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| First days of gainful employment - Jan. 19, 2006 | | Date Created: Jan 19, 2006, 04:37 PM |
It's been two days of gainful employment, and I'm ready for retirement again.
Actually, it was hard to imagine a better first day on the job. As I walked back to my apartment yesterday, I was amazed at how I did not have the awful gut feeling I typically have had on the first day of a new job: that it was awful, and boring, and I'll never remember all those names, and I really don't want to go back tomorrow, and I know that it will get better, but what have I gotten myself into?
Instead, when I walked home, down a eucalyptus and bottle-brush tree-lined lane, where the only traffic was people on bicycles -- and where off to the right people were playing tennis on one court, badminton on another and cricket on a field across the way -- I thought that it had been a tough day as far as names were concerned: My orientator for the day had been Joe, a Burmese man whose name is probably not pronounced just like "Joe," since it's spelled "Soe," but close enough for my dull ears. Roughly 90 percent of the others I met, I didn't even make an effort to catch their names, and I told them so, begging their forgiveness. I've got neighbors from Bhutan and Nepal, coworkers from the Philippines, Thailand, France, Burma, Iran, the U.S., India, Vietnam, Laos and God knows where else, and they all have names that are unbelievably unpronounceable.
As for me, I go by "Mr. Ralf," and I seem to be the only one without a higher degree and am thusly relegated to the title of "Mr." on my name card -- which they call business cards and print in batches of only 100 at a time because they are so precious -- and upon which they insist on putting a title. Titles are very important here, and when I interviewed for the position of "News & Media Specialist," I never knew I'd hear the title again, unless dealing with Human Resources or other official paperwork. Yet, apparently "News & Media Specialist" holds very high regard, and I have been thusly dealt with, replete with "wais" (respectful bows) from the Thai employees I now find work for me. The fact that most of them are older than I am and theyed waied upon meeting me underscores my apparent status, as a wai is not only substitute for a handshake in Thai culture but a sign of respect typically reserved for youngers to perform to their elders.
So, there I was walking home to the apartment that had looked pretty spare when I arrived on Saturday to pick up the keys: one room, a bathroom with no hot water, a small outside deck, a window-unit a/c and a kitchen that is typically Thais, consisting of a fridge that reminds you of a dorm room, a sink the size of an American bar sink (cold water only and not potable) and a counter, upon which sits the only cooking implement: a single propane burner. No baked Alaska for me, I noted upon arrival.
Well, at the end of the first day, the apartment didn't look nearly as bad as it did upon arrival. It turns out that people were very surprised to find I live on campus. There apparently is a waiting list for on-campus housing. Not only that, when I told them my building is ST-9, their jaws dropped for the most part and their eyes widened, and they told me that I was very lucky. I later found out it likely wasn't luck at all but rather pull from sources high up in the administration that ensured I would be comfortable. Learning all that, it is hard to criticize too much my digs, and so I do not try to compare them to the standards to which I am accustomed and realize that for all practical purposes, it is a perfectly nice place. I am glad now, for instance, that I am not staying here with my children, as the Nepalese across the hall are in the same space -- presumably the close quarters will prevent the production of further children, but then again that may be the post-log-cabin American standards in me making such an assumption.
The point was, during my walk home last evening, I was stuck by how incredibly idyllic life appears on this campus and how interesting a day it had been despite many typical first-day stumbles and hassles.
First, the campus. It sits on about 160 hectares, which, if I had the book I received for Christmas but forgot to pack, I could tell you what that equates to in some measurement that makes sense. The campus is like a mini city. For dining it has a steakhouse, which I have not been to and I would be willing to bet is not based on the Peter Lugar business plan, a cafeteria that claims to serve food to tastes of all nations (to which I add to the claim "as long as you like rice with it"), a Vietnamese restaurant, a Thai restaurant at the golf course (more on that in a moment) and a restaurant at the on-campus hotel, which serves those attending the regular outreach seminars put on by the extension service.
The golf course now amounts to seven holes that have been allowed to go fallow, which is a disappointment and may someday change. I have asked about the golf course, two of whose original holes are now the Queen Sirikit Arboretum -- so it doesn't look good for the future of those holes, as no one's going to changes something with the queen's name on it. Turns out the whole golf course is the source of quite a lot of controversy on campus. By popular demand and by encouragement of the School of Management, some of whose staff points out that golf is important enough to those earning their MBAs that it ought to be part of the curriculum, an 18-hole course (named in honor of the queen) may yet be built in partnership with Thammasat University next-door to AIT.
One of the things interesting about the campus is that it is technically considered a diplomatic mission -- at least this is my limited understanding of it. Every building has been donated by the government of one country or another -- including a couple by the U.S. and one that has John F. Kennedy's name on it. I've found out I do not need a work permit to work here, unlike almost every other job for a foreigner in Thailand. Instead, I will receive a diplomatic visa from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- only after my passport is gone for a month, however, which I'm not pleased about. On the other hand, they file these applications every day here, so there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about.
Also on campus are two mini-marts, a grocery store from which is it possible to order potable bottled water delivered to your door, a laundry service, a tailor, a travel agency, a bakery, a medical clinic (where I have to go tomorrow to get bloodwork done before I'm officially allowed to be an employee -- one of the questions on my medical questionnaire was whether I have elephantiasis, which would prevent me from employment), a bookstore, of course, and who knows exactly what else -- all of these things are sort of hidden away and not readily apparent on a first walk around campus. The best part of everything here is that it's at Thai prices -- my lunch cost less than a dollar, my dinner tonight was a whopping $4, but that was because I had two beers (both a double-size 660 ml bottle -- sorry again for forgetting that book), laundry for 27 pieces was less than $5 and will be delivered to my door tomorrow night. Rent, I should mention is less than $120 a month and includes weekly maid service, linens and towels -- the linens and towels are of such a quality that I will likely be forsaking such services after I make it to the mall nearby. That trip has been pre-empted for two days now by different events and is proving less urgent with each day of being more accustomed to the lifestyle. Last night, in fact, I was going to go, but Bernie, a fellow who apparently works for me and readily fell into the position of being my right-hand man, stopped by my place and presented me with a house-warming gift of an ashtray and two glasses. In the words of John White, the proprietor of Sea Dream in Phuket, "It's Asia. What more do you need?" My six months in the States had me forgetting the simplicity to which I had uncharacteristically become accustomed, and I'm beginning to realize once again how right he is, contrary as that may seem to my nature.
This morning when I went to the clinic for my physical, Bernie had a Thai intern accompany me to carry my paperwork, which consisted of four pages. He insisted she go with me to the clinic and to the bank, where I had to open an account. On the way, I told her that I was fully capable of finding my way to the clinic and felt strong enough to lug the four pages of forms. It would not look at all godd to the doctor, now would it, if he saw I was too weak to cary four sheets of paper. I sent her back to the office. I went in for my physical and headed across the street to Siam Commercial Bank to open an account -- they still use bank books when you have an account here, and they give you a very nice duffle bag for opening an account. Well, it took about 40 signatures on forms printed in Thai to open an account, but it took only about 10 minutes -- even to receive my ATM card -- and during that time, the poor intern came running in twice with messages from Bernie.
It seems he has developed an attachment for me already. Tonight he vowed to stay in his room until exactly 6:13 to await my telephone call in case I had any problems dropping off the laundry he had already pushed for helping me take to the laundry service. I almost felt as if I should call him and tell him that my underwear was stuck together and they were trying to charge me for separate pieces. I think he would have liked the heroism involved in intervening in such a predicament. As things went over without a hitch, though, I can only hope he decided at 6:14 that it was safe to get along with whatever existence he has in his staff housing block that is considerably rougher than mine, or so he pointedly told me when he inquired as to my address.
Bernie filled me in on another burning question that has provided quite a lot of relief: It turns out I do get vacation time. A lot of it. I had been using the wrong terminology when I asked via e-mail previously, and they thought I was just asking if I got off Thai holidays, which I do, and they are numerous. I also get off the week between Christmas and New Year's, as the campus is closed then. But on top of that, I get 24 days of vacation, which amounts to a day shy of five weeks. And I get 30 days medical leave, should I require it. A good friend from Phuket is now laid up in a Ranong hospital with malaria and is not so fortunate, except he reports to me from his hospital bed that he is staying in the hospital for a good 30 days, as the rent is cheaper than the apartment he been renting and the food better.
Regarding the leave time, I added it up, and figured I could legitimately take all of it at once and effectively postpone starting my job 11 weeks if it didn't look that good.
As for the job, it's too hard to say at the moment what exactly I think. Yesterday and this morning, I was excited by it. Today I am wary of it. My boss is in Sri Lanka until Friday, and the president of the university had to go to France until Monday, which is when he, my boss and I get together to discuss exactly what is expected of me. Up to now, I have been hearing what everyone else expects of me, which is nice but also impossible.
The reception I received by everyone yesterday was extraordinarily enthusiastic, even if I did tell them I wasn't going to remember their names. Today I started to see exactly why their arms were so open. For years, there has been really no one in charge of anything having to do with public relations. As a result, the image of the university has really slipped, and even student enrollment is down as a result. The fact is, this place really is the MIT of Asia. It has an incredible reputation. One of the people shortlisted for last year's Nobel Peace Prize is an alumna; nearly every minister in the Taiwain government is a graduate of AIT; its research projects and international partners are very impressive, and I simply don't know enough yet to give further examples. But due to complacent thinking on the part of previous presidents, AIT has been in a period of decline. This new president is trying to change that before the situation gets too bad. And from what I could tell today, it's pretty bad -- not that the place is going under, but endowment has fallen, enrollment has slipped, and basically outside the Asian academic world, no one's heard of this place. Trouble is, among the existing faculty and staff, the complacency set in as well as the ill feelings of roughly a decade of apparent mismanagement.
Enter me. It seems word has gone around that I am to be one of the saviors of this place, that this journalist -- the only professional journalist the university has ever hired -- is going to put the university back on the world stage. I'm going to come in and redo the Web site. I'm going to edit all the articles professors write as submissions to newspapers. I'm going to rewrite every brochure the place has ever put out. I'm going to create a stylebook to make all the language and designs uniform. I'm going to reinvigorate this staff of tenured Thais who run the PSSU (which is the acronym I'm apparently in charge of, and believe me, there are more acronyms here than vowels in the Thai alphabet). In short, I'm going to get the world to stand up and take notice of AIT -- and I am going to do so in a way that seemingly dozens of people have their very own opinion of the best way to accomplish it. Over the past two days, I've been told these things by people genuinely happy to see me here -- people who each has been very vocal (with an accent, of course) in telling me exactly how I'm going to do this. As for me, I've been listening and nodding and wondering what exactly this or that guy's name is as he's been talking to me.
So my biggest concern is that too much is expected of me and that my efforts will be watered down to such an extent that I cannot do anything the way it ought to be done and in the process do little to contribute to solving the problem at hand. I have confidence that the president of the university will understand to an extent the predicament I face when I present him with my opinions on Monday, and I am hoping to have his backing when I leave that meeting. From my limited dealings with him and from how people speak of him, he appreciates people who are not "yes men." He has an administration filled with Asians who are educated not to be open about their concerns and to confront situations more obliquely than we brash Americans. I'm told that one of the reasons he hired me in particular was that I was not afraid to say what I thought during the interview process. Interestingly, I had no idea until I got here how many things I hit on the head when I interviewed and how many things I commented on that were somewhat sore subjects among the administration.
It seems that if on Monday I get the explicit backing of the president -- who incidentally is spoken of on campus with more reverence than the president of the United States within the wall of the White House -- to do the job the way I think it ought to be done, I think I can make a great deal of progress and the job will be very rewarding. I'm pretty optimistic I already have this backing, and if I don't walk away with his authority and it turns into the morass it could, then I imagine it will be a trying time about and during which I can't do a whole lot. If some fundamental change doesn't take place in the way in which they have previously been doing things, then my efforts will be rather useless, improving on what is essentially an abysmal situation and raising the standards very little. In that case, I appreciate the fact I have 24 days off plus holidays and 30 days sick time. And in that case, I will likely begin thinking about what happens when my one-year contract is up.
In any case, I feel great about the place and the people, and I'm confident things will work out well. Worst case, it winds up being one of these jobs where the situation is such that I'm simply unable to do the work necessary to do it well. If that's the case, I can handle it, but I just won't stay long, and I won't make the mistake again of trying to fight an unwinnable battle. Best case is that I will be free to do the job I think I was hired to do, and I'm confident I'll find successes in it and it will be very rewarding. The next days will be the test, I think. |
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