Sunday, February 20, 2005
I must be the world’s worst negotiator. How else to explain my insistence that 300 baht hourly was sufficient, despite the lady at the school asking, “Are you sure you don’t want to negotiate for more?” No, no, really I insist I am worth no more than 300 an hour. I should backtrack slightly. I applied for a job. I have a job of sorts, but always looking for something better I answered an internet ad. When I went into to talk to the woman at the school what was not immediately clear was that she was an employee, and obviously with little stake in the bottom line, hence her advice that I should negotiate for more money. Part of my difficulty in dealing with potential or actual employers in this country is the language barrier. Initially this lady seemed to say that the job was offering 300 baht an hour part-time. When I filled out the application and wrote 300 in the ‘negotiated salary’ box, I was doing so because (silly product of a transparent society) I believed that was what we negotiated when she said, “The job pays 300 baht an hour”. Evidently not so. In the course of the interview I also discussed my current job situation. When I showed the lady how much I was being paid for a full-time position she countered with the same salary. I found this utterly perplexing. Here I have a job and am making x amount of money – why would I quit and come to work for you for the same amount of money?
When dealing with my employer I run into Anna Leowens, “The King and I” differences. First interview: “Will you provide me with a visa?” – “Yes, we will. It’s easy”. Consequent visa discussion: “What do I need for the visa application?” - “Here’s a list of things.” Yet again: “Any word on the visa?” – “The um, what do you call it? Work permit? I think is um, I don’t know the word, but like, we are getting something, but I have to talk to someone.” Again: “Will you be able to give me the letter necessary to take to the Thai consulate in Laos that will furnish me with a Non-Immigrant B visa so that I can work? – “I don’t know. Make me a copy of your passport and I will ask someone.” Look at the evolution from the first discussion to the last, bottom line – we can give you a visa / we have no friggin’ clue. The lady at my school has, according to certificates posted on the wall, an MBA and a Master’s in Applied Linguistics from English speaking universities. I don’t know if the Royal Academy of Business in Sydney Australia is working in conjunction with the good people at McDonalds and handing out MBAs with Happy Meals, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to find that was the case. As for a Master’s in Applied Linguistics, I would hope that she further applies herself to the learning of vocabulary related to immigration matters, words like; embassy, consulate, sponsorship, documents, give, we, can/cannot, would all be genuinely useful and, dare I say it, applicable. My mom, no great expert in comparative Asian studies, hit the nail on the head (sort of) when she said Japan was much more westernized than Thailand. Actually, that’s not fair – developed might be closer to it, but even more than that is the idea of a post-industrial society versus one that is, at least in mentality, still agrarian. How can I expect efficiency and dependability from a people who still believe that they are at the whim of the elements? “I can’t make the rice grow, only the rain can.”