Life in NZ - A 6 months review - Part 1: Working Culture

As the saying goes: Time flies when you are having fun. It has been almost 6 months since we touched down in NZ. When we first started our blog, one of the aim was to document down our process and experiences of migrating to NZ from a Singaporean perspective. Past couple of weeks, we have been receiving feedbacks that there are many others who are contemplating the move and would like to find out more about life in New Zealand. I guess now's an opportune time to do a 6 months review about the good and bad experiences and hopefully it would allow others to make a more informed decision. There's so much to talk about about so we are going to do this over multiple post.


Part 1 - Working Culture in NZ:
We can't comment for every company in NZ, but based purely on our own experiences, the working culture here is very different from Singapore. Most companies start work at 8.30-9am and ends at 5pm. That's about 1 hour less of working time per day compared to Singapore. In both Mr Fatty and Ms Shortie's work place, rarely do people work overtime. When it's time to go home, it's time to go home. There's a strong focus on getting things done and less of "wayang-ing". Because the focus is about getting the job done at the end of the day, going for coffee breaks is not frown upon. Surfing youtube is accepted and there generally is a high level of trust that everybody's get their job done.

Due to the shorter working hours,  time really flies when you are in office. Some initial adjustment one might face would be the need to be more focus and discipline in terms of time management.

The working culture also seems more open. One example that comes to my mind: In Singapore, when switching jobs, there's a tendency not to tell your colleagues too much about where you are moving to. Here people seems to be more open about their career plans and aspirations. Another example would be feedback from your peers and bosses. In the office, it would be made known to you when a job is well done. Bosses tend to be more generous with their praises (Of course, at the end of the day, we are not working for praises brownie points but it does add to the job satisfaction). This open atmosphere also means that when something is not going to workout, it will be part of the feedback as well.

Some of you must be wondering, as an Asian, how is it like to be working in a predominantly "white" environment. Well Mr Fatty is the only Asian in his firm and he gets along pretty well with this colleagues. He gets invited for after office drinks, poker nights, BBQ etc. He doesn't gets called names (at least not in front of him. Behind his back who knows? ;)  Some personal thoughts on Kiwis is that they are generally pretty friendly (and harmless) people. Of course since they are from a western culture, they are generally more vocal but not boisterous. The  Kiwi accent does takes some getting used to (although it's not as thick and difficult to understand as Australians). You will not be able to understand some of their jokes initially but after a couple of months you'll get a hang of their humour and crack jokes just like them. As long as one makes an effort to socialize and be more proactive in their conversations, one shouldn't have an issue assimilating with the Kiwis. Many of Kiwi's social activities has beer involved in it more often then not. So if you can drink a glass or two, the assimilation process would probably be faster as well.

Generally I would say most Singaporeans would find working in NZ less stressful due to the shorter (and well defined) working hours and the more informal atmosphere. Oh did I forget to mention, "informal atmosphere" also refers to drinking session @ many work places on Friday afternoonish.

cheers,
Mr Fatty.