lack of passion

[peptidebomber]

I like it, since moving here my work ethic has disappeared, turn up late hungover, leave early. Don't do much in between. My staff love me as I never get on their backs about anything, only have one Thai boss who is never about. Somehow we still make a profit so head office don't bother us. Expat wage so most nights are a blast, probably taking a few years off the end of my life but who cares.

This country rocks!!

exactly what i am talking about...lack of passion....but each to their own

Na, just a realist. I tried to change things but was wasting my time. You can't fix stupid.

Will move on soon and get back to a more motivating job in a more developed country.

But it's bloody fun at the moment!

[Crazy chef 1]

I like it, since moving here my work ethic has disappeared, turn up late hungover, leave early. Don't do much in between. My staff love me as I never get on their backs about anything, only have one Thai boss who is never about. Somehow we still make a profit so head office don't bother us. Expat wage so most nights are a blast, probably taking a few years off the end of my life but who cares.

This country rocks!!

exactly what i am talking about...lack of passion....but each to their own

Na, just a realist. I tried to change things but was wasting my time. You can't fix stupid.

Will move on soon and get back to a more motivating job in a more developed country.

But it's bloody fun at the moment!

i understand completely what you mean and i believe it is a hell load of fun...would do the same 10 years younger and single...but to change things here IS possible it just need a an iron commitment and time...

heard a nice saying a while back: the game has its ups and downs but never loose your goal or get beaten due of lack of effort...think about my friend...

[AZBill]

Not just Thailand believe me! The entitled American youth are basically worthless when it comes to getting any work out of them.

[geronimo]

It might be a spin off from the technology explosion. All the kids have their faces stuck in their phones, living in a virtual world. This is killing society as we knew it.

[tifino]

seems the only way to get a bit of passion into a young thai's head is to send'em back to the farm and climb a coconut tree ot wade thru a rice paddy

anyhows, it's worldwide (about the kids). in Ozzie, the system is currently bringing in foreign workers for the farmwork here

[tom21]

I have noticed in the bars the same thing. the employees there completely lack motivation and some lack any type of passion. glad to say it is not everyone

[gopis108]

Speak to any business owner in Thailand and you will get the same comments from them.Just visit any business in Thailand and you will see the same irresponsible young Thai twits hanging about laughing and talking-sqeezing their pimples and ignoring the customers.EWhy anyone would even hire them is beyond me.TIT and I really wonder how the place keeps on ticking-if the myanmar kids ever went home en masse Thailand would fall apart.

[glennb6]

some time back I had a very small concrete business in the states, when my oldest thai step kid turned 16 I decided to bring him along to work on his school days off - begin teaching him to work. pretty much the first year he was a 'helper' and was a lazy slug. always telling him to get off his ass and do that and that and if he completed his task to ask 'what's next you want me to do'. didn't get very much quality work from him, paid him a 16yr old part time rate anyways.

next year he asked if I would bring his friend (neighbor boy) to work also. told him he'd better work hard or there'd be no work. kid worked well and to my surprise my boy kicked it up may levels. Hmmph, he can work, good.

my take-away was that he wanted to impress his friend as a better worker. I learned something and was quite pleased that my boy did too.

[ggt]

I have found that Technical school students are passionate about bashing the heads of students from other schools...

It is a cultural thing...it is bigger than you...I admire your resolute resolve to not promote such a sorry work ethic...kudos to you friend...

[SOTIRIOS]

...it's all a charade.....

...and about saving face at all costs.....

...real work doesn't factor into it......

...and they say there is 'near zero' unemployment rate in Thailand.....go figure.......

[HeijoshinCool]

...it's all a charade.....

...and about saving face at all costs.....

...real work doesn't factor into it......

...and they say there is 'near zero' unemployment rate in Thailand.....go figure

.

...and they say there is 'near zero' unemployment rate in Thailand.....go figure

That's because it typically takes the efforts of 6 people, to do the work of one.

Look at Home Pro and similar stores. It's like walking through a bad part of town, and being stalked by a gang.

But turn around and ask them a question, like, How many years will this paint last?, and watch 'em disperse. No one has studied any product; few have any real knowledge.

When I go to Home Depot, while it might be hard to find someone, the folks in Electrical and Plumbing are often retired electricians and plumbers.

[slipperylobster]

If your entire staff is unmotivated, and slacking off....

Then there is a problem with management.

That is what I have always been told. Go out and look at some franchises...and see. You will find some places where the staff are clean, sharp and motivated, and other places where they just gawk at cellphones, and hang around outside the back door...malingering.

You are not motivating them. You are not holding them to standards. You are not training them.

If I was "your" boss....i would fire you...and apologize to the staff.

[Don Aleman]

I believe after 10 years, with a Thai wife, ( and 23 relatives ), that Thais, in general are yet another offshoot of the saying " Same-Same", and just don't give a damn about anything but their next meal. They don't read, watch educational/documentary TV,( unless forced ), haven't a clue, nor care about anything outside Thai borders, or for that matter don't care about much outside a circle 3 feet around their bodies.

Maybe 50 years ago they did but, after many unsuccessful bouts with laze faire government agencies, they gave up. Too late for any significant changes now and, after all, even a brothel needs someone to clean up so I sit back, enjoy the low cost of living and the exotic Thai women who are almost enough to ignore everything else. Where else can you view a 4 - 5 star lady ,astride a motorbike, pulling down the skirt that she bought just because of it's shortness !

[Toknarok]

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates (469 - 399 BC)

Plus ca change......

[scorecard]

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Unfortunately this is endemic among the young of all nations today. Causes one to wonder what the future of our society will look like 10-20 years from now. Seems the young are handed too much by families and society today without having to earn any of it. This creates an entitlement mindset that is very destructive to society.

All I can say is that I do not envy you having to find employees in today's workplace. I think you are better off hiring older employees and forget about the lazy louts. Good luck!

Agree. Another example, I teach a number of bachelor and masters of Business courses here in Bkk, including both Thai and exchange students.

The attitudes and behaviors of the students (much more so at bachelor level) is disgraceful, Thai students the worst but also some exchange students.

Last evening I had a new exchange student, 19 yrs old, join the evening class. He's from a country in Europe. There are 4 or 5 more exchange students from the same university already in this class and the new boy knows them all.

Within minutes of starting the class new boy is chatting loudly to the boy in the next chair (from same uni in Europe). I asked him to stop talking. Within another few minutes he's moved to another chair and starts again to chat to the boy in the next chair.

I again asked him to stop talking. His response: 'But I haven't seen my friends for several months and I want to catch up'.

Another boy from the same exchange uni was less than impressed and said so.

The new boy looked shocked but went quiet.

At the break he approached me and said he was annoyed with my persistence to be quiet: 'Professor your not fair, I want to chat with my friends, I haven't seen them for a while.

I gave him a holiday for 3 lessons and also told him this will affect his grade.

[daveAustin]

as their boss and trainer, you have just admitted your inability to motivate the peope under you.As your boss I would start by firing you and getting someone who can do the job I'm paying them for.

.

You are the single most predictable and contrary poster on this forum. Try saying something nice now and then, even if you don't agree with someone. It's as good for you as it is for them.

Heard that. The guy is a douche troll and is on ignore, but unfortunately the forum software still lets posts through when they're quoted. Now I've just wasted 30 seconds of my life on it. Suggest to just move on.

Regards op, yes no passion and happens the world over with youngsters, but there is this special things here of not upsetting people and face which sort of negates telling people off or, gawd forbid, firing them. I would hate to be in business here.

[Nakajima]

I am a consultant for a company that develops industrial system software, they have to hire people from USA and Europe and pay them 4 times more to come here to work because they could not find a single Thai able / willing to work constantly on a high pressure project even tho the salary is in the order of 70K + benefits.

Thai youngsters have been spoiled that can have anything they want without need of any effort on their side.

It was pretty much the same in the country I come from decades back, now with globalization and bad economy, better motivated foreigners are getting all the jobs and business.

It will happen the same in Thailand.

But I have never heard about problems on firing someone, I have seen people getting fired for much less. If management want they can enforce rules, although it will probably result in mass quitting.

Often in Thailand management side with employees, not the company.

[KhnomKhnom]

Gee, cook, your problem is you think work is important and a good source of feelings of self worth.

Ha ha ha on you...... not so.

Good feelings come from being inside a group, enjoying trivial Facebook details and photos, and eating and sleeping often.

Where are your values? I say, keep me in Thailand and deliver me from weird wage slaves.

[Kerryd]

The problem isn't confined to Thailand. Nor is it confined to the "younger" generation.

One of the biggest problems we had working in the 'stan was the quality of workers we were being sent from the recruiting agencies in different countries. We had employees from Nepal, India, Bosnia, Romania, the Philippines and various African countries (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, etc). Ages ranged from mid-20s to mid-50s. The best workers tended to be the Filipinos and Nepalese. The rest, with a few notable exceptions, were the worst.

Every time I've tried to mention the difficulties we've had to deal with regarding the "TCN" employees, I end up with a long-winded rant about lack of work ethic, lack of motivation, lack of standards and lack of initiative. Suffice to say, if I were to be in a similar situation again in the future I would have no problem with rehiring most of the Nepalese/Filipino staff, as well as a couple of the Indians and 1-2 of the Bosnians. As for the rest, I would rather hire lesser skilled Nepalese/Filipinos than hire any of the rest of the others back again.

We too were hamstrung by our HR and Senior Management who were reluctant to fire anyone due to the costs associated with flying them back home and recruiting/flying in replacements. I guess they figured it was cheaper to keep a lazy, incompetent worker that you might get some work out of (as long as the expat supervisor and other workers picked up the rest of the load) rather than replace him with someone that might be just as bad, or worse !

[mrtoad]

Lazy and unmotivated staff isn't just a Thai specific phenomenon. I have had just as many issues with foreign staff as with Thai staff. Generally it's quite normal to have a good idea of how someone will shape up in the first 60 days, and if they aren't looking like they are going to improve then it's a definite no pass. In terms of foreigners, some start off very well, but then slip into feeling like they are on holiday, or feelings of grandiosity and entitlement too, and their work is affected. It's not always easy for people to relocate and work overseas.Therefore regular appraisals, feedback and team meetings are important. Managers should not condone poor performance.

For those that want to squeeze spots, play on the phone, sleep or just cock around then answer is goodbye, and anyone working here for any length of time, should know that there are ways of getting staff moved on without having issues at the labour court.

Edited January 16, 2015 by mrtoad

[tsigane]

For a country of lazy, unmotivated people, Thailand is doing exceptionally well. I think our (westerners') biggest problem is in expecting our culture/norms/values in Thailand. Thais seem to be fine the way they've been for centuries. Why try to change 60+ million people to be the same as hundreds of millions in the west.

It seems that the lack of motivation is one of the main reasons we are in Thailand. Please don't spoil it

cheers

[TheFishman1]

I once ran a business Fired half of them said to the other half now we will have to work a little harder but now everybody will made More Money

[Suradit69]

as their boss and trainer, you have just admitted your inability to motivate the peope under you.As your boss I would start by firing you and getting someone who can do the job I'm paying them for.

As the boss you have hired him.. you should take responsibility and fire yourself.

*you made a stupid remark now think again*

You can't motivate everyone and he is not responsible for the hiring.

If you're being paid to manage then you are expected to manage. Just firing people who don't do the required work is not managing. In fact dismissing people often is just going to undermine any respect you're given, make other employees feel insecure and mean productivity will be even worse. Fear is not going to inspire loyalty or "passion."

I have trained someone recently (been busy with it for over a year now) and she is not Thai but her ethics are good. Then again she is not that young and likes what she is doing.

Right. Training one person for over a year makes you a management expert. Try over-seeing 500 to 1000 people and you'll quickly realize that keeping everyone motivated & on task is a juggling act and it never ends. If everyone was so easily motivated and passionate about the work then they wouldn't someone to manage them. Dealing with people, keeping them happy and busy is the manager's job. Save the whining about how difficult it is. If you try to excuse yourself by blaming everyone else, it's no wonder there's no passion.

[Nakajima]

For a country of lazy, unmotivated people, Thailand is doing exceptionally well. I think our (westerners') biggest problem is in expecting our culture/norms/values in Thailand. Thais seem to be fine the way they've been for centuries. Why try to change 60+ million people to be the same as hundreds of millions in the west.

It seems that the lack of motivation is one of the main reasons we are in Thailand. Please don't spoil it

cheers

by all means: don't let a country develop because few expats may loose their way of life.

[ebonykap]

Management - getting work done through others.

Manager's skills - Plan, control, lead, direct, organise, delegate, follow-up.

Manager's responsibilities to staff :

Good performers - encourage, support, improve, reward, promote.

Poor performers - train, develop, counsel, assess, re-train.

Non-performers - counsel, written warnings, zero tolerance, dismiss.

It is not the manager's responsibility to motivate their staff, but to identify the "key" to enable each staff member to motivate themselves ("self-motivation").

I could go on, but suffice to say that this was a proven method I used when sent to manage poor-performing retail outlets in Australia. These were supermarkets with between 150-200 staff. It was hard work at first, but poetry in motion as it bore fruit. Unfortunately, most managers are unskilled or unaware of the importance of staff as a company resource. Yes, it may be even more difficult in Thailand. I don't know because I have no experience in business here, but I have met a lot of Thais who are hard working and intelligent.

It could also be that HR is the problem. In my experience, Human Resource Managers could not manage, had no idea how to spread resources efficiently and were in no way human! In fact, operations ran much smoother without their interference/input, so I tended to by-pass them.

My rant for the day.....but also my passion

[h90]

I am a consultant for a company that develops industrial system software, they have to hire people from USA and Europe and pay them 4 times more to come here to work because they could not find a single Thai able / willing to work constantly on a high pressure project even tho the salary is in the order of 70K + benefits.

Thai youngsters have been spoiled that can have anything they want without need of any effort on their side.

It was pretty much the same in the country I come from decades back, now with globalization and bad economy, better motivated foreigners are getting all the jobs and business.

It will happen the same in Thailand.

But I have never heard about problems on firing someone, I have seen people getting fired for much less. If management want they can enforce rules, although it will probably result in mass quitting.

Often in Thailand management side with employees, not the company.

Well for 70K you wouldn't get anyone to develop industrial system software.

Reliable CNC operator who CAN'T program anything earn 30K. So for a reliable software developer I wouldn't think for anything less than 100K

[ebonykap]

as their boss and trainer, you have just admitted your inability to motivate the peope under you.As your boss I would start by firing you and getting someone who can do the job I'm paying them for.

As the boss you have hired him.. you should take responsibility and fire yourself.

*you made a stupid remark now think again*

You can't motivate everyone and he is not responsible for the hiring.

If you're being paid to manage then you are expected to manage. Just firing people who don't do the required work is not managing. In fact dismissing people often is just going to undermine any respect you're given, make other employees feel insecure and mean productivity will be even worse. Fear is not going to inspire loyalty or "passion."

I have trained someone recently (been busy with it for over a year now) and she is not Thai but her ethics are good. Then again she is not that young and likes what she is doing.

Right. Training one person for over a year makes you a management expert. Try over-seeing 500 to 1000 people and you'll quickly realize that keeping everyone motivated & on task is a juggling act and it never ends. If everyone was so easily motivated and passionate about the work then they wouldn't someone to manage them. Dealing with people, keeping them happy and busy is the manager's job. Save the whining about how difficult it is. If you try to excuse yourself by blaming everyone else, it's no wonder there's no passion.

Suradit, I couldn't have said it better

[kingstonkid]

as their boss and trainer, you have just admitted your inability to motivate the peope under you.As your boss I would start by firing you and getting someone who can do the job I'm paying them for.

Some people need to rethink before they press send and this is a case in point.

Yes the problem is international BUT it is here in Thailand where you can not fire anyone.

Remember that ll these kids come through a school system that says if you show up sleep through calss and do nothing you pass and go on to the next level.

If all your life you have been told that this is the way to do it and see the people that work hard get no further than the lazy ones you start to think"Why should i GAF"

Thai's have been and are being coddled not just in school but in real life. Just think what it will be like if ASEAN says that you can no longer protect jobs and that a person from Cambodia can apply for the job in the office in BKK just as much as the Thai's can?

That is when people are going to start to wake up.

Personally I would think the HR person needs to rethink how they hire. HR in Canada wanted to do all my hiring of staff and i simply refused anyone they sent until they allowed me to sit in on the sessions and have an unofficial voice. You might try that with them if not you are screwed

[geisha]

Sorry if this offends some people, but I think it's nearly all to do with education and your parents way of bringing you up. I've found young thai people very incompetent in general, tired and bored. On the contrary, in Vietnam you have all these kids fighting to get into university or trainee programs. Their command of English and sometimes French far exceeds the thai youths.Philippinos are world known for being hard working and good characters. Myanmar people( in Myanmar) seem to be doing ok considering, and are quite enterprising. Laos, I haven't enough experience , Cambodia, very willing and friendly workers. Malaysians are all encouraged to do well in life and have marvellous education as do Singaporeans. Indonesia is catching up, and tho not the quickest, are very able. Thais have a long way to come, they have to realise they cannot live alone in a Thai world.

[Nemesis7]

It's a common scene here in thailand but I understand what you are trying to say. But what can you do? If people doesn't want to help themselves you simply can't do anything . You can try to motivate only