Day 33 - Differences between US and Hong Kong Work Culture

Some notable differences between the two work cultures are:

Lunch. We almost always eat lunch together in the office. In contrast with lunch in the United States, employees always take almost the full amount of time, if not to eat then to rest or talk on the phone or socialize. In my understanding, in the US/West, you're expected to eat and then go back to work, usually in under an hour, and most people eat alone or in pairs.

Workday. The workday here is 9-7, every day. Sometimes (I said this before) we work on Saturdays too. In America most people don't do that; the workday is usually 9-5 or 5:30. The workday here ends when the work is done, but never before 7, so workers may stay until 10pm. Unfortunately the AC shuts off at 7, and the office gets hotter and hotter thereafter.

Relationships. People in the office seem to be a little closer with each other than in the average American work place. They laugh a lot and socialize during lunch and so on. This difference is probably due to the more departmentalized and categorically-focused work; for instance, we all eat lunch, work, have meetings, and leave (sometimes) as a department, not an entire company.

This is an entry about work culture written for the GT Department of Professional Practice.