Navigating Thai Work Culture: Essential Tips for Expats

[00:00:00] Are you starting a business in Thailand or maybe starting a job in Thailand and new to the Thai culture? Well, I can tell you there are a few things that you really have to make sure you understand when you are working or doing business in Thailand.

[00:00:14] Today I’m gonna share some of the mistakes that I made and overcame, and ones that I see a ton of expats make when they are working or doing business in Thailand.

[00:00:24] Now, the first tip that I have for you is to respect hierarchy. Hierarchy is very important in Thai culture. And so let’s assume that you’re joining as an expat employee, either in a Thai company or in a expat owned company with Thai staff. Well, when you come in, you’re probably gonna come in with a lot of ideas. And you’re gonna think, oh, why are things done this way? Why are things done that way? Maybe we should change this. Maybe we should change that. And while you certainly can begin to make an impact in the company that way, if you do that, you’re very likely going to be frustrating the Thai staff that are maybe a manager level or senior manager level. If you are making all these moves without their approval, without talking to them, then they’re gonna feel disrespected. And it’s gonna cause problems down the road. I’d highly encourage you to build trust up with team members, get to know them better, get to know managers, senior managers, other staff, even if they’re the equivalent level of you, and just make sure that they get you, they understand you, and you’re not just coming in like a bulldozer, trying to make changes without asking for permission, without asking for approval from other people in the company.

[00:01:31] The second tip and thing to understand is personal relationships in Thailand. I think in a lot of Western countries we get very used to having the separation of work and personal life. And you finish your nine to five job, you go back home and that’s where you can have your personal time with your family or friends. And while that certainly can be the case here in Thailand too, you will find a lot of companies that really blur that line between personal and professional life. Maybe the team members stay late after work, but the idea is that they’re going to blur that line between personal and professional relationships. Now, that doesn’t mean that you have to fully adhere to that, but if you can, go out with staff afterwards. Have a nice dinner out after work. Do what you can to actually get to see the personal side of other people, because when they like you on the personal level, they’re gonna treat you much differently on the professional level at work as well. Now, one mistake I’ve seen in this area is, let’s say that you own a business and you’re thinking about making things fun for your staff, and you’re saying, Hey, we’re gonna order some pizzas. We’re gonna have fun in the office. That’s fine. And of course that’s very common here as well. But if you can try to have a separation where you’re allowing that personal side to come out more, which is usually away from the office. If you’re gonna have pizza, do that outside of the office and don’t talk about work. Because especially owners, we tend to always talk about work. Always talk about ideas. Always try to get ideas from the staff and the people. But I’d highly suggest instead focusing on the personal side. Talk to them about their family, about their siblings, about what’s going on in their life. And when they start to expose those things to you and build up trust with you, then they’re gonna trust you much more in the work environment as well.

[00:03:23] Tip number three is to be aware of the indirect communication in Thailand. And what I mean by that is that in Thailand, you’re not gonna speak very directly like you would in like an American environment. And so it means you have to be a little more passive with your language, or it means that your staff or your Thai employees are gonna be a little more passive with you. Now, a way this can really hurt you is if you believe that when someone says yes, they mean yes. Because in Thailand, yes, does not always mean yes. So let me explain this. Let’s imagine that you want something completed on a certain date or at a certain time. Well, if you ask a very forceful question like, are you gonna have this to me by tomorrow? Or is this gonna be done by this date? That is a very forceful question, where it’s very obvious the answer that you want. But if you ask that question, chances are a Thai staff member is going to say yes. Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. Yes, of course. But I’ve seen so many times that number one, it’s either not possible or they don’t believe it’s possible to get it done at that time, or even worse, they don’t even understand the request, but because you have pushed something so firmly and you know that you want the answer of yes, they’re going to hesitate to push back at you because the momentum is already going in that direction. And so in Thailand, remember yes, does not always mean yes. So how do you combat this? Well, the main thing that I’d recommend doing is do not have forceful questions. Instead, ask not leading questions, but ask questions about their capacity. Ask questions about how busy they are. Ask questions about what they’re prioritizing right now. So if you ask some of these questions around what’s going on in the work environment and what’s going on in terms of capacity, then you can start to formulate whether or not something is possible or not. And then rather than, yes, no questions of do you understand, make sure that they’re repeating back to you what it is that you want and whether or not it’s feasible. And you have to just, again, soften the language up a little bit. Doesn’t mean not caring about deadlines. It just means about how you’re presenting your requests or presenting your questions.

[00:05:34] Tip number four is to be delicate with criticism because the concept in Thailand, and honestly in a lot of Asian cultures, is you don’t want to lose face, and that means you don’t want to look bad in front of others. And so it’s very important that you do not criticize Thai staff publicly. Now I know again, in Western culture, you might think, Hey, we have a team or a company culture of being open about when we make mistakes and always sharing when there’s a problem. ‘Cause after all, what’s the worst that can happen? We wanna share the mistakes, we wanna talk about them, and we wanna overcome them together and we can be better together, right? That’s the concept. But here’s the problem. This is Thailand. And in Thailand you do not wanna criticize publicly. And so as much as you might think that you’re not too harsh on people when they make mistakes. If you’re pointing out the mistakes they made in a public environment, then they are very likely going to lose face in that environment. So how do you solve this? Well, the first thing you do is you criticize privately. Now, I know this isn’t much different than other cultures as well. Of course, this is the nicer way to deal with it. When you have criticism, take someone off to the side, speak to them privately about it. But do not make them lose face in front of their colleagues, in front of their friends, in front of other people. It’s all needs to be private. And to be honest, even positive reinforcement when someone does something well. I know plenty of Thai staff that don’t want people to be speaking highly of them in front of a group if you’re doing a team meeting. So that’s why even in those situations, I would ask the person ahead of time, is it okay if I bring up that great thing that you did? Just make sure that you have the buy-in from them versus doing something publicly without asking.

[00:07:21] Now tip number five is to adapt to Thailand. I see far too many owners, far too many business leaders, think that Thailand’s going to adapt to them. And that is a recipe for disaster. Because of course you don’t have to adapt fully to Thailand. Of course, you are maybe not trying to start a Thai company. You’re trying to start more of an international company in Thailand. Or you’re trying to start some sort of a hybrid company where it’s a mix of Thai culture and your home country’s culture. And while that’s totally fair, the idea is you still are going to have to adapt yourself. And instead of complaining about all the way things are, oh my gosh, my staff doesn’t show up on time. Oh my gosh. People don’t gimme the real answers to questions. I wish this. I wish that. None of it matters. The only thing you can change is yourself. Of course, you can adapt Thai staff over time. You can adapt your team over time so they’re may be more open to talking with you. But just remember that it’s up to you. You are not going to change a country yourself. You’re only gonna hurt yourself if you think you’re gonna do that. And then you’re gonna be a victim. So I’d highly encourage you to accept that you need to adapt to Thailand in order to be successful in Thailand.

[00:08:33] Now, one final tip that I have is to also give gifts when it makes sense. And what I mean by this is just like you might bring your security staff a gift. If you live in some sort of a gated community or a condo. You might give them a little bit of food, things like that. We’ll do the same thing for staff and for team members. If you’re going somewhere and you can pick up some chocolates, bring chocolates. If you have some great coffee from your home country and you’re coming back, bring that. So it could be very small gestures.

[00:09:01] Now I’d also say gift giving can be very good, even if it’s a large gesture. Let’s say that you have a staff member that actually is maybe a partner in the company. Maybe they’re a Thai partner in your business. Well, one great idea that I heard recently was giving some gold. Of course the price of gold and gold bars has gone up quite a bit recently. But if it’s a very significant contribution and you wanna give some sort of year end bonus or things like that, maybe consider giving a one baht gold bar. Something like that really does say a lot. It says that you’re appreciative of their work.

[00:09:34] Especially if it’s coming from an owner or a founder. ‘ cause it just shows that you care and you went through the effort to get them something that they probably really care about.

[00:09:41] All right, well, I hope you got value out of this if you did, all I ask is that you like and subscribe to the videos.

[00:09:47] I work with a ton of expat business owners in Thailand and I always share this advice, but I wanna share it more publicly so everyone can learn together. So again, if I missed anything, if I was wrong about anything, you can leave comments down below.

[00:10:00] I hope you got value from this though, and I’ll catch you on the next one. Bye for now.