Is it more relaxing to work in Vietnam?

Depends on your work. I guess crane operators would disagree.

The fact is Western work habits are increasingly invading the VietNam work life. They even have to wear hard-nosed boots instead of flip-flops. And have safety meetings every shift start.

Hi jimmyfry,

I'm working in Viet Nam, and i  think the working environment in Vietnam is not so good, and maybe it give to the foreigner who is working in Vietnam will be  feel bad. But it's not totally.

There are so many big company in VietNam working with technology, manufacture... and the people who are working there, often get stress. And there company is so high productivity and need more creativity.

Now, the amount of the company like that is increased day by day. Because they know that they need to changed, such as need to apply technology, create exciting working environment, where the people feel comfortable when working, then increace productivity and have more creativity.

Almost Vietnam people are also so hard working, they can work in 12-18 hours/day.

And if your friend is working in Viet Nam now, i hope i can talk with him and maybe he know how to do to improve working environment in Viet Nam

Thanks,

It is much different. I have been working with a local charity clinic, and the two-hour lunch breaks are a little excessive in my opinion. Some offices will work 6 hours a day; come in at 9, take off at 12, come back at 2, and leave again at 5. Even if you work 6 days a week, that's only 36 hours, far below the Western minimum of 40. I am the type of guy that normally brings lunch to work and eats at my desk so I don't have to stop working, so the new schedule takes a little getting used to.

jakejas wrote:

It is much different. I have been working with a local charity clinic, and the two-hour lunch breaks are a little excessive in my opinion. Some offices will work 6 hours a day; come in at 9, take off at 12, come back at 2, and leave again at 5.

If lunch breaks were shorter the Bum-Bum hotels would suffer. In the Phils they call this type of lunch break a Nooner. Britain has the Grub Screw.

But your charity is not the norm, many businesses have 60 minute lunch breaks which is often long enough to eat at home.

My two cutting businesses don't close for lunch - my employees have offset lunch breaks so work continues.

Thank you for your kindness in sharing your thought on my question. It seems that the experience can be different depending on the places.

About ten years ago, I read that state employees in Vietnam usually have a nap for one hour after lunch. Is it still true nowadays?

I don't know about Vietnam, but in the US, state employees [Comment deleted by NSA]

jimmyfry wrote:

About ten years ago, I read that state employees in Vietnam usually have a nap for one hour after lunch. Is it still true nowadays?

Sometimes it appears they sleep far, far, longer than that although the smell of money will wake them up. Instantly.

Remember being a state employee isn't that great - they are regularly underpaid.

jakejas wrote:

It is much different. I have been working with a local charity clinic, and the two-hour lunch breaks are a little excessive in my opinion. Some offices will work 6 hours a day; come in at 9, take off at 12, come back at 2, and leave again at 5. Even if you work 6 days a week, that's only 36 hours, far below the Western minimum of 40. I am the type of guy that normally brings lunch to work and eats at my desk so I don't have to stop working, so the new schedule takes a little getting used to.

I think you talk about those guy who work for Government. If they do harder, they also get same salary. If they do less, also same money got !

I see lots of workers start to work from 3 am, and finish his job on 9 pm or even more. 15-18 hours/day , no weekend. Work hard and earn living, If they don't work hard, nothing for them to eat ! 

jimmyfry wrote:

It seems that the experience can be different depending on the places.

.. and also on industries.
Anyway, 'more relaxing' = 'less income', just bear this in mind when making any decisions!

many VNese work hard but not all. defending what their position in their company and what their job . all you see is true but still have many pepole work hard ( you can see at construction site factory ..)  in some where state employees in Vietnam become work hard (not all)

It depend on where you work, both locations and industries.

Hour-long siesta can be quite common in one enterprise but forbidden in another. Or common in one area but rare in another. I think it's rare in Hanoi but other people may disagree with me. I've worked in one company where it can be quite long, and another where it's barely enough to eat your lunch. Most of them frame it 1200 to 1330.

Most companies I worked for, it's 5 day a week with Sat morning for playing around. But one work all 5.5 days. And one works 6 day straight, with sat is as productive as other days.

For Hanoi, I do think it's can be less stressful than abroad. and certainly less stressful than HCMC. Though HCMC people might disagree with me about this. A Hanoian saying "Hanoi khong voi duoc dau" (In Hanoi it's no use to hurry).

The low productivity I dont deny: too much FB/web surf in office.
The low creativity I do protest: Is that low, is that simply the foreign offices hogging the creativity control for themselves?