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September 28 Work, Work, Work, Part 4: No Consultation Leads to ChaosPreviously, I wrote about the revolutionary practice of consultation:
In short, consultation is the process of a group of people making a decision. Its purpose is to show that decisions made by several individuals are always better than those made by a single individual, even if the group are non-experts and the individual is an expert. This has been scientifically proven to be true.
The other advantage of consultation is that, if an individual makes a decision, he is held accountable for its failure. Often, in order to save his own skin, he covers up the failure. Sometimes he bribes others to hush up about the failure just to save his own public image. This is a horrible way to operate. When a group makes a decision that proves to be ineffective, no one is to blame. The group can reconvene to discuss what went wrong and alter their decision.
In some parts of the world, companies use some form of consultation, though not done in an ideal way, nor used as often as it should be. Sometimes, for example, a board of directors at a large company will discuss certain issues and arrive at decisions together. In smaller companies, occasionally all the employees will assemble to discuss things. In such instances, usually, employees brainstorm or give suggestions and then the boss makes the final decision. But the standard for consultation should be "a process in which individual participants strive to transcend their respective points of view in order to function as members of one body with its own interests and goals. Through participation and unity of purpose, consultation becomes the operating expression of justice in human affairs."* In such a process, the final decision is made by the group, not the "boss", as the spark of truth becomes evident only after the clash of differing opinions are voiced. I provided a list of steps or rules for effective consultation in the link above.
As I touched upon in the pervious blog entry, it is very important to consult with those affected by decisions being arrived at. And this does not mean that you've already decided to go ahead with something regardless of what he says. If he says he doesn't feel comfortable with it, then you have to respect this.
Let's look at a true story that demonstrates how important consultation is.
At an educational institution in a non-English speaking country that hired foreign teachers to teach English in local kindergartens, a single individual or a couple of individuals working as administrators made a decision without consulting those affected by it. The results were just shy of catastrophic. The decision was that, at local kindergartens, the local teachers need not be present in the classroom while the foreign English teachers were teaching classes.
The administrators did not consult the foreign teachers first to see if they were comfortable with this arrangement. The parents of the children were not consulted, nor their permission requested. One administrator went ahead and communicated this decision with the kindergarten principals.
Because the foreign English teachers cannot speak the local language, the classes became chaotic. Within the first couple of weeks, two incidents occurred which led to possible lawsuits from parents. In the first, one child bit another, and the victim's father was now seeking to sue the educational institute. In the second, the children ran out of the classroom into the playground and one was almost injured.
If, before this decision was made, everyone involved had consulted about it—whether or not it was wise to leave local kindergarten children (who cannot understand English) alone in the classroom with a foreign teacher who cannot speak the local language—including parents, the foreign teachers, the local teachers, and the principals, surely a better decision would have been arrived at. Because of the biting incident, the foreign teacher was fired. If the institute cannot find a replacement within a month, the remaining foreign teachers will be asked to work overtime to cover his classes. Which may lead to some of them refusing or resigning. Chaos comes out of a lack of consultation.
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* "The Search for Values in an Age of Transition", paragraph 13. September 27 Canadians and Chinese - What's the Difference?As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, rather than writing a nine thousand word essay on the difference between Canadians and Chinese, here are nine pictures. The left / blue side represents Canadians; the right / red side represents Chinese. I found these on the web.
1. At Parties:
 2. Vocal Noise at Restaurants:
 3. At the Cashier:
 4. Showering Time:
 5. Feelings:
 6. Relationships:
 7. Making a Point:
 8. Dealing with Problems:
 9. The Boss:
 September 24 Work, Work, Work, Part 3: Courtesy, Consultation, and CoercionOne of the last points of my previous entry was about making decisions affecting someone without consulting him first as well as issues like privacy and coercion. Let's look at another true story as an example of these.
Somewhere on planet earth, a business school is sending foreign teacher Jane to teach English at a local kindergarten. One day today at work, someone from HQ came to the local school saying that the principal had set up a nice new office for her and asked why she was still in her old "office" and not the new one.
Last week, Jane was suddenly told that the principal had moved her "office" (desk) to a room at the front entrance of the school. He told her that he wants her to sit at the desk from 8:30 to 9:00 just so that the parents arriving can look at her. The new desk is situated in front of a large window.
Jane found this offensive, that she was being used me to show off that the school had a foreign teacher. She also found it humiliating, being subjected to involuntary confinement so that people could stare at her white skin. Moreover, the room which is Jane's "office" doubled as the reception room for people waiting to meet with the principal whose office was next door to hers. There was a sofa right beside her desk, giving her no privacy and subjecting her to potential theft of her belongings, noise, and cancerous cigarette smoke.
Jane stood up for herself and told the principal in a nice way that she did not feel comfortable with this arrangement. Every morning, she did not accede to his request (read: order) and continued sitting in her old office where it was more private and quiet to prepare her lessons.
The principal telephoned HQ telling them that Jane was being a bad, disobedient employee, that he had gone out of his way to set up a nice new office for her and she didn't have the gratitude to sit at her new desk.
What's the problem with this? Most people in the world would agree—the principal didn't consult Jane first. Before going to all the trouble to set up this new "office", all he needed to do was, in common courtesy, approach Jane and say, "We are thinking of moving your office to a room at the front of the school so that arriving parents can look at you. Do you feel comfortable with this arrangement?" If she said she didn't, he could politely enquire why she felt uncomfortable but would, nevertheless, respect her wishes. But because he didn't consult her first, now it becomes coercion. If she refuses, a guilt trip is put on her: the principal out of the kindness of his heart made a nice new office for you, why are you being so stubborn and ungrateful? September 22 Work, Work, Work, Part 2: Rome Holds No WaterLast time I talked about two work systems: sports club and military. Sometimes, a person who is used to one of the systems moves to another region and works for a company that uses the other system. This can be catastrophic. Let's look at a true story.
John, who grew up in an English-speaking country, moved to another non-English speaking country to teach English. He ended up working at a school that used the military work style.
One day, he went to a school to teach. When he walked into the classroom, he noticed there was a guy there with a video camera. He thought he'd taken some footage of the kids and would be leaving when he began the class. He was wrong. When he began teaching, the camera started rolling. The school hadn't asked his permission beforehand, hadn't even told him that a guy would be subjecting him to the embarrassment of being captured on video for God knows who to watch.
He called HQ who explained to the school that this was inappropriate of them. The school talked to John afterwards apologizing but also telling him that this was normal in the country, and arguing, since he was now working in their country, he should get used to it and accept it.
This was the old argument about "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", an argument which, in my opinion, doesn't hold water.
Sometimes when a person moves to another country, he is seeking to become a citizen of that country. In becoming a citizen, he is affirming that he accepts the new country's way of life and is agreeing to adopt it. Sometimes a person moves to a country that has a multi-cultural policy, meaning that, even if he becomes a citizen, he is encouraged to keep his culture. Sometimes a person moves to another country whose laws prohibit anyone from becoming a citizen of that country. So, he is not there to become a citizen and adopt a new way of life but simply feels attracted to the place and has come to help the country develop. Regardless of which of the three cases applies, an adult who moves to a new land has been raised with his own culture and beliefs. While he should certainly respect and abide by the laws and government of the country in which he is now residing, an employer would be foolish to try to impose cultural ways, styles, or habits of living on him.
Beyond culture, there are some universal behaviours that anyone with a basic understanding of ethics and morality would see as just plain wrong because they violate the principle that all were created equal. These might include the following on behalf of the employer:
- reprimanding an employee
- asking him to be grateful
- expecting him to work overtime for free
- not allowing him to have a life outside of work
- using him to show off
- interfering in his personal affairs
- violating his privacy
- constantly making requests of him at the last minute
- using various forms of coercion
- placing him in an environment which threatens his peace of mind, exposes him to constant interruptions
- asking him to return a favour
- making decisions that affect him without consulting him first
- lying to him, cheating him, or in the habit of breaking promises September 21 Work, Work, Work, Part 1: Sports Club versus the MilitaryWe all work. Some because they feel they must in order to survive. Some because they see it as a way of using their natural talents to contribute to society. Perhaps some because they want to make a name for themselves. Many people I've talked to don't like to work. They try to make as much money they can so they can retire early. Some enjoy the work itself but don't like the way they are treated by their fellow workers, including their employers. Many of us agree that how we treat one another is the most fundamental factor contributing to the well-being of society.
One of the problems, when it comes to work, is that, throughout history, despite our having been created the same way, we have come to believe that some people are more important than and therefore superior to others. We see differences in people which make us beautiful as a human race. Some of us are male (those designed to beget children) and some are female (those designed to bear children). Due to the respective climates of where we've lived on our planet, some have developed darker skin and some lighter skin. Due to the brightness of the place, we've also developed different kinds of eyes. Some parts of the world have managed to prosper materially and some not so much. These differences make us beautiful like a garden of various colours of flowers is more pleasing to the eye than those that all look the same. The problem is that an enemy has invaded our thinking and that enemy is prejudice. Prejudice makes us think that one kind of person is better than another. For example, those with lighter skin are better than those with darker skin. Those from a complex region are better than those from a simpler region.
This dark thinking has clouded our vision. When we look at people, we don't see ourselves as equals. Equals doesn't mean that we have the same role but that one role is superior to another role. We have carried this view with us into the workplace. In a company, for example, some have the role of sales. They find customers to buy products. Some have the role of advertising - to promote the company and its products. Some have the role of designing the products. Some make (manufacture) the products. Some are responsible for managing the finances of the company. In short, there are many different roles workers play in the company. But problems arise when we think that some are more important than others, and one group exalts themselves over the other group and assume an air of superiority and authority.
In a private school, for example, one group has the role to serve as teachers and another group as administrators, who manage the affairs, and promote the business of the school. The administrators take it upon themselves to evaluate the work of the teachers and become judges. The teachers, however, do not evaluate the work of the administrators. So, the administrators become the superior group.
In our world, two systems have developed, both of which, many of us would argue are faulty. One system echoes the style of a sports club and the other, the military. Let's take a look:
1. Military Style
2. Team Style
Most of us would probably prefer the team style to military style. The latter one might argue, though, is more effective for developing an economy quickly, for getting the job done. Both of these systems, however, are flawed at the fundamental level, flawed because they are materialistic and more concerned with material prosperity than human betterment. September 14 The United States' Kent State MassacreAs a teacher of children, I often witness these youngins getting into arguments. One accuses the other of something, then the other accuses him of something. The blame and the insults swing back and forth, escalating until they begin fighting. But as adults, we don't do that, right? Certainly, governments of nations wouldn't do that with each other, right?
Alas, it happens all the time. I can't but sit back and laugh at how these so-called professionals behave like little kids with their hypocrisies, finger-pointing, and blame. A few months ago marked the 20th anniversary of a notorious incident of the national guard breaking up student protests at the public square of the capital of Cathay. Apparently, it was all over the news in the U.S. With all the criticism it engendered, no-one in the U.S. bothered remembering their own Kent State massacre, an incident which went pretty much the same way as the one in the east. Hypocrisy is an interesting thing. It allows one to find fault with another person or country when the same fault exists in the blamer or the blamer's nation. So rather than going into details of the incident in the east 20 years ago (which Americans have talked about endlessly), I'm going to relate the horrible incident that happened in the United States in 1970.
The leader of the United States at the time was a man named Richard Nixon. He had promised to pull the U.S. out of their war with the Asian nation of Vietnam. Not only did he renege on this promise but instituted conscription in 1969, calling it the "draft". This means that the nation that prided itself on "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" decided it could undemocratically deprive someone of his freedom, order him to join the army against his will, and send him to the war in Vietnam where there was a good chance that his unhappy time would end in his death. Secondly, Nixon decided to invade another Asian nation, namely Cambodia.
Concerned students began a series of protests on university campuses, leading to a nation-wide strike of post secondary students. At Kent State University in the American province of Ohio, a protest by some 500 students was staged on campus May 1st. One student buried a copy of the United States' constitution and another set fire to his draft letter. The students agreed to hold a noon-hour follow-up protest on the 4th.
University faculty attempted to ban the protest by handing out 12,000 leaflets stating that the event was to be cancelled. The students ignored the ban and 2,000 of them gathered. Due to some looting over the past couple of days, the authorities feared the worst about the protest and called in the National Guard to disperse the crowd. Sound familiar?
The campus patrolman rode up to the crowd in a jeep and read them an order to disperse or be arrested. The students ignored the summons, some throwing rocks at the jeep which led to its retreat. The National Guard returned again ordering the crowd to disperse, then used tear gas, which was ineffective given the breezy weather conditions. The students picked up the gas canisters and hurled them back at the National Guard.
When it was obvious the protesters were not going to disperse, the National Guard troops, with bayonets fixed on their rifles, began to advance on the crowd. The protesters retreated, being pursued by the troops. The students knew the campus better than the soldiers (obviously), and went around an athletic field. The guards, hoping to catch up, marched straight ahead, eventually becoming blocked by a chain link fence that encompassed most of the field and now separated them from the students.
Of the 77 soldiers, 29 of them opened fire on the students using a total of 67 bullets. Some fired in the air, some aimed at the ground, and some fired directly at the students. Some of the students fired at were not among the protesters but were simply walking from one class to their next class in an adjacent building. The result of the shooting was that nine students were wounded, including one paralyzed for life. And four students were killed. Of these four, only two were protesters.
When the firing stopped, students were crying and screaming, calling for ambulances. Initially, most of them thought the guards were just firing blanks to scare them. But when they looked up they saw their fellow students lying on the ground in pools of blood.
The names of those killed:
Allison Krause (shot in the chest)
Jeffrey Miller (shot through the mouth - killed instantly)
William Schroeder (shot in the chest)
Sandra Scheuer (shot in the neck)
The names of those wounded:
Alan Canfora (hit in his right wrist)
John Cleary (upper left chest wound)
Thomas Grace (struck in left ankle)
Dean Kahler (back wound fracturing the vertebrae - permanently paralyzed from the chest down)
Joseph Lewis (hit twice in the right abdomen and left lower leg)
Donald MacKenzie (neck wound)
James Russell (hit in his right thigh and in the right forehead)
Robert Stamps (hit in his right buttock)
Douglas Wrentmore (hit in his right knee)
The Guard left shortly after the shootings. Initial newspaper reports lied by stating that a number of National Guard members had been killed or seriously injured. In truth, only one Guardsman—Lawrence Shafer—was injured seriously enough to warrant medical treatment. In a later interview, Shafer admitted to firing on Joseph Lewis.
Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in the capital city of the United States against the war and the killing of unarmed student protesters. The Kent State Massacre led to protests on university campuses throughout the country, including a student strike of 4 million that closed over 900 campuses. The Kent State campus, itself, closed for six weeks. Ten days after the Kent State incident, police shot two students to death at Jackson State University under similar circumstances, but that event did not arouse the same attention as the Kent State shootings.
Canadian rock star Neil Young wrote the song "Ohio" for Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young about the Kent State shootings.
 September 12 September 2009 UpdateSeptember 23rd, Carolyn and I will celebrate our 3-year wedding anniversary. And it will mark exactly 5 years since we first met.
China's "October holiday" will extend from October 1st to October 8th this year. Normally, it's actually only a three-day holiday. But to give the Chinese a week-long break from work, two of the working days are made up for by working on the weekend prior to or following the holiday. For example, in a year wherein October 1st is a Monday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are true holidays. Working on Thursday and Friday is moved to Saturday and Sunday September 29 and 30. So, Monday October 1st to Sunday October 7th is a holiday, and everyone in the whole country will spend their week's vacation by travelling usually. So the flights are all booked and the nicer cities and resorts are swarming with people.
This year, the Moon Festival (which has recently been made a holiday in China) will take place on October 3rd. Its date changes every year (as do most traditional Chinese holidays) because it is based on the lunar calendar. Because it will occur during the October holiday this year, it will be a four-day instead of a three-day holiday. We will work Sunday September 27th and Saturday October 10th to allow for an eight-day stretch from Thursday October 1st to Thursday October 8th. The reason for having a holiday in October is that "modern" China (since Mao's regime came to power) was founded on October 1st, 1949. This year will mark the 60th anniversary (which in the west we consider "diamond") of "modern" China.
The Moon Festival is celebrated by having dinner with family usually, kind of like Thanksgiving. Apparently, the moon is the fullest and brightest on this day. Chinese usually give gifts of "moon cake" to one another. These are pastries of filled dough that are flat and round, usually several centimetres in diameter and 2-3 centimetres thick. Fillings vary but the most common (besides the mince meat fillings) are:
l Lotus seed paste (with or without a dry egg yolk in the center)
l Red bean paste
l Coconut paste
l Sweet paste with assorted nuts and seeds
My favourite is the lotus seed paste without the egg yolk. Moon cake tends to be quite expensive. I asked Carolyn why and she said it was because the factories make it only seasonally (one time per year), so in order to survive they must charge a lot.
Carolyn and I will be going to Amoy (Xiamen) for four days during the holidays. It will be the first time for both of us.
Work is continuing to worsen but I'll write more about that later. September 03 Work UpdateWell, as it turns out, my previous blog about the lack of Chinese teachers in the classroom was a bit premature. It looks like things will be as they were last term. I composed a letter to the principals and had my Chinese wife translate it into Chinese. I outlined things I needed for the term, one of which was in regards to the presence of Chinese teachers. What I wrote was that, because I cannot speak Chinese, it is impossible for me to control the children, and I require that a Chinese teacher be present in every class for the full duration of the class, actively involved in maintaining order in the classroom. Then I said that for any class that had no Chinese teacher present, I would be unable to teach that class.
But that ends the good news. I am with a large school in the city that has a partnership with local schools. They farm me out to teach at two. Last summer, I signed on with them and they had an opening for only these two schools. They are both far from my home and far from each other. It takes me 3 hours return to travel to either of them (1.5 hours one-way). For a teacher, it makes the week very gruelling. They compensated me, however, by giving me Fridays mostly off. I had only to go to the main headquarters (which is closer to my home) every second Friday afternoon. Having the Fridays off also enabled me to prepare my lessons in the convenience of my own home.
Last June I met with the manager to sign my new contract (contracts are renewed once a year). She told me there would be two changes. One was a raise in salary (not much though). The other was that I was to go to the schools Friday mornings, not to teach but to assist with activities (quite vague). I told her that the kindergartens were too far from my home and requested that I be transferred to schools nearer, especially if I was to go Friday mornings. One of the foreign teachers had left to return to her own country and her schools were closer to my home. Also they got into a bunch of new schools. The manager seemed to agree.
I waited to hear back from her as they were hiring some new foreign teachers to decide who'd be teaching where. I didn't hear back from her. In Canada I emailed her reminding her about it. She never replied. When I returned to Shanghai I was told that I would be teaching at the same two schools. I noticed a couple of interesting things about the new contract. First, it doesn't state which schools we'd teach at. Second, although we're told we must be at the schools from 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Thursday to teach, it doesn't say what times we need to be there Friday mornings.
I was told by the supervisor that if the school had nothing for us to do Friday mornings, we didn't have to go. But, having lived in China for several years now, I know better. If you give any Chinese employer an inch, she's going to take a mile. For sure they're going to cook up something for the foreign teacher to do every Friday morning. Sure enough, the first week, one of the schools asked me to come Friday morning (tomorrow). But even worse, they asked me to come to teach a class. As I mentioned, the manager assured me I wouldn't have to teach. With Friday mornings taken up by going to the schools and afternoons taken up by meetings, I will now have no time to prepare my lessons.
On top of all this, I have now been asked to teach "Tuo Ban" classes. These are classes for 2 year olds who can't even speak Chinese. (They can't speak.) I taught them before at a previous school and hated it. It was a complete waste of time.
It may be time, once again, to change jobs in China.
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