terminatorchiangmai Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Day 1 , Sorry today i can not come , not finished moving yet.Ok you can start tomorrow at 7:30 , 7:30 ???? What time finish ??? Day 2 , 7:30 Sorry i am little bit late , 8:30 Sorry i can not come work for you any more, thank you for giving me chance. Day 3 , What time do i start today ? Any one else having these problems with employees ? I am looking forward to some amazing stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuddhaMind Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I've heard these kinds of stories from my friends that own business'. Too funny. Well, funny might not be the right word. I've experienced that when it comes to meeting Thais for an appointment. Like, getting a phone an hour AFTER the appointed time and saying, "sorry, I cannot come today." I've gotten that one both at my home and at someone's office. Too funny. Well, funny might not be the right word. :-) Anyway, sorry to hear this is happening to you. It does sound frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMweb Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 (edited) You are not alone … Our first employee showed up 2 hours late on the first day, she says she could not find the office. In a real estate business you should find any place, special if it’s simple like our office. She did not work like I told her, too many (I know better stuff ) after 3 days I never saw her again. Second employee, full of power but after some days she find out you need to work a little for you money, she start to be lazy, did not answer the phones, did to many private stuff in the time she should work, end of the story she quit with the explanation she has not so much time every day. (Why you start a 5 – 7 hour job with weekend off if you have no time anyway??? ) Next employee, called me in the afternoon (7 hours after she should start), she told me sorry I change my mind. (I find this out by myself ) Next employee comes with her sister as she could not write English (Her mails was written from her sister) … fired … I don’t need 2 employees … Next employee, ….. Next employee, ….. We open the company last year in July, till now we employ 8 or 9 I stop counting, and we pay more much then most of the companies in the same business. I find out it is not the money, you just need to have luck to find somebody who real likes to work. On the end I found one guy who is real good and we work very well together but still we are searching for somebody more. Edited February 7, 2013 by CMweb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thakkar Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 The perils of an economy with almost full employment, yet, inexplicably, relatively low wages. Low unemployment means the available talent pool is shallow. T 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinnieTheKhwai Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 You could do the unexpected, pay more than peanuts and not get monkeys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amexpat Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 (edited) ..... We open the company last year in July, till now we employ 8 or 9 I stop counting, and we pay more much then most of the companies in the same business. I find out it is not the money, you just need to have luck to find somebody who real likes to work. .... You could do the unexpected, pay more than peanuts and not get monkeys. WTK, you don't agree or didn't read? I hear that trying to instill loyalty is a fool's errand. Just get lucky. Edited February 7, 2013 by amexpat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRS1 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 You get what you pay for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgprg Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 You could do the unexpected, pay more than peanuts and not get monkeys. I think you would just get the trained monkeys then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heatherm Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Trained monkeys are WAY more expensive than Thais. Plus, Thais rarely fling poo. After two years we have two great employees. At this rate I think I'll be dead before we have a full, reliable staff. Higher pay does not always mean better staff. Sent from my GT-P1010 using Thaivisa Connect App 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Semper Posted February 7, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted February 7, 2013 Bashing Thais are we? Starting a business in a 3world country, what were you guys expecting, same standard of the workforce as in the West but with local salary? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_smith237 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Its not a Thai bashing thread - We're discussing 'observations of a different work ethic in different cultures'.... OK - some are Thai bashing. Is it bashing if the story is true ? There's no need to be calling anyone monkeys BTW. Friends of mine who work offshore told me this story: A new Graduate was employed by a large Multinational Company servicing the Oil Industry. On his First day and due to travel offshore his excuse to his boss was... "My Mum won't let me go, I have to look after her".... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amexpat Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I heard the expression, "You just can't get good help" many, many times before I came to LOS. In days gone by it seemed finding a good job was easier than finding an honest employee who would show up on time and sober. Seems to be the case here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funcat Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 We tried to get help to clean the house....the 'lady' showed up for a day,swept the floor,washed the dishes,waked around with a duster,than took a lunch brake...than walk some more,just pretending,than left.....and never showed up again. The excuse was:"House to Big..." !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyecatcher Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 then there was the employee phoned in on his first day at work to say he couldnt start because he hadnt got a clean pair of jeans................it was a demolition company. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naboo Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Stop showing off Funcat. I could say the same about a few girls I've met over the years.... but I'm too modest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxhound Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 My agent sent by new maid to my place to start work, and she rejected the job upon arrival! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetlejuice Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 You get what you pay for I don`t agree with that. 2 years ago, my wife and I tried to hire a live in housekeeper to help take care of her elderly parents. My in-laws are not disabled and do not require 24 hour assistance, just elderly, both in they’re 80s need someone there to do some housework, cook and sleep at the house at night to make them feel more secure and take the strain off my wife and her two brothers living in Chiang Mai, the rest are in Bangkok, as we all live quite far. Between me and the rest of my wife’s family, we were offering 15000 baht per month and included food and all bills, plus one day off each week and all the regular Thai holidays. Several came for the job, all appeared really keen. For the first week they were great, mostly trying to impress us, then after that they seem to have lost interest and became bored. Some just left, simply walked out and disappeared after their first months wage or we had to sack them, completely useless. One woman ran up a 1400 baht phone bill on my in-laws telephone within a period of 2 weeks. We discovered she was phoning some boyfriend in Australia, plus a countless load of national calls. Most we guessed probably had debts or required money in the short term and had no intentions of working for us in the long term. What they told us during their interviews were mostly lies and BS. After that we gave it up as a bad idea, and now someone in the family have to stay with them in turns, which is not always easy, my brother-in-laws have jobs and need to work, so most of them rely on my wife to be with them the most. I thought, if that’s how difficult it is just to acquire a housekeeper even if paying good money, than imagine what it must be like trying to obtain loyal, reliable staff if running a company? Luckily for me I am now retired, and these days I would never consider going into or running a business in Thailand even if it was set up for free, but I fully understand the problems you business guys must have with staff. It must be a nightmare. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackr Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 The perils of an economy with almost full employment How many monks? Beetlejuice; oddly enough, paying way over the odds here is also a surefire way of getting the wrong help. Salaries should be equal to, or close to, what the station dictates as some will believe they are overly-worthy and take the Michael. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mic6ard Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Let's see One applied for an office position: couldn't figure out how to use the computer - left One disappeared after 7 days working A few no shows, just come to handed in the uniforms, etc. It's ridiculously how many job-hungry people there are. And yet how many of them have absolutely no clue to what they actually wanted to do. Actually they DO know what type of jobs they want - little work, lots of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mic6ard Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) You could do the unexpected, pay more than peanuts and not get monkeys. didn't actually make any differences actually. As some new grads are already requesting WAY HIGH starting wage for unskilled position (waiter, etc) Edited February 8, 2013 by mic6ard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mic6ard Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Bashing Thais are we? Starting a business in a 3world country, what were you guys expecting, same standard of the workforce as in the West but with local salary? We're not expecting Western quality, but just some responsibility and ethic from these people. Some people in the West are almost as bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mic6ard Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Its not a Thai bashing thread - We're discussing 'observations of a different work ethic in different cultures'.... OK - some are Thai bashing. Is it bashing if the story is true ? There's no need to be calling anyone monkeys BTW. Friends of mine who work offshore told me this story: A new Graduate was employed by a large Multinational Company servicing the Oil Industry. On his First day and due to travel offshore his excuse to his boss was... "My Mum won't let me go, I have to look after her".... don't get me started on excuses. Heard plenty of them. Don't get it really, if they don't want to work for you then say it. Found another job? Say so. But YTF do they have to bring up parents, family, BF/GF, etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canman Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I worked for a large Thai owned company in Sriracha for 4 years. We employed about 150 locals. For the most part we had good staff with none of the sillyness I see mentioned above. Turnover would have been less than 1 a month. Occasionally in the workshop a thief would get hired but he was quickly found out and dealt with. The office girls were on salaries ranging from 18K up to well into the 6 digit range for a senior accountant, contacts lawyer, head of HR etc. In fact there were a couple there which I would dearly love to have working for me here in Singapore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_smith237 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) A good point has been raised - Once you have found the right staff they are excellent, smart, hard working, loyal and proactive.... It just takes so long to filter out the Wheat from the Chaff... I try and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but usually I can tell within seconds if they are going to be any good or not. Once another colleague and I judged 'The Walk' ... it became clear that someone who had confident and relatively speedy walk was switched on, whereas someone who had a chilled shuffle was more likely to be lazy and not much use.. (of course there are plenty of exceptions but it was quite an accurate rule of thumb). Edited February 8, 2013 by richard_smith237 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rene123 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 A good point has been raised - Once you have found the right staff they are excellent, smart, hard working, loyal and proactive.... It just takes so long to filter out the Wheat from the Chaff... I try and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but usually I can tell within seconds if they are going to be any good or not. Once another colleague and I judged 'The Walk' ... it became clear that someone who had confident and relatively speedy walk was switched on, whereas someone who had a chilled shuffle was more likely to be lazy and not much use.. (of course there are plenty of exceptions but it was quite an accurate rule of thumb). I think this is true from the few business owners that I've spoken to. Good employees are like jewels and need to be treated special. That is true everywhere. It works both ways. As an employee you like to know that you are appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fookhaht Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 What this country needs is a good vetting service for prospective employees. No time to Google it. Any of you employers tried to find one? I think in my home country we call them "employment agencies." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZXM Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 So many problems with local hires it seems. Here's a thought, if your business is one that deals primarily with tourists (foreigners), why not hire a foreigner. If your business is one that deals primarily with thais, why not hire a foreigner who is fluent in Thai language (they do exist). I'm sure there are a lot of foreigners in this country who find it quite depressing that the only job they're deemed capable of doing is teaching English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terminatorchiangmai Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 So many problems with local hires it seems. Here's a thought, if your business is one that deals primarily with tourists (foreigners), why not hire a foreigner. If your business is one that deals primarily with thais, why not hire a foreigner who is fluent in Thai language (they do exist). I'm sure there are a lot of foreigners in this country who find it quite depressing that the only job they're deemed capable of doing is teaching English. Jobs for Thai only :http://www.thaivisa.com/330-0.html http://www.thaivisa.com/330-0.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_smith237 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) A number of years ago I was approached by a Multinational Company asking me to work for them... On my first day I was taken to meet the Country Manager, before entering my boss told me "If you are asked, tell him you have 5 years experience".... The CM didn't ask... But after the meeting I asked my boss why he wanted me to stretch the truth, in fact I was still at Uni 5 years previously !... His response was quite clear.... "I've employed 4 people who can't do the job, they're now shuffling paper in the corner, labour laws are such that we can't get rid of them, I simply need someone I know who can do the job we don't have the time to find out if anyone else is useless to us".... In answer to the post above this (ZXM) - Foreigners can only be employed at a certain ratio to Thais... I believe it to be something in the region of 1:4 Employing Westerners only is not a viable option and there are a number of Thai's who perform excellently.. its just sometimes a little difficult to find them. Edited February 8, 2013 by richard_smith237 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetlejuice Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 The perils of an economy with almost full employment How many monks? Beetlejuice; oddly enough, paying way over the odds here is also a surefire way of getting the wrong help. Salaries should be equal to, or close to, what the station dictates as some will believe they are overly-worthy and take the Michael. Actually, jackr, you`re absolutely right. May as well pay the minimum wage and get a load of crap, rather than pay well over the odds and still get a load of crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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