Out to Lunch; Entire Country Shuts for One Hour a Day

[EBlair48]

This illogical habit is the epitome of why Thailand is so unproductive. Shutting down entire offices , especially public service departments so all the staff can eat at once is as about well....it as stupid is it gets.

How on earth do working people get anything done? I guess they really don't . You cannot go to renew your car registration during your lunch hour, you have to take off from work instead, which adds even further to the nation's ineffectiveness.

Is it so incredibly alien to have half the staff eat earlier and the other half eat later?

[David48]

I can see that you are enjoying and embracing how another country, apart from your homeland embraces their unique business practices.

I presume, per chance, you have not been or had to business in places like Spain or South America?

Business as we do it ... no

But have you enjoyed the benefits of Saturday or Sunday Banking ... perhaps you have ...

All part and parcel of living here.

Like it or lump it ... it's not going to change, so as we often do ... if you have to attend a government office and it's approaching Midday, go and relax and cool your heart down in an Air-Conditioned Shopping Centre then, once Jai-Yen again ... drop by their office.

It works for them ... make it work for you ...

[wym]

Well then the supplicants wouldn't be able to claim a full half day off to run that errand and where would we be?

Things aren't service-minded here, you think things should be organized for the poor peons that don't have a servant to send on such lowly tasks? Ha, you should be grateful they even give you the time of day when they do open their doors.

[JLCrab]

You cannot register your car during lunch hour because no Thai person would ever consider that the registration office would be open during lunch hour.

[EBlair48]

Defend the stupidity, defend the absurdness. Defend... , by all means and I shall continue to observe and remark upon the inane aspects of Thailand, which there is a large category of.

[brit1984]

are you talking about Bangkok or Paris?

[EBlair48]

The reason I"m finding this especially annoying is I'm sitting at a new Toyota dealership that has about 70 more staff than are needed today.

I'm getting a tailight replaced that a Thai brat of the age of 13 broke ramming into the rear of my car on his Dad's motorcycle.

So the car is ready, and is sitting in the body shop bay, I'd like to also get the oil changed and the brakes checked too and informed the intake staff of this when I first arrived a few hours ago.

I was told I needed to contact the service bay staff when the body shop was done , and then I could" make an appointment..." for the oil change ( There are two cars getting serviced today 2 cars and 75 staff )

However since it was 12 PM everyone is gone to the back to check their personal communique devices furiously..

Oh wait everyone is back- sitting at their desks checking their devices furiously ..

With Thailand's natural resources, and shoreline to rival a small continent, this nation should be the absolute leader in the region in all aspects - why is it so..... inept?

The people is why- they are a curse upon a wonderful country.

[EBlair48]

are you talking about Bangkok or Paris?

Hint: Thai visa forum.

I do no think the admin allows threads on European cities. They do try to keep the topics on Thai subjects.

[speedtripler]

The reason I"m finding this especially annoying is I'm sitting at a new Toyota dealership that has about 70 more staff than are needed today.

I'm getting a tailight replaced that a Thai brat of the age of 13 broke ramming into the rear of my car on his Dad's motorcycle.

So the car is ready, and is sitting in the body shop bay, I'd like to also get the oil changed and the brakes checked too and informed the intake staff of this when I first arrived a few hours ago.

I was told I needed to contact the service bay staff when the body shop was done , and then I could" make an appointment..." for the oil change ( There are two cars getting serviced today 2 cars and 75 staff )

However since it was 12 PM everyone is gone to the back to check their personal communique devices furiously..

Oh wait everyone is back- sitting at their desks checking their devices furiously ..

With Thailand's natural resources, and shoreline to rival a small continent, this nation should be the absolute leader in the region in all aspects - why is it so..... inept?

The people is why- they are a curse upon a wonderful country.

take a picture of the 75 staff servicing two cars andd upload it here and i might believe you .............

[JLCrab]

Defend the stupidity, defend the absurdness. Defend... , by all means and I shall continue to observe and remark upon the inane aspects of Thailand, which there is a large category of.

I don't have to defend anything -- I'm not the inane one who bought the car.

[watcharacters]

Defend the stupidity, defend the absurdness. Defend... , by all means and I shall continue to observe and remark upon the inane aspects of Thailand, which there is a large category of.

I don't have to defend anything -- I'm not the inane one who bought the car.

.

Do you consider it inane to own a car in LOS? " I'm not the inane one who bought the car."

[JLCrab]

Defend the stupidity, defend the absurdness. Defend... , by all means and I shall continue to observe and remark upon the inane aspects of Thailand, which there is a large category of.

I don't have to defend anything -- I'm not the inane one who bought the car.

.

Do you consider it inane to own a car in LOS? " I'm not the inane one who bought the car."

Based upon Post #7 -- Yes.

[kevvy]

The reason I"m finding this especially annoying is I'm sitting at a new Toyota dealership that has about 70 more staff than are needed today.

I'm getting a tailight replaced that a Thai brat of the age of 13 broke ramming into the rear of my car on his Dad's motorcycle.

So the car is ready, and is sitting in the body shop bay, I'd like to also get the oil changed and the brakes checked too and informed the intake staff of this when I first arrived a few hours ago.

I was told I needed to contact the service bay staff when the body shop was done , and then I could" make an appointment..." for the oil change ( There are two cars getting serviced today 2 cars and 75 staff )

However since it was 12 PM everyone is gone to the back to check their personal communique devices furiously..

Oh wait everyone is back- sitting at their desks checking their devices furiously .

With Thailand's natural resources, and shoreline to rival a small continent, this nation should be the absolute leader in the region in all aspects - why is it so..... inept?

The people is why- they are a curse upon a wonderful country.

Now we know!!!!!TOYOTA that is a whole different subject.

Edited April 4, 2014 by kevvy

[Torrens54]

I can see that you are enjoying and embracing how another country, apart from your homeland embraces their unique business practices.

I presume, per chance, you have not been or had to business in places like Spain or South America?

Business as we do it ... no

But have you enjoyed the benefits of Saturday or Sunday Banking ... perhaps you have ...

All part and parcel of living here.

Like it or lump it ... it's not going to change, so as we often do ... if you have to attend a government office and it's approaching Midday, go and relax and cool your heart down in an Air-Conditioned Shopping Centre then, once Jai-Yen again ... drop by their office.

It works for them ... make it work for you ...

You'll get used to it. Years ago I worked for a Thai organisation which had offices in Sydney and Perth (Australia) I ran the office in Perth, where during summer in those days, we had "Daylight Saving Time." This meant that when we opened at 9 a.m., Sydney was off to lunch, yes, the entire office went to lunch at the same time.

When "Sydney" returned from lunch we had a couple of hours during which we could communicate and then it was our turn to close up and go to lunch. When we came back from lunch, we had about an hour communication time, till Sydney closed for the day.

At first, I found it frustrating but hey, it worked okay, we just had to juggle things around. No big deal!

We also took both Australian and Thai Public Holidays but life went on and now I live in Thailand, so I reckon I must have learned to just accept the fact that not everyone does things the way people do them in other parts of the world. No point growing ulcers over it, just ENJOY!!

Edited April 4, 2014 by Torrens54

[seajae]

it amazes me that they do not rotate staff lunches in offices etc so that someone is always there but then that may just be too sensible for them to process

[JLCrab]

it amazes me that they do not rotate staff lunches in offices etc so that someone is always there but then that may just be too sensible for them to process

It is only sensible to the non-Thai population.

[speedtripler]

it amazes me that they do not rotate staff lunches in offices etc so that someone is always there but then that may just be too sensible for them to process

its nothing to do with sensible ,the staff like to eat and chatter together socially

how could they go out in gangs if they only had 30 min each to go out eat ,drink ,smoke ,piss or shit

and come rushing back and relieve the next person ........?

i remember working in factories where the machines could literally never stop 24/7 ,you didnt get a break until someone was covering

your machine and if they took 5 min too long that was 5 min was deducted from your break and if you wanted to get a full break you had to make the next person wait longer ......we never got to shut the production lines down so we could all go eat lunch together and enjoy an hour of chatter ...

it was 100% productivity .........and lateness was not tolerated either

it doesnt work like the west here ,and they dont want it too either ......

[gerry123]

Well for my two pennyworth i personally find most of the above totally true sometimes annoying not only because of their absence but when the fort is manned its not much different Having said that i find it all very civilized having a jolly good lunch together

[Morakot]

This illogical habit

Ever heard anything about "group culture"?

Looks like the OP made a dashing start in his new country.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Morakot

[gabruce]

Defend the stupidity, defend the absurdness. Defend... , by all means and I shall continue to observe and remark upon the inane aspects of Thailand, which there is a large category of.

Waiting for something inane to be revealed. You haven't managed it yet.

[cooked]

We went to get our car serviced, 11.00 as arranged. We waited, oh boy did we wait. Around 13.30 we realised that nobody was working , found somebody to complain to and 10 minutes later it was finished .

They don't give a monkey's about customer service . But you do learn, don't you? Next time....

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

[Bung]

If some people got to eat before others those others would probably faint from the anxiety of not being able to eat as well and even if they didn't faint you would only get a blank, zombie like stare from them as they would be too hungry to acknowledge your presence.

[ozyjon]

Then go to Europe where many countries shut for two hours during lunch, then it's a mad rush to get things done, i've gone to pay my taxes in Portugal where people take in a picnick basket and wait, get there early in the morning and hope to get out by the end of the day, at lunch time everyone waits outside while the workers go for lunch, then we all come back in, if we leave we loose our place then have to start again, if you don't pay by the due date you get fined, work that out and no weekend trading and if you want topay over the net and you make a mistake, start the process again.

[realenglish1]

Everyone is missing the whole point. The value of a countries output is directly linked to many things including the value of their currency, productivity and so on . By not staggering hours for workers for lunch a great deal of potential output is is poored down the drain.

Its chain reaction . Someone wants to register a care but needs to take time off to do so because they are closed at lunch . So that individual is gone because of that and is not productive. Now lets say that person has a body shop but cannot be there at 1 pm. Another drives their car up for a repair and so on down the line . Its the butterfly effect.

So that one person who you cannot deal with for an hour translates into many many hours of lost productivity .

Thailand can be the force of Asia but fundamental changes must take place for that to happen. I don't think this well ever take place as Thais are not attuned to dramatic change

[ronthai]

For Thais their work is a very big part of their social live and why not, most work 10-12 hours a day for little salary and go for dinner together a few drinks and of to home/bed. Same again the next day.

A little advice TIT (for newbies This Is Thailand)

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, but stop complaining about the Thai way of doing things

[speedtripler]

thats true for sure ,if you only make 200 or now apparently 300 a day you are going to make the most of your breaks

and its a social way of everyone going togetherand they actually get longer away from the job as the start getting ready 10min

before lunch and it takes 10 min to get facebooks updated when the get back to their jobs .....

[David48]

Everyone is missing the whole point. The value of a countries output is directly linked to many things including the value of their currency, productivity and so on . By not staggering hours for workers for lunch a great deal of potential output is is poored down the drain.

Its chain reaction . Someone wants to register a care but needs to take time off to do so because they are closed at lunch . So that individual is gone because of that and is not productive. Now lets say that person has a body shop but cannot be there at 1 pm. Another drives their car up for a repair and so on down the line . Its the butterfly effect.

So that one person who you cannot deal with for an hour translates into many many hours of lost productivity .

Thailand can be the force of Asia but fundamental changes must take place for that to happen. I don't think this well ever take place as Thais are not attuned to dramatic change

Actually, to be honest, 'tis you who is 'missing the whole point'.

Some countries live to work ... some countries, like Thailand, work to live (and not particularly efficiently work either, mind you).

A very old wise man once said to me ... when you are lying on your death bed ... I guarantee that you were wishing that you worked harder, or finished that report ...

Enjoy life while you can ...

[mixalis]

Seems like you haven't traveled all that much, most of Europe do so, and shut down for put to 2 hrs.....

[EBlair48]

I'm not suggesting they have their lunch time reduced, only that half the staff go to lunch at a time, say 11:30 - 12:30 then second shift 12:30 -1:30.

Yes, RealEnglish1 goodpoint- it has a chain reaction all the way down the line with workers having to take off to perform routine errands, and then not being at their job....

above mixalis;Seems like you haven't traveled all that much, most of Europe do so, and shut down for put to 2 hrs.....

True, I haven't traveled in Europe much. Are they stupid, too? I really have no idea.

I can only comment on Thai systemic stupidity.

it amazes me that they do not rotate staff lunches in offices etc so that someone is always there but then that may just be too sensible for them to process

its nothing to do with sensible ,the staff like to eat and chatter together socially

how could they go out in gangs if they only had 30 min each to go out eat ,drink ,smoke ,piss or shit

and come rushing back and relieve the next person ........?

i remember working in factories where the machines could literally never stop 24/7 ,you didnt get a break until someone was covering

your machine and if they took 5 min too long that was 5 min was deducted from your break and if you wanted to get a full break you had to make the next person wait longer ......we never got to shut the production lines down so we could all go eat lunch together and enjoy an hour of chatter ...

it was 100% productivity .........and lateness was not tolerated either

it doesnt work like the west here ,and they dont want it too either ......

Edited April 4, 2014 by EBlair48

[EBlair48]

So seems they do not do oil changes on older cars, only new, " This new caw pwathe" ( with 50-60 staff doing nothing ) so I waited around for an entire hour , an hour and a half really- over lunch break to be told this , when it could have been pointed out to me when I first inquired in the morning.

Is tissue missing from the frontal lobe hereditary, or are they obtuse on purpose?

There's only a dozen or so servicing the two cars, the rest are busy on their i Phones. But I have a pic of their expensive sign and catchphrase that is typically mangled English.

" Take care with Impress" Hold on, ...might make a good thread, too. The Manglish Thread

Even the capitalization is wrong How much did they spend on this facility and they cannot even hire a native English speaker? They probably think they know English better .

Out to Lunch !!

The reason I"m finding this especially annoying is I'm sitting at a new Toyota dealership that has about 70 more staff than are needed today.

I'm getting a tailight replaced that a Thai brat of the age of 13 broke ramming into the rear of my car on his Dad's motorcycle.

So the car is ready, and is sitting in the body shop bay, I'd like to also get the oil changed and the brakes checked too and informed the intake staff of this when I first arrived a few hours ago.

I was told I needed to contact the service bay staff when the body shop was done , and then I could" make an appointment..." for the oil change ( There are two cars getting serviced today 2 cars and 75 staff )

However since it was 12 PM everyone is gone to the back to check their personal communique devices furiously..

Oh wait everyone is back- sitting at their desks checking their devices furiously ..

With Thailand's natural resources, and shoreline to rival a small continent, this nation should be the absolute leader in the region in all aspects - why is it so..... inept?

The people is why- they are a curse upon a wonderful country.

take a picture of the 75 staff servicing two cars andd upload it here and i might believe you .............

Edited April 4, 2014 by EBlair48