I will never understand them

[Rampant Rabbit]

We  have two  workers at our  house they take  care of the garden and land, we recently got rid  of them as they were  getting lazier ( 5  hours for  lunch) and advertised on  Facebook in a  gardening/farm workers   section.

100  replies in about 30 minutes, we  carefully  stated what the job was and to   not   apply unless they had experience working outdoors, a  good 85% were unsuitable so we  focussed on the last 15%.

After some debate we chose a  couple who  informed  us  they  could  start quickly , 4  days later my Wife  called them to check they were  still  coming as  planned, no answer,  called  both their  phones,  no answer, sent them a message via  facebook  ,  no answer.

Now the same pair are  on facebook whining they cant find a job and still  have no work, go  figure.

So  if  anyone knows a  couple  not  older than 40 wanting to work, as  I hear many are  unemployed  (  though many seem unemployable)  let me  know  by PM.

Some of the more  hilarious responses by  applicants  included "we  are at the station now  getting on the train to come"  this was when my Wife spoke  with them  to  ask them more questions about their experience and not to say the job was  their's in any way.

Another response from a  couple  in Bangkok,they were tired of the Bangkok air and wanted to come to our land as it  would be relaxing and  a holiday for them........... duh, you  do  know it is  WORK not a  resort for  your  pleasure?

Then the  odd  couples two women one 19 the other 54 Tomboy and partner.

Considering the unemployment rate they seem  to  have a lot to learn  about   actually  getting a  job thats if they really want one.

[Thailand]

Maybe a bit too much like work? 

[Hayduke]

I will never understand them

Many Thai people have been taught since birth not to think and not to show initiative….just do as you’re told. This can make more complex tasks difficult. Be patient.

 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Hayduke

[CANSIAM]

You will probably get more out of people older than 40.........

[ColeBOzbourne]

The strangest people I ever met was after placing an add in the paper looking to rent out part of my house in order to have a care-taker there while I was off traveling. Never again! One lady said her husband had just got out of prison, he was dangerous, and my house would be perfect because she needed a place to hide.

[OneMoreFarang]

It seems for many Thais work must be sanook. Working alone in not sanook. Working a lot is not sanook. Working a little and eating and drinking a lot is sanook. If more people are involved and the party is bigger than it is more sanook. 

Sorry I don't know how to solve your situation. I guess I would try to find local people by word or mouth. They can work and then go home and drink with their friends after work.

[CANSIAM]

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It seems for many Thais work must be sanook. Working alone in not sanook. Working a lot is not sanook. Working a little and eating and drinking a lot is sanook. If more people are involved and the party is bigger than it is more sanook. 

Sorry I don't know how to solve your situation. I guess I would try to find local people by word or mouth. They can work and then go home and drink with their friends after work.

So true, years ago when working here, if we were very busy at the time, we would rotate coffee breaks one by one. This was an issue and frowned upon big time, Thai men always suggesting '2 man coffee - 2 man coffee' lol. Their breaks were far longer than the 15 minutes as well.....  lol.  Correct also keep them in at least pairs while working, not alone...... 

[tonray]

The garden/Maintenance folks in our MooBaan are all Burmese...some of the hardest workers you have ever seen. You should look for an immigrant couple. We occasionally engage some folks to cut / trim trees....Husband/Wife/Daughter and Son-in-Law all show up in pickup truck and make short work of the job.

[phetphet]

Apparently Burmese are pretty hard workers. But perhaps more bureaucracy to employ them. Plus obvious language requirements.

 

EDIT. tonray and I must have posted same suggestion at same time. 

Edited June 13, 2021 by phetphet

[SCOTT FITZGERSLD]

pay peanuts and get monekys....you propably pay them 10000-15000 baht a month,

try live on this amount for few months than tell us how you worked.

[Peterw42]

Op, interested to know what wages you are offering, accommodation, food etc ?. Its fine to say people dont want to work, are lazy etc. But there is a limit as to what people will do, or are even capable of doing in the height of summer.

 

Farm or outdoor labour etc is often a job lot, 6-8 people plant a crop, tend a crop, harvest a crop etc. They have accommodation and food and later share in the sale of the crop. outdoor labor isnt always a baht per hour arrangement, so you may not find people to fit your concept of employment. 

 

As for a 5 hour lunch. Not sure if you have noticed but Thai farmers etc often work in the cool of the morning/evening and do rest up in the heat of the day.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Peterw42

[Lacessit]

I can't say I have had any significant problem, the ones that speak reasonable English are usually switched on.

My GF employs the occasional local in the village for work around the house, I pity the Thai who tries to pull a fast one on her.

Northern Thailand seems to have a fair infusion of Chinese genes, with a stronger work ethic.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

13 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I can't say I have had any significant problem, the ones that speak reasonable English are usually switched on.

And how many who speak reasonable English want to work in a garden?

[Damrongsak]

1 hour ago, Hayduke said:

I will never understand them

Many Thai people have been taught since birth not to think and not to show initiative….just do as you’re told. This can make more complex tasks difficult. Be patient.

My wife & family has Vietnamese ancestry.  As do many of her friends and distant relatives.  Hard-headed, ambitious people.  A couple of her school friends from 40+ years back are worth a million or three.  US dollars, not Baht. They get bored and just make money,

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

And how many who speak reasonable English want to work in a garden?

Good point, but I can't recall saying I was employing them in that capacity. I leave that stuff to the GF, green cement is about as far as I will go in terms of gardening.

[tonray]

1 hour ago, phetphet said:

Apparently Burmese are pretty hard workers. But perhaps more bureaucracy to employ them. Plus obvious language requirements.

 

EDIT. tonray and I must have posted same suggestion at same time. 

Pretty much all the Burmese around here (Nonthaburi, Bang Yai) are fluent in Thai from what I've seen

[clivebaxter]

1 hour ago, SCOTT FITZGERSLD said:

pay peanuts and get monekys....you propably pay them 10000-15000 baht a month,

try live on this amount for few months than tell us how you worked.

That's the going rate anywhere here, even better to live on if up country

[cmarshall]

Here's my general take on "hard to understand" situations like this.  If the undesirable behavior you are encountering is an outlier, then it is likely the fault of that individual.  If the behavior is normative for that group, then it is due to the environment, not the individual in question.  And if that environment is alien to you, then of course you don't understand it.  Why would you?  The problem is not that you don't understand the behavior, but that you think you do.  

 

One example of this is the different responses that Black Americans and white Americans had to the O. J. Simpson verdict.  As a white American I believed then and now that Simpson was guilty well beyond a shadow of a doubt.  We couldn't understand how anyone could reach a different conclusion.  Black Americans have a vastly different experience of policing than we do.  During the mayoralty of Mike Bloomberg in New York City, for example, the police policy was to stop and frisk anyone for any reason, mostly Black people, of course.  One male Black teenager was frisked without cause sixty times.  More recently we can understand that Blacks are much more likely to be shot by police, to be imprisoned, to get inferior medical treatment, etc.  So, it is not surprising that the normative expectation of policing by Black Americans is quite different from ours.

 

I don't fully understand the sources of male Thai behavior, but the reasonable interpretation is still that if more or less everyone is doing that, then it's due to the environment.  

[Rampant Rabbit]

2 hours ago, SCOTT FITZGERSLD said:

pay peanuts and get monekys....you propably pay them 10000-15000 baht a month,

try live on this amount for few months than tell us how you worked.

Your'e  right I should  be  looking for one with a  Phd and start them at what 40k? I mean they all seem a  bit  challenged by the work  so I'm thinking that's the way to go.

[Rampant Rabbit]

1 hour ago, clivebaxter said:

That's the going rate anywhere here, even better to live on if up country

Per  person or per  couple?

[RobMuir]

2 hours ago, phetphet said:

Apparently Burmese are pretty hard workers. But perhaps more bureaucracy to employ them. Plus obvious language requirements.

 

EDIT. tonray and I must have posted same suggestion at same time. 

 

My experience with Burmese (over 20) has been average. They don't have the best attitude IMO almost like unionists. The Cambodians have a better attitude IMO.

 

But the biggest thing is if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys 100% of the time. The reason they have applied for your job is because they are unemployed. They are unemployed mostly because no Thai has employed them. For a reason.

 

The young Thais are similar to young westerners, little soft girly boys who grew up playing on their phones. 

 

Without a doubt the only Thais i respect work-wise are the hard men who grew up in the fishing industry and on Palm/rubber plantations. They all chew on Kratom all day, all are 45+ and amazingly many don't own a phone at all, so you won't see them on it when supposed to be working.

 

Hard men, a bit like myself. They demand more pay and they really earn it.

 

Everyone's experiences are different, but that is mine.

[Rampant Rabbit]

4 minutes ago, RobMuir said:

 

My experience with Burmese (over 20) has been average. They don't have the best attitude IMO almost like unionists. The Cambodians have a better attitude IMO.

 

But the biggest thing is if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys 100% of the time. The reason they have applied for your job is because they are unemployed. They are unemployed mostly because no Thai has employed them. For a reason.

 

The young Thais are similar to young westerners, little soft girly boys who grew up playing on their phones. 

 

Without a doubt the only Thais i respect work-wise are the hard men who grew up in the fishing industry and on Palm/rubber plantations. They all chew on Kratom all day, all are 45+ and amazingly many don't own a phone at all, so you won't see them on it when supposed to be working.

 

Hard men, a bit like myself. They demand more pay and they really earn it.

 

Everyone's experiences are different, but that is mine.

Tried  all age ranges from 25 to 55 age doesnt seem to be the main problem theyre either  good or  not, the best couple we  had were the oldest at 50and 52 but  went right off  after 20   months to working 30  minutes then stopping 30 minutes the best single  person we had was 32 and he only had one  hand, Burmese.

You'll  have to define "peanuts"

[Rampant Rabbit]

1 hour ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

5 hour lunch?...are they teamsters?....  ????

or perhaps 3 martini lunches...

Whew Somchai Im sweating! lets get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini!

If the womans  hand  could  do as much work as  her  mouth Id be  fine, she non stop ate all  day , well that and sleeping and watching tv, she did  generally an hours  work  in the morning then slunk off and hid somewhere although if  i walked to her  hosue she would  leap  up and try to  look  busy but in fact would do  nothing except  walk off  until I'd  gone. 

[Rampant Rabbit]

So what salaries  should I pay for this  work, lets say includes  accomodation and food water, electric motorcycle etc?

[WineOh]

4 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Considering the unemployment rate they seem  to  have a lot to learn  about   actually  getting a  job thats if they really want one.

Most Thai's don't want a real job per se.

 

They want to be paid whilst playing Facebook and TikTok for 10 hour a day.

[Kwasaki]

4 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

We have two workers at our

house they take  care of the garden and land, we recently got rid  of them as they were  getting lazier ( 5  hours for  lunch) 

 

The people with use are always local people a they are over 50 or 60 and they get a price for what We want done so they take as long as they like. ????

[RobMuir]

13 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

 

You'll  have to define "peanuts"

Less than 800 per day.

 

You get what you pay for in my experience.

[RobMuir]

7 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

 

The people with use are always local people a they are over 50 or 60 and they get a price for what We want done so they take as long as they like. ????

That way does save a lot of stress.

[Rampant Rabbit]

1 minute ago, RobMuir said:

Less than 800 per day.

 

You get what you pay for in my experience.

Per  person or  couple as they generally work  in pairs. Husband Wife  team although womans work is generally  cleaning  and thats once a  week for  my  house, which is  small.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Rampant Rabbit

[The Cipher]

4 hours ago, Excel said:

under 40s males mostly have a mental age of children

 

 As an under-40 male, I can confirm that this is true.

 

I don't see that changing when I eventually become and over-40 male either.