Patience is a virtue

I report to you this evening from bed.  That's right, bed.  Not a mattress on the floor, but a real bed that is at least an entire foot off the ground. Hooray.

In other news the new job is improving, starting to get the hang of things and can just about sleep through the night without a 2am panic attack.  I'm also learning a lot about work ethic and work culture in Malaysia.

Firstly, people here work hard, and they certainly work a lot.  About the same half dozen security guards at our condo seem to be here all the time - at a minimum these guys work 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week - maybe more.  There is a local restaurant, open 24 hours - nearly the entire staff of about 20 guys live in once house. Shift change is at 7:00 and 7:00.  Everyday, 10 in and 10 out every twelve hours.

We also have a friend whose (admittedly crap) car has broken down several times.  Last week the mechanic fixed the transmission, this week it broke again - what did the mechanic do?  He felt bad and offered our friend the use of his own car.  So before I start my massive whinge, let the record show, I get how hard people work here and for how little.

Now that being said, I think a generous estimate would be that every time you seek out and pay for a professional service - at best they get it about half right.  If it involved having to actually go into a store to arrange or purchase something (for example broadband), you'll have to go back at least once. If you've scheduled a time for a delivery or repair you may as well block out your whole day. If it involved spelling (say invitations) or having something altered (curtains) something will go wrong.  The curtains, speaking from first-hand experience here, will either all be different lengths or they will at least be the same length - but not the length you specified.  My level of expectation has been dramatically reduced.

I was having a conversation at work the other day about working with 'local' staff.  The term 'local' staff gives me the creeps, talk about colonial.  Anyway, whilst acknowledging that we have many extremely capable and devoted staff, there was a discussion about how to get them to do things.  E-mail, no. Phone, no. In person, no. Just asking nicely, no. Threatening, no.  In order to accomplish anything, you have to make a big song and dance about what a great big favour they are doing you etc. etc.  Now this is obviously annoying on two levels:  1. It's a complete waste of time. 2. You shouldn't have to cajole someone into doing what's in their job description.  And even  after you've basically tricked them into doing their job, you're probably going to have to chase them up about it a couple of times.

Lots to learn, all character building I'm sure. Whether this is all going to make me a more or less patient person remains to be seen.