Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Promotion Tradition in China
Apparently there's a tradition in China that when you get a promotion, you need to buy everyone in the office dessert. I wonder how long it'll take the office staff to realize that every time I get hungry, somebody gets promoted.
And while I'm on the topic of office food, during my first week in the Shanghai office, the office manager diligently took my order for lunch every day because my lack of Mandarin prohibited me from just walking out of the office to lunch. I was a bit surprised when on the first day she ordered from a hot dog place. Day 2 was a sandwich shop. Finally, on day 3 I asked if there wasn't any Chinese food in China. Turns out they never order from the "American" places and were ordering the crappy and cold western food for my benefit. For some strange reason, after they found out I'd rather have hot food from a local place, they suddenly assumed I could just go out and order food for myself! Hence, the need to promote somebody to get some lunch around here.
And while I'm on the topic of office food, during my first week in the Shanghai office, the office manager diligently took my order for lunch every day because my lack of Mandarin prohibited me from just walking out of the office to lunch. I was a bit surprised when on the first day she ordered from a hot dog place. Day 2 was a sandwich shop. Finally, on day 3 I asked if there wasn't any Chinese food in China. Turns out they never order from the "American" places and were ordering the crappy and cold western food for my benefit. For some strange reason, after they found out I'd rather have hot food from a local place, they suddenly assumed I could just go out and order food for myself! Hence, the need to promote somebody to get some lunch around here.
