I caught one of my Thai colleagues last week taking partial credit for work that I’d done when it was presented to the boss. I was fuming, but decided to leave things until the next day. “Who knows, maybe that’s the way things are done here?” I reasoned. I spoke to a contact of mine, and he said he’d find out if a confrontation was possible without destroying completely our working relationship, and if this was the norm. He thought that there was probably good reason to avoid saying anything directly.
I went into work the next day, and planned to say something at the end of the day. Through the course of the day my colleague was criticised a couple of times and was upset, so I had to let things slide.
I spoke to my contact that evening, and he’d checked with Thai friends of his. They’d said that it was inappropriately and my colleague was obviously a cheat. They’d also have confronted her straightaway. Well what do you know. There I was being the ‘culturally sensitive’ guy, and I was just being played. At least I’ll know next time and will look after how my work’s being presented. I guess there’s jerks everywhere.
JERKS: 1
LESSONS LEARNT: 1
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