichy???
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for some, it depends on what the job fucntion is. It 9;30 PM here, I have been in the office since 7PM and I am gaging to leave but cannot, as I am waiting on a call from NY, This kind of thing happens to me more often than not, but other business keep to standard working hours.
It really depends on what your husband does as his job, but too me you sound like you are unnecessarily getting itchy. It does happen a lot in this town.
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If your husbands clients are based in Europe then late nights will be common I'm afraid. Also local culture can mean no one wants to leave before the boss.
Does get boring though. Before I started working I was like our puppy, all over my boyfriend when he got home, and he was almost too exhausted to even speak. I couldn't stay here if I wasn't working too.
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I agree with allynz and Digital Blonde. Late nights are common in part due to time zones. HKers are also notorious for coming in late, having a long lunch, and working late. They find Westerners who insist their toddlers are asleep by eight a bit weird.
Don't get me wrong but if your husband wants to get frisky on the side he can do it regardless of working hours. You either know you can trust him or not. HK has perhaps a bit more opportunity than other places for some "fun on the side" but trust is trust.
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well...thanx for your inputs....Its nt bout "him gettin frisky" but its bout gettin hme early n spending quality time n feeling like family together.....which i havent felt eversince we have shifted to hk........Puttin in late hours coz no one wants to leave before the boss.....well...This is the root cause.....
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He may feel like he can't leave before the boss but he should just bite the bullet and do it. It is not an issue in our office...people stay late b/c they have work to do but I know this is not the case elsewhere and its just about showing face but work life balance is so important but very hard to achieve here.
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"its bout gettin hme early n spending quality time n feeling like family together.....which i havent felt eversince we have shifted to hk........"
I see. Sorry about my presumption.
As allynz said there is a lot of pressure about working late, and not only in HK.
Having said that, my wife leaves work at 5 to spend time with our children. After they are in bed she logs in from home for a few hours. This could be an alternative for your husband. Note that my wife had already made the agreement to arrange things thus with her boss before we moved. It's odd how despite the fact that she works the same number of hours or more as the rest of them (gets in a 7 in the morning, takes a 10 minute lunch) when she leaves at 5 lots of ppl would comment. Now they know she'll be doing email at 11-12 in the evening and that she works really hard so it's not a problem. But it took a long time getting there.
My point is that most ppl in HK and other places have this impression that if your bum isn't in the seat in the evening you're not putting in the "required" hours. Totally absurd of course (productivity should taken into account) since quite a few of those same people are just chatting or surfing the web in order to fill the time.
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In a similar way if you are out of the office on business it is deemed that you are in fact 'not working' and are 'on holiday'. A few emails sent late at night or very early in the morning soon helps to correct that sentiment. In fact when we are traveling we actually work more; a full day in the new country plus the HK day on top. Kind of absurd really. International business is not something I will look for in a role in future.
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allynz has it right. I used to be on the road constantly and many people (thankfully not that many within the company) felt that I was a bit of a tourist. Yeah, cause after a day of sales calls punctuated by travel I had to go back to the hotel room and do email instead of seeing my family. ;)
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I love business trips, I do so much skiving its unbelievable, sadly they dont happen to often in my job.
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Haha Digital Blonde. To be fair I preferred being constantly on the road to being stuck in the office. It is much more free.
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sxc
18 yrs ago
Being an expat, there is usually not much pressure to "save face" and work late just because the boss is working late. Usually locals complain "why do the expats have such little work that they can leave on time?" when really the question should be "why do locals feel they have to stay late in the office just for the sake of it, or why are their time management skills such that they can't do their job in the normal working hours?"
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I agree with sxc. Also as I frequently mention, these are the same locals who get in at 0930 and take a two hour lunch. Try getting in a 8 and take a 45 minute lunch and you might get it done on time to leave at a decent hour.
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