Over-manning over here

[bluesofa]

While I'm aware that pay rates are lower here than, say, Europe, but it always baffles me why it needs so many technicians to do what I'd see as a one-man job.

Twenty years ago I originally lived in Pattaya was surprised to see three guys turn up to fix a cable TV feed.

 

Now today, in Udon, we have a low signal problem with our cable TV here. Low and behold we still had three guys to come and fix it.

Two to look at the problem and one to sit outside staring into space.

After much discussion between the two of them, and testing the incoming signal level with their meter, but doing nothing else at all, they pronounced the problem fixed and went away.

I had assumed it was a problem in the street anyway (probably due to the heavy rain), which had earlier been resolved.

Oh well, it's included in the rental so no worries.

 

[Panda13]

Every problem contains its own solution. ?

[allane]

How many workers does it take to do a job in your home country ? Multiply your answer by a factor of 3 or 4x, then you will know how many Thai workers are needed to do the same job.

Salaries ? Take the salary for a given job in your home country, divide it by 3 or 4, and you will have the salary for that job in Thailand. Most of them earn B7000 - B 15,000/mo., and I wouldn't pay them 1 satang more than that.

[bluesofa]

13 minutes ago, allane said:

How many workers does it take to do a job in your home country ? Multiply your answer by a factor of 3 or 4x, then you will know how many Thai workers are needed to do the same job.

Salaries ? Take the salary for a given job in your home country, divide it by 3 or 4, and you will have the salary for that job in Thailand. Most of them earn B7000 - B 15,000/mo., and I wouldn't pay them 1 satang more than that.

That doesn't answer my question why it needs more people to do the same job. Why do you need to multiply by a factor of 3 or 4?

I know I began by saying the pay rates are lower here - but so is the cost of living. 

 

I worked for various telecoms companies in the UK, and everything was geared up to working alone. On two separate occasions here I've seen TOT send one guy to install a phone line.

I'd still like to know why the cable TV company needs three technicians. AIS sent two to install fibre internet - better than three though.

 

[johng]

They work as a team...say for instance if they had to run new cable 1 up the ladder 1 footing the ladder 1 feeding cable...this gets the job done faster...they also can combine brain power to solve tricky problems [emoji1]

[pgrahmm]

Not sure about here....Could be training, could be safety/security, could be the way they work their individual wiring in the wide open spaces needing two guys up & one on the ground....

 

Happens in the west too....

 

I used to be a national contracting director for a nation wide company in the states.....

In some areas contractors would require to send 2 men out....One to do the work - the other to keep the truck from being stolen....Sometimes to keep a ladder from being stolen leaving workers stranded on a roof = sounds funny, but it wasn't - some guys died (frozen to death)

stranded in winter & nobody would hear them or respond in time....

 

Multiple reasons might not think of.....

[faraday]

Few weeks ago, PEA came out again to deal with the perpetual brown outs, here in Udon.

 

One guy goes up the ladder, to do something/anything/ nothing, while 3 remain on the ground, smoking & ruminating.

 

The leccy's still buggered though.

 

Btw, Bluesofa, don't see you on Udonmap....?

[55Jay]

Right, go into HomePro or Global!  ?

 

One thing I noticed with 3BB internet is they employed sub-contractors for outlying areas like where I used to live (30km from city area). 

 

I had internet problems once there, 3 guys turned up in a non-3BB pick up truck.  1 was obviously the contract lead/supervisor, so he and his #2 did the "easy" inside work while the 3rd, who seemed like a less technical up-the-ladder line puller type, checked the cable from the soi to the house for any obvious problems. 

 

My house call was probably the easiest kind of job they get dispatched to by 3BB Call Center. 

[bluesofa]

12 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

Not sure about here....Could be training, could be safety/security, could be the way they work their individual wiring in the wide open spaces needing two guys up & one on the ground....

Thanks for the reply.

I can follow your security point - as has been said elsewhere recently on TV: The Thai male ego is pretty insecure!

 

12 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

Happens in the west too....

 

I used to be a national contracting director for a nation wide company in the states.....

In some areas contractors would require to send 2 men out....One to do the work - the other to keep the truck from being stolen....Sometimes to keep a ladder from being stolen leaving workers stranded on a roof = sounds funny, but it wasn't - some guys died (frozen to death)

stranded in winter & nobody would hear them or respond in time....

OK, it does sound funny regarding the guy riding shotgun to look after the truck, although I wouldn't imagine that so much here, you never know.

 

Still doesn't explain how TOT can send only one guy though (the same as I was used to doing in the UK.)

Perhaps TOT send their staff on a "spacial awareness" course - ha ha!

 

12 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

Multiple reasons might not think of.....

 

[bluesofa]

21 minutes ago, faraday said:

Few weeks ago, PEA came out again to deal with the perpetual brown outs, here in Udon.

 

One guy goes up the ladder, to do something/anything/ nothing, while 3 remain on the ground, smoking & ruminating.

 

The leccy's still buggered though.

 

Btw, Bluesofa, don't see you on Udonmap....?

Do you mean you've had no leccy for all that time - or is it intermittent?

 

If it's an overhead job from the house to the road: I think they need need some Eastern Europeans to sort that one out. Apparently Poles make the best post impressionists.

 

I'm more of a lurker on Udonmap anyway (different moniker as well).

 

[faraday]

The voltage goes up & down quite frequently, but never to zero.

 

I think it's in the process of being sorted, but when, gawd only knows.

 

 

[wwest5829]

Yes, I have recognized this also in the stores. I figure Thai with western companies would fire most of the staff, people have to eat so .... We have more extensive welfare programs. (I’ll leave off commenting on paying working, middle class employees a minimum wage while the company draws the corporate welfare).

[bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, faraday said:

The voltage goes up & down quite frequently, but never to zero.

I think it's in the process of being sorted, but when, gawd only knows.

 

Are you in a town, village, or in the sticks?

 

I had one job I went to in the UK when the voltage kept dropping and causing errors on some telecoms equipment. Narrowed it down to very low voltage on the mains supply, but it only occurred in the early evening.

Customer was the last feed on a long overhead supply. It dropped down to about 190V, just when everyone got home and probably switched the kettle and the cooker on.

Got the customer to contact the leccy board, who resolved it by providing a new feed.

 

[55Jay]

Ironically, the 3bb cased I mentioned wound up them saying internet from the soi pole to their test router inside the house was fine, 5X5, and so my non-3BB "farang" router wasn't "strong enough" all the sudden.  They said I should go buy a new one.

 

I'm no techie but IMV, the intermittent service problem was upstream somewhere on the ISP side, because we had one instance just like it in the past, and that was the reason.  My router wouldn't be broken one minute, then work again for a while, then "break" again.

 

To my wife's annoyance, I pushed her to call 3BB Call Center again the next day, one more time, cause you never know what a new Call Center rep might come up with.   She did and was told they had become aware of a problem in the distro box up on the main highway, they were working on it, ETR 3 hours. 

 

My internet service returned to normal thereafter.

 

Nothing wrong with my router.

[bluesofa]

1 minute ago, 55Jay said:

Ironically, the 3bb cased I mentioned wound up them saying internet from the soi pole to their test router inside the house was fine, 5X5, and so my non-3BB "farang" router wasn't "strong enough" all the sudden.  They said I should go buy a new one.

 

I'm no techie but IMV, the intermittent service problem was upstream somewhere on the ISP side, because we had one instance just like it in the past, and that was the reason.  My router wouldn't be broken one minute, then work again for a while, then "break" again.

 

To my wife's annoyance, I pushed her to call 3BB Call Center again the next day, one more time, cause you never know what a new Call Center rep might come up with.   She did and was told they had become aware of a problem in the distro box up on the main highway, they were working on it, ETR 3 hours. 

 

My internet service returned to normal thereafter.

 

Nothing wrong with my router.

Yes, quite often it's an easy option to lie/save face, etc., rather an admit it's their own network at fault.

I only only through bitter experience here (plus having a telecoms background).

 

[Deli]

Overstaffed everywhere coz of no efficiency and lack of commercial (western style ) judgement in Thai companies.

[55Jay]

2 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Yes, quite often it's an easy option to lie/save face, etc., rather an admit it's their own network at fault.

I only only through bitter experience here (plus having a telecoms background).

There is that cultural quirk, indeed.  I was already well experienced with it having lived/worked in SW Asia for many years before moving here. 

 

Strays off the manpower issue toward competency, but in my 3BB case, it made sense that it was (finally) 3BB proper that sussed out my end-user problem was actually further upstream in their infrastructure.  I would expect they have broader situational awareness than their more narrowly focused sub-contract field teams.  Good possibility that the sub's SOW doesn't authorize them to mess around in the main distro boxes -  the domain of full-time 3BB tech employees.  Left Hand~Right Hand comm breakdown between Prime and Sub is another ever-present possibility.

 

The cynical point is, of course, the dudes who came to my house didn't know what the source of my problem was, so they pulled a solution out of their ass - go get a new router.   My wife, of course, thought Jesus had just spoken and was really annoyed that I insisted we try calling 3BB again.  ?

[peterb17]

Maybe it’s because you live in Thailand and not the West. 

Why are you concerned? 

 

The less you worry about things that you have no control over - the happier your life will be. 

[atyclb]

some may be tagging along to learn.

 

some tagging along will never learn

[Dap]

Really no different than a surprising number of civil servant operations across the U.S.. What the h*ll, when it's only tax money paying for it all 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Dap

[Suradit69]

4 hours ago, bluesofa said:

While I'm aware that pay rates are lower here than, say, Europe, but it always baffles me why it needs so many technicians to do what I'd see as a one-man job.

You see what fits your preconceptions and prejudices.

 

Western nanny states have long buckled to ridiculous, uneconomic demands of labor unions. As shown in the photos, experience in leaning on a shovel or placing hands on hips while pretending to care are important qualifications for employment in Farang Land.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Suradit69

[ICECOOL]

there is a 7/11 in a servo near me. Been there a few times and each time it's basically empty. 6 staff standing around. This time I wanted to return a lazada purchase. Not one person knew how to do it even though I had done similar there before. 

 

Ended up going to another and it took her less than 1 minute.

[kingstonkid]

He could have been the driver

 

[bluesofa]

18 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

You see what fits your preconceptions and prejudices.

 

Western nanny states have long buckled to ridiculous, uneconomic demands of labor unions. As shown in the photos, experience in leaning on a shovel or placing hands on hips while pretending to care are important qualifications for employment in Farang Land.

 

The post is about cable TV. As I said in my post I did a very similar job. So no, it doesn't fit my "preconceptions and prejudices".

 

See below from post #4:

"I worked for various telecoms companies in the UK, and everything was geared up to working alone. On two separate occasions here I've seen TOT send one guy to install a phone line. 

I'd still like to know why the cable TV company needs three technicians. AIS sent two to install fibre internet - better than three though."

 

[Kurtf]

My opinion and since it is free (and it's worth every cent of that) is that it is the way that Thailand is able to keep the unemployment rate so low. Pay 300-500 baht per day and hire as many as you can. The same is true if you go into any Home Pro. There are scads of people just standing around ready to help you. Most of them have no clue about the items they are in charge of selling. But the job does keep them off the streets.

[Get Real]

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Now today, in Udon, we have a low signal problem with our cable TV here. Low and behold we still had three guys to come and fix it.

Nice to know that at least something in a constant over here.

[thaiguzzi]

4 hours ago, faraday said:

Btw, Bluesofa, don't see you on Udonmap....?

If people think TV is bad, they wanna check UM out....

back on topic -

as i'm not the employer who has to worry about over staffing of employees in Toolpro, Global House, Home Pro etc etc, I rather like the attentive and polite service...

Edited June 16, 2018 by thaiguzzi

[bluesofa]

2 minutes ago, Get Real said:

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Now today, in Udon, we have a low signal problem with our cable TV here. Low and behold we still had three guys to come and fix it.

 Nice to know that at least something in a constant over here.

True, but I couldn't swear if it's the same three guys though.

 

[PerkinsCuthbert]

 

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, johng said:

They work as a team...say for instance if they had to run new cable 1 up the ladder 1 footing the ladder 1 feeding cable...this gets the job done faster...they also can combine brain power to solve tricky problems

Brain power, Thais? Hmmmmm