Why Thai Workmen don't Keep Time?

[NoshowJones]

I have to say, contractors in the US are the same. Disappearances of weeks at a time are not uncommon. Usually times after they have disassembled whatever it was, or moved things out of wherever they were supposed to renovate, so that things have gone to far for you to call it off and you have maximum inconvenience until they deign to show up again.

In the UK builders disappear in all directions when they sight the Inland Revenue Officers in the distance.

That's because if they declare all their earnings, it won't be worth their while doing the job in the first place.

[Jim walker]

Tradesmen Just same as UK always late because they have to stop at the baker for rolls and next newsagent for newspaper then supermarket for juice because it’s a few p cheaper at Tesco but coming home they are super-fast and are always back at the office 20minutes before stopping time easy life.

[Beetlejuice]

Exactly right.

You only get what you pay for and for those who hire some local wallers so as to get the job done on the cheap, than what do you expect?....

For those who expect high standards of workmanship and work schedules to be completed on time, then hire a proper well established company to do the job and also be prepared to pay a lot more for a superior service. Although there are never any guarantees about the end result, the odds are much better if willing to pay more and hire professionals. And this pertains anywhere worldwide, not only in Thailand.

Yes but HOW to hire a proper well established company if you don't live in a major city? I'm 2 hours outside Bangkok and have never been able to find a single one willing to travbel out here even with the offer of paying for the extra time and travel.

We aren't all making due with local workers because we want it done on the cheap. Some of us can't find anything else ....

If anyone out there knows of a company (general construction, plumbing, electric, you name it) that would be willing to work a few hours out of town please advise.

Yes, I agree. Many companies would not be willing to send out staff miles away each day, especially if it`s going to be a long term job such as house building, unless willing to pay professional contractors to come over, set up camp on the site while the work is in progress and pay a fortune for it. So going back to my previous post, anything is possible in Thailand for a price.

Some years ago my wife and I were in a similar situation when we decided to have extensions and a new roof built on the house that resulted in having to hire local builders. They would take days off for certain public holidays, lum yai picking, to go and do jobs elsewhere, a funeral, would turn up and leave at any time of day and so on. But we had to go along with it because there were no other choices. The end result was a so, so job and I ended up doing many corrections to the work myself afterwards, plus I discovered later that I had paid well over the local going rates for the work as a naive farang at the time.

We accepted that nothing was going to be up to our expectations and it was all a hope for the best. Unfortunately here in Thailand this is the way it is.

[lucjoker]

It is your mistake if the workers come not on time !

I tell you why:

do you understand : saam mong tsjauw? or Tjet mong tjsauw? or Ha mong yien ?

This is how thai people refer to the time (9am or 7 am or 5 pm)

If you dont understand the thai clock ,why do you expect thai workers to understand the western clock ?

Also dont point to your watch ,they never saw one so close by ! (and surely not a digital clock)

If they do the work wrong ,it is simply because they did not understand your directions.

If a thai gives you directions in thai ,you would stop listening after 3 seconds.....so do they !

In the end dont tell around how dumb they are ,if you dont speak thai.

Remember every house you see is builded by thai workers ,whitout understanding english instructions!

Come look at my house ,and try to find 1 mistake ,but my workers knew exactly what and how to do .

Proof that Thai people are not dumb ?

Well look at all those smart farangs who lost their house and last penny to a 20 y old thai lady .

The 20 y old was way smarter the hi-so farang ,"isn't it "? "indeed,sir "

[louse1953]

Don't get me started on Thai 'tradesman'.

Stay well clear of village guys that tell you they can do the work. They are useless and then some how it's your fault.

Why would you get rice farmers to build your house etc,because they are related and,or cheap.Do the research and get a great job and on time every day for 3 months straight.

[PhillyBoy]

Not sure about technicians but I have to say I have a different perspective on some Thai workers from at least two companies in N.East Thailand and witnessed the evidence. The companies are Home Pro and Watsadu. I just purchased a house in a gated community in Udon Thani and purchased items like 3 Aircons, refrig, washing machine, beds and dressers for 3 bedrooms, furniture, dining table and other items. The store said they would be there at 10 am and right at 10 am on the day stated they arrived. They had a crew of up to 6 people at one point. Installed the aircons and did a magnificent job, drilled holes, ran conduit and cleaned all of their mess. I never had to say anything. The 3 aircons took quite a while. The manager himself arrived at my house without being called to see the progress. Upon his arrival he noticed the size of my master bedroom and suggested that the room was bigger than I described and asked if I wanted to get a slightly bigger aircon for that room. He was actually right, I told him I wanted the bigger one and he arranged for the pickup of the old and smaller one and had the bigger one delivered again. All worked perfectly and were done to a high standard.

Next they started on building the dressers, cabinets, bed frames, coffee tables, dining table and chairs, etc. It was now near to 9 pm. I asked them how long they were going to stay there. They said they had to finish everything before leaving. They then said that another crew was on the way to assist them. When the new crew arrived they installed the washing machine and refrig. I am from the US and I never had a crew of employees who had the same work ethic as these guys did. Seriously, I was shocked. I know the Thai worker in general but these guys were very good.

I know it may shock some of you but they actually did a great job and I was there all day and all night until they finished at about 10:30 or so. I was tired just from sitting there waiting for them to finish. Ohhhh and they cleaned all of the boxes, plastic and other debris from my yard. Unbelievable.

[Greg Nixon]

Most of the Thai people are farmers or were raised on a farm. Farmers in Thailand do not keep time. They are not late. They have a different sense of time. I have had a few tradesmen disappear. Once they have some money, they think they are rich and move onto a more lucrative job. Generally our small jobs are fillers for them.

[h90]

Exactly right.

You only get what you pay for and for those who hire some local wallers so as to get the job done on the cheap, than what do you expect?....

For those who expect high standards of workmanship and work schedules to be completed on time, then hire a proper well established company to do the job and also be prepared to pay a lot more for a superior service. Although there are never any guarantees about the end result, the odds are much better if willing to pay more and hire professionals. And this pertains anywhere worldwide, not only in Thailand.

Yes but HOW to hire a proper well established company if you don't live in a major city? I'm 2 hours outside Bangkok and have never been able to find a single one willing to travbel out here even with the offer of paying for the extra time and travel.

We aren't all making due with local workers because we want it done on the cheap. Some of us can't find anything else ....

If anyone out there knows of a company (general construction, plumbing, electric, you name it) that would be willing to work a few hours out of town please advise.

Additionally: we had some small job to do. proper well established company quoted us something over 1 Million. Cheapo company did it for 50.000. And with the well established one you are still not sure that you get something better.

50.000 vs over 1.000.000 this is 20 times the price.

[Banzai99]

being an ex tradie I tend to be a bit sarcastic towards the thai workers as the real tradesmen are far and few between. There is a difference between doing a job and doing it properly, there is also a difference between a tradesman that served an apprenticeship and a scrubber that just decided they could do it all with no learning which covers the huge majority of thai workers, a tradesman will always show up on time, do the work in the correct sequence and clean up after themselves, another bit that goes missing here.

They didn't have the opportunity that you've had, if you had been born in Thailand, guess what, you'd have been the same.

Instead of bashing people who had less opportunity than you in life , how about praising them, they built a country that you were obviously attracted to, you left your own country and travelled 1000's of Km's to live here.

I don't get ThaiVisa, nearly every thread is putting Thailand and Thai people down, yet although you are all free to leave , none of you do, and more Farangs settle here all the time.

Yet you do nothing but complain.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Banzai99

[amse]

It pays to have a good Thai friend who has been in the area a longtime and knows many tradesman, but even then it takes time to find a good reliable auto mechanic, AC technician, dentist and etc. Generally speaking just about all Thai people are late for appointments, and I was actually told this by a Thai person. I America the reason why so many say carpenters are ther one week then gone the next, is because they do more than one job at a time. There is quality workmanship in Thailand, but you have to look for it patiently.

[Jonmarleesco]

There's time, and there's Thai time. I've never known any different.

[BanTamo]

Ran my crew of five (give or take) for several years in deepest, darkest Isaan. My foreman (yes, he is Muslim, and yes, he'd worked the larger projects in Laem Chabang) was happy with THB100/day as he could be home with his family rather than down at the rat races on 3-5 x that. I wanted a standard of stone masonry, timber framing, and finish carpentry beyond anything they'd ever seen, and trained each of them in how to achieve it, which they did, unfailingly. Every one of them were on site every day far earlier than I cared to possibly be, took shorter breaks than I wanted for myself, and often worked well into the night. Some of the best, most innovative ways of accomplishing a particular task came from them, and rarely were corners cut. Never was the job site left a mess. My secret? Banish the western concept of time, buy their lao khao, share my beer (which they can't afford anyway), and supply the things they like that keep them going strong. Join in meals when I can, and eat the same things they eat. Get to know them and their families, help them out occasionally when their precarious financial situations make something like a doctor visit for their child urgent but unaffordable. Speak their language(s) with them, and just generally enjoy their company and what they can show you of their culture that you'd never in a million years have access to on your own (of course that requires, first, having an interest in such things).

Most tasks got done sooner than necessary and to a higher standard than I'd trained them to do and to this day, ten years on, I can go back to that tiny, joyous little village and within minutes of my arrival, all of them not down in BKK or working in Taiwan, etc turn up with a bottle of beer (with ice), a plastic bag of lao khao, or a bit of food to welcome me.

I can't imagine where you all must be living, but from your descriptions of the place it sounds absolutely horrid. If I were in such a place I'd have left for greener pastures long ago. And if anyone can direct me to a greener pasture I'm all ears.

[kannot]

It is your mistake if the workers come not on time !

I tell you why:

do you understand : saam mong tsjauw? or Tjet mong tjsauw? or Ha mong yien ?

This is how thai people refer to the time (9am or 7 am or 5 pm)

If you dont understand the thai clock ,why do you expect thai workers to understand the western clock ?

Also dont point to your watch ,they never saw one so close by ! (and surely not a digital clock)

If they do the work wrong ,it is simply because they did not understand your directions.

If a thai gives you directions in thai ,you would stop listening after 3 seconds.....so do they !

In the end dont tell around how dumb they are ,if you dont speak thai.

Remember every house you see is builded by thai workers ,whitout understanding english instructions!

Come look at my house ,and try to find 1 mistake ,but my workers knew exactly what and how to do .

Proof that Thai people are not dumb ?

Well look at all those smart farangs who lost their house and last penny to a 20 y old thai lady .

The 20 y old was way smarter the hi-so farang ,"isn't it "? "indeed,sir "

You mean with concrete like P*ss, with stairs all the wrong heights, without steel where there should be, with tiles cut with an angle grinder, with leaking water pipes as they dont clean them first, with bird sh*t welding, with paths not tied into the house so they break away as the non compacted ground they put them on shifts, with taps that revolve around the sinks, with smelly waste pipes as they dont use p traps, paint so watered down water would be thicker...............I could go on

I bet I could pick your house to pieces.............were you on site every day I mean all day not popping in once for 30 minutes? hand mix concrete or factory mix? what steel grades did you use? because if you werent there every second of the job it will be bodged somewhere.

Just because its still "up" doesnt make it good or well done .

Why not post us some CLOSE up pics of the stunning work?

[kannot]

being an ex tradie I tend to be a bit sarcastic towards the thai workers as the real tradesmen are far and few between. There is a difference between doing a job and doing it properly, there is also a difference between a tradesman that served an apprenticeship and a scrubber that just decided they could do it all with no learning which covers the huge majority of thai workers, a tradesman will always show up on time, do the work in the correct sequence and clean up after themselves, another bit that goes missing here.

They didn't have the opportunity that you've had, if you had been born in Thailand, guess what, you'd have been the same.

Instead of bashing people who had less opportunity than you in life , how about praising them, they built a country that you were obviously attracted to, you left your own country and travelled 1000's of Km's to live here.

I don't get ThaiVisa, nearly every thread is putting Thailand and Thai people down, yet although you are all free to leave , none of you do, and more Farangs settle here all the time.

Yet you do nothing but complain.

Words fail me!!

[long klong]

Donald Battles: you are right in saying that the workmen don't forget lunch time or the break time, thereby, I assume, questioning why should they forget being on time - which is where I started.

Do you think the answer might be different culture. "Work is worship" is not part of Thai culture. People don't let their lives be affected by the curse of the clock. So in that respect they are more carefree (sanuk).

Most retired foreigners here find it liberating not have to watch the clock all the time - I know a couple of them who don't wear a watch (because now they can afford not to) and consider it a symbol of stress! On the other hand I have a very good German friend who gets so stressful about punctuality that it is a nightmare to keep an appointment with him, just for a drink!

Would appreciate your timely reply!!

[Crossy]

Not sure about technicians but I have to say I have a different perspective on some Thai workers from at least two companies in N.East Thailand and witnessed the evidence. The companies are Home Pro and Watsadu. I just purchased a house in a gated community in Udon Thani and purchased items like 3 Aircons, refrig, washing machine, beds and dressers for 3 bedrooms, furniture, dining table and other items. The store said they would be there at 10 am and right at 10 am on the day stated they arrived. They had a crew of up to 6 people at one point. Installed the aircons and did a magnificent job, drilled holes, ran conduit and cleaned all of their mess. I never had to say anything. The 3 aircons took quite a while. The manager himself arrived at my house without being called to see the progress. Upon his arrival he noticed the size of my master bedroom and suggested that the room was bigger than I described and asked if I wanted to get a slightly bigger aircon for that room. He was actually right, I told him I wanted the bigger one and he arranged for the pickup of the old and smaller one and had the bigger one delivered again. All worked perfectly and were done to a high standard.

Next they started on building the dressers, cabinets, bed frames, coffee tables, dining table and chairs, etc. It was now near to 9 pm. I asked them how long they were going to stay there. They said they had to finish everything before leaving. They then said that another crew was on the way to assist them. When the new crew arrived they installed the washing machine and refrig. I am from the US and I never had a crew of employees who had the same work ethic as these guys did. Seriously, I was shocked. I know the Thai worker in general but these guys were very good.

I know it may shock some of you but they actually did a great job and I was there all day and all night until they finished at about 10:30 or so. I was tired just from sitting there waiting for them to finish. Ohhhh and they cleaned all of the boxes, plastic and other debris from my yard. Unbelievable.

That is my experience with the HomePro crews too, totally professional and clean.

I hope they went away with a decent tip and a beer (ours did).

[khunPer]

»Most workmen here - plumbers, carpenters, electricians - don't keep time and are usually an hour or two late or don't show up at all.«
Thai-style, you will get used to it – but still irritated – after some time (years) in LoS.

[long klong]

I think Greg Nixon has a point - workmen who come from a farming background are much more lax about time than those who have an urban background.

[konfuzed]

Just threw two off a job today the missus had got in to install (without my knowledge) a new tap with pullout bit I had bought.

They had jammed it in and it was too tight to pull out.

So I threw them out did it myself. Much better. Then I found out - checking some wiring that they had done that although they had used a 3prong socket and put an earth link in the two prong dishwasher there wasn't an earth wire in the socket. Hahahaha.

Moral - don't let missus arrange things and when in doubt, do it yourself. Best job I've seen.

[farang000999]

It is because the food is so good and scenery is so good. You sit and eat. Watch the trees blow in the breeze. Some pretty girls walk by.

It is a <deleted> miracle anything gets done at all. Sabai Sabai.

[pigeonjake]

It is your mistake if the workers come not on time !

I tell you why:

do you understand : saam mong tsjauw? or Tjet mong tjsauw? or Ha mong yien ?

This is how thai people refer to the time (9am or 7 am or 5 pm)

If you dont understand the thai clock ,why do you expect thai workers to understand the western clock ?

Also dont point to your watch ,they never saw one so close by ! (and surely not a digital clock)

If they do the work wrong ,it is simply because they did not understand your directions.

If a thai gives you directions in thai ,you would stop listening after 3 seconds.....so do they !

In the end dont tell around how dumb they are ,if you dont speak thai.

Remember every house you see is builded by thai workers ,whitout understanding english instructions!

Come look at my house ,and try to find 1 mistake ,but my workers knew exactly what and how to do .

Proof that Thai people are not dumb ?

Well look at all those smart farangs who lost their house and last penny to a 20 y old thai lady .

The 20 y old was way smarter the hi-so farang ,"isn't it "? "indeed,sir "

You mean with concrete like P*ss, with stairs all the wrong heights, without steel where there should be, with tiles cut with an angle grinder, with leaking water pipes as they dont clean them first, with bird sh*t welding, with paths not tied into the house so they break away as the non compacted ground they put them on shifts, with taps that revolve around the sinks, with smelly waste pipes as they dont use p traps, paint so watered down water would be thicker...............I could go on

I bet I could pick your house to pieces.............were you on site every day I mean all day not popping in once for 30 minutes? hand mix concrete or factory mix? what steel grades did you use? because if you werent there every second of the job it will be bodged somewhere.

Just because its still "up" doesnt make it good or well done .

Why not post us some CLOSE up pics of the stunning work?

hey builder mand,

YOU NEVER HAVE PATHS TIED INTO THE HOUSE

for the reason that if it did fall away it would take your house with it,

better to loose the path!!!!

jake

[pigeonjake]

ps,

some tiles are better cut with the angle grinder,,

[pigeonjake]

Donald Battles: you are right in saying that the workmen don't forget lunch time or the break time, thereby, I assume, questioning why should they forget being on time - which is where I started.

Do you think the answer might be different culture. "Work is worship" is not part of Thai culture. People don't let their lives be affected by the curse of the clock. So in that respect they are more carefree (sanuk).

Most retired foreigners here find it liberating not have to watch the clock all the time - I know a couple of them who don't wear a watch (because now they can afford not to) and consider it a symbol of stress! On the other hand I have a very good German friend who gets so stressful about punctuality that it is a nightmare to keep an appointment with him, just for a drink!

Would appreciate your timely reply!!

most of the time i dont know what day it is never mind the time,,,,lol

jake

[Banzai99]

It's because the Farangs are so great, and so helpful, and such a family, you have to employ a Farang, you know it makes sense...

[sfokevin]

With Thai Workmen I have also learned that "Prunii" does not mean tomorrow... It means not today...

[maybefitz]

My classic was the fella meant to come at midday to repair the TV set. He came at 2pm, and I was not best pleased as I had waited in instead of lunch. When questioned, he said "I went to sleep". Now to him, this was a perfectly natural thing to do, and the honest statement took the wind out of my sails. The farang approach would be some ridiculous excuse - "Alligator on the line at East Molesey" kind of thing.

[gandalf12]

Getting someone to do a job is usually in Thailand going to require you to stand over them and almost do it for them. Best way is to get someone that is recommended by others who have had work done

[gandalf12]

It's because the Farangs are so great, and so helpful, and such a family, you have to employ a Farang, you know it makes sense...

Ridiculous statement. Farangs have limitations but the difference to Thai is that we know our limitations, the Thais think they know everything

[jacko45k]

I have to say, contractors in the US are the same. Disappearances of weeks at a time are not uncommon. Usually times after they have disassembled whatever it was, or moved things out of wherever they were supposed to renovate, so that things have gone to far for you to call it off and you have maximum inconvenience until they deign to show up again.

In the UK builders disappear in all directions when they sight the Inland Revenue Officers in the distance.

Or immigration/border officials... or a pub!

[F4UCorsair]

Same in Australia, frequently late or no show. I've employed dozens over the years and more often disappointed than satisfied, with bricklayers probably worst.