I was born and raised in Bangkok, and I have lived here all my life. Even though I am Thai, I absolutely hate working in Thai companies. I have worked for Thai companies twice, and I swear I will never set foot in one again. Here is why:

1. Holidays
You cannot take more than three days off in a row. If you ask for two days plus a weekend, your boss looks at you like you are insane for leaving your responsibilities for just two days. Two frickin’ days! I remember thinking, OMG, will I ever really get to rest with only one or maybe three days off? I guess not.

2. Keep your mouth shut
Thai people are very good at keeping quiet when they should actually speak up to make a situation better.

• For example, if Mr. AA makes a mistake and you catch it, instead of telling him directly so he can fix it, learn from it, and hopefully avoid it next time, people will go gossip about it with Ms. BB instead.

• In meetings, nobody asks questions. The moment you step outside the meeting room, questions are everywhere. WTF?!

3. Low position employees are always wrong
If your boss or anyone higher than you says you are wrong, you are wrong. Even if you know you did nothing wrong, you are still wrong. Once they decide to give you a verbal or written warning, that is it. And if you worked on a project but your boss takes the credit and says it was their idea, there is usually nothing you can do. Unless the truth comes out by chance, but that rarely happens.

4. The face
This ties back to number 2. If you tell Mr. AA he made a mistake, he will feel like he lost face. The “face” is very important in Thai culture, and that is one reason people often choose to stay silent instead of being honest.

5. Give everything to the company
This one is also related to number 1. You are expected to give the company everything. They do not care if you have a life outside the office. Working long hours makes people “respect” you because it looks like you are working hard. Even better if you work on weekends or bring work home. WHAT?!

Of course, these things do not apply to all Thai companies. I am only sharing my experiences and the stories I have heard from friends.

If you have other opinions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for reading.