Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Peer pressure on long working hours

Monday, February 08, 2010

Peer pressure on long working hours

A friend told me this story. A Malaysian applied for a job in a bank in Singapore. He asked the HR manager, "If I finish my work, can I go home on time". The HR manager replied "yes".

It was a different situation after he started work. Many colleagues stayed in the office till late at night, even if they do not have work to do. It was peer pressure. When he leave work earlier, he heard negative comments from the colleagues.

This seemed to be the work pattern in Singapore. It is fashionable to work long hours. I wonder if this is true in other workplaces, or just in banks?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...: There is an interesting article about the work culture of Singapore that is of relevance to what you said.

http://www.guidemesingapore.com/work-environment/singapore-jobs-work-culture.htm; February 08, 2010 9:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Besides Singapore, Hong Kong also has this practice.

But Hong Kong folks have a good excuse. Their apartments are so small, the air-cond office is a lot more relaxing.

Otherwise, sad to say, "Uniquely Singapore"

Singaporeans idea of productivity means;

increase output by increasing work hours without pay

European ideas of productivity is to achieve the same output with less inputs (like working hours).

The wayang-wayang culture is widespread from the top all the way to the lower rungs of society.; February 08, 2010 10:07 PM
Anonymous said...: i have friends working in the bank having the same problem. I was wondering why is there such practice. it makes no sense to me to stay at the workplace while you have finished what you have to do. It only shows unproductive quality by the employee. 2nd i think there is no balance between work life and family which is a critical factor in maintaining the worker productivity. Can anyone explain me this phenomena?; February 08, 2010 10:19 PM
symmetrix said...: I suspect this kind of behaviour is typicaly Asian. These workers tend to show that they are very important in the workforce and are indispensable. They always say they are very busy (even if they are not), complain to ppl that they have to work extra hours etc.
I guess it a social status thing to be busy in sg.

If you are not busy, or do not appear to be busy, then you are considered unproductive. You do not contribute to your family nor add value to society.

The situation is quite different in first world countries eg Australia. Workers leave ofc at the end of the biz day. They spend quality time outside the ofc, with family or friends. You seldom see ofc lights on late into the night, unless there is an exigency. I wonder when sg will evolve into this kind of quality of life?; February 08, 2010 10:21 PM
Anonymous said...: working late for the sake of working late is a typical sign of poor productivity.; February 08, 2010 10:44 PM
Anonymous said...: My personal experiences are that this is true in other non-bank workplaces, including some stat boards.; February 08, 2010 11:14 PM
Anonymous said...: I used to work in a large MNC in Sinagpore.

The American CEO noticed that his Singaporean employees was spending far too much time in making their powerpoint presentations look impressive e.g. 3-Dimensional pie charts, animation, good colour coordination etc.

He very cleverly sized up the Singaporean mentality and culture.
- issued a ban on the use of colour in powerpoint presentations
- banned anything that was 3-dimensional
- banned any animations
- only bullet points and 2 dimensional graphs ... all in black & white or various shades of gray was allowed
- he emphasisesd his desire for substance over form

I call this a good example of white collar productivity.

In general, most Anglo-Saxon countries (eg UK, USA, Australia) display this endearing trait. Just based on my observation and working experience with folks from these countries. Don't have enough experience to comment on other European countries.

The only Singaporean I've ever worked for, who displayed this sort of gutsy original thinking was Dr Lee Kum Tatt, Chairman of the old SISIR. Anyhow, that's another story.; February 09, 2010 7:50 AM
Robert Tan said...: Most of the time, the long work hours are due to:

- the need or want to either get ahead in their career or not be left behind by others who are willing to work harder.

- the nature of the job. Some jobs inherently has longer working hours because of deadlines imposed by the clients/customers.

A boss will more likely reward a worker based on output rather than input, all else being equal.

Perhaps many developing countries or recently developed countries generally have a harder working population because the people are still striving to progress in their material well-being.

In more developed or richer countries, the people can choose to be more relaxed but even so, maybe better not be too relaxed or the country may also either slowly fall behind as other countries catch up or risk ending up spending more than their savings.; February 09, 2010 7:56 AM
Anonymous said...: When we were young, we are judged by exam result but not the hours we spent on study, we even envy those who can get a good result without too much hard working.

Now we are judged by hours we spent in office, the longer you are there, the better.; February 09, 2010 8:34 AM
Anonymous said...: If you want to work long hours and get ahead. Try your own business :); February 09, 2010 8:50 AM
Concerned said...: Usually those bosses don't know the quality and quantity of work done by their subordinates. The easy way to judge whether their workers work harder or contribute more to the company is to see which workers stays in the office the most hours. This usually happens in the office, i.e. administrative cores, where it is difficult to measure productivity unlike factory production or sales.; February 09, 2010 10:32 AM
sibehsianinsuntec said...: I am doing inside sales at an US IT MNC and leave around 6pm most days. Manager had remarked, not just once, that he "has no issue with you leaving on time" which implies he notices I leave on time, even though I've finished my work. Anyway, which customer would want to be called after 6pm? Two colleagues express puzzlement at why I would leave on time to rush home and spend time with my baby.
Two thoughts that hit me. Firstly, no wonder most locals either don't want to have babies or stop pro-creating due to workplace discrimination. Secondly, most managers prefer staff to stay back late and share in whatever nonsense there is to do.; February 09, 2010 10:46 AM
Robert Tan said...: It is true that it is difficult and more subjective in measuring some types of work.

However, a good boss who is more involved will know that there is some difference between the output of a staff who is performing well and one that is not performing as well.

I concede that very often, the people and organization in which one is working at do have an impact as well. (That's why i said "all else being equal", meaning a boss who does not have favouritism, knows what's going on, competent etc. Maybe this is being too idealistic?); February 09, 2010 10:58 AM
dsowerg said...: It's this concept of "face time". Showing my face at the office is more important than the work I produce. This is very prevalent in Chinese family-run businesses.

These companies are also the ones that institute punch cards. I know of one local publishing firm (that publishes one motoring magazine) that insisted that all staff use punch cards. So what do the staff do, they punch in, then waste their time away somewhere else till very late at night, then punch out to show that they've been very "productive".

Foreign bosses tend to be a lot more relaxed about this. As long as you produce the work, it doesn't matter where you do it, whether from home, from a cafe or in the office. I find such thinking very liberating because the office environment may not be the most conducive place to be productive.; February 09, 2010 11:12 AM
jamesneo said...: working long hours are also true in research labs in the NUS especially if your boss are American educated china professors. I knew of people in HK and china universities where staying until 12 am daily is a common thing. If you are a lone singaporean among these china peers you will also be forced to work such long hours; February 09, 2010 1:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Even in MNCs, the Singapore/Chinese/Indian mentality is very obvious. They pass the time talking/doing nothing in the office and start work at 6pm!!!

Then they will tell their bosses I have been working late last night(very hardworking)!!!

If their bosses are around, they will stay around until the bosses leave.; February 09, 2010 1:47 PM
Anonymous said...: REX comments as follows,

Mostly, i think it is not "peer pressure" for an employee to work late. It is "boss" pressure!!!
How would you dare to leave your desk at 5.30 pm when your boss works till 7 pm or later? You want your rice bowl or not?
So to stop all this nonsense, it's gotta start from the top (just like politics). The boss just has got to go home earlier. Then the employee will use his discretion when to go home.

The problem is that this thing has no end, because your boss's boss also stays up late, and your boss also has to observe this basic unwritten law... and so on. So the chain reaction filters down...
人在江湖身不由己。

REX; February 09, 2010 6:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I understand that the 'work late means work hard' culture is also prevalent at a very prominent govt linked investment holding company. Everyone hangs around long after office hours for fear of being labelled as too free or not enough work load. One could hear staff boasting about how late they had stayed at the office the previous night. Why are people willing to sacrify their family time for a job in that organisation? I guess it's the prestige of being an employee of that company.; February 12, 2010 12:52 AM