Air locked inside the office

I have received requests to share findings and feelings from the work perspective. This episode provides all the fun and excitement that goes on within office premises in Singapore.

Now having successfully raised the expectations, let me share a secret: office life in a multinational company doesn't really change that much from one country to another. On the contrary, it keeps surprising me again and again how overwhelming can be the power of a shared global corporate culture: Everybody speaks the same language (No, that is not English, but acronym infested Nerdish), they all have a place in the same organizational structure that is replicated in each country, they share the same concerns to a minute detail, there are too many back to back meetings, they share the same tools and processes (need to add that they all have the same warm feelings about processes).

In my line of work I probably shouldn't be as pleasantly astonished how internal IT can actually work on a global level. But I am: same badge works on the doors once given accesses in a matter of seconds, laptop picks up the same WLAN and starts to work directly, printers are all accessible through the same system and as mentioned all the tools used are indeed the same (although finally having a freedom from claiming my hours -- how sweet is that!)

Obviously there are also differences. There really aren't that many occasions where I would get to speak Finnish. To the extent that I found myself thinking in English also outside the office. I work in a truly multinational team with colleagues from India, UK, Australia, China, US and naturally Singapore. We venture out for lunch much later than back home where there are people standing orderly in a queue waiting already before the cafeteria opens at 11 AM. The security seems to be also tighter around here. Accessing a bathroom that is shared with another company in the same floor of the office building is a space craft air lock type of an experience with interlocking doors which cannot be opened at the same time (I just anticipate the first time I will go to the bathroom and realize that I have left my badge on the table <-- this is the excitement part promised in the first chapter). 

Finally there is the matter of number of hours being spent at the office in a day. There was a recent study published in Europe which demonstrated that Finnish people are among the group that spends the least time in the office compared to other fellow European office workers. In Singapore the tendency seems to be more of an Asian approach with number of hours at the office being a value in itself. Once again the company culture seems to have a veto right with the focus on the outcome in all the countries.



As a teaser for the next episode: it will feature various dangerous animals which lurk around when I'm sleeping.