ON BEING FOREIGN

28 March 2026

Mike was born and raised in Iloilo. After graduating from university, he worked at a family firm that provided services across different sectors, including banking, foreign remittances, and event marketing.  After a couple of years and on a chance opportunity, he secured a job in a multinational advertising company in Manila. There, he had worked for five years when the company offered to transfer him to their main office in Singapore. In the ensuing years, Mike rose through the ranks until the office closed during the pandemic 15 years later. He had no complaints as he was given a handsome severance package.

However, during the pandemic, his father died, leaving his old and sickly mother alone in Iloilo. As an only child, he felt duty-bound to return home to care for her. With the skills he had gained from his years of experience in Singapore, he figured that he would have no problem working for another multinational company as soon as times normalised.  Mother and son thus transferred to Manila where more opportunities abounded.

As he had anticipated, he found immediate employment at a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), a company dealing with sales and promotions. The compensation package was competitive within the industry, the work was challenging, and as a former ex-pat from Singapore, he was given the head management position. He was tasked with leading the office to a turnaround as revenues were poor, and Head Office was concerned they might have to shut down the BPO.

Excited about this new opportunity, Mike thought he could likewise contribute to his country’s development. “This country is poor,” he said, “partly because we are inefficient, lack the work ethic of the Singaporeans, and don’t know how to create and put systems in place. These are my strong points. Also, I think we are not disciplined in our work attitudes, so I wanted to inject a sense of professionalism among my staff.”  

Mike’s first day at work reminded him of the old times in his Manila office. Just like then, office hours started at 9:00AM, but several of his staff of 15 ambled in as late as 10:00, allegedly because they lived far away, transportation was unreliable, traffic horrendous, or perhaps all of the above. Additionally, it might have rained heavily the previous night, and at least a couple of routes were flooded.  

It also happened that someone had a birthday that day, so in the celebrant strode with a big bag of pancit, lumpia, and cake. Drinks and ice cream would be had from a nearby grocery store. His staff had planned a little party at the office come merienda (snack) time.

Mike, of course, knew that Filipinos built their own families wherever they went. The office was simply an extension of the Filipino home—welcoming and hospitable. Moreover, birthdays are important occasions, and it was expected that the celebrant prepare some snacks for their officemates.  There would be an extended “break time,” when everyone would partake of the handa (preparations).

These happenings were therefore not strange to him.  He himself participated in such practices before he left for Singapore.  Like his old colleagues, he too did not keep time but often strolled into the office late; deadlines were suggestions from his friendly boss, although when worst came to worst, the group did not mind working overnight without sleep to submit a rushed report the next day.  As far as he remembered, he and his officemates were all good at improvisation.  But now, things should be different.

He reminded himself that most of his staff had been with the company for several years, and were set in their ways of work, so he had to tread carefully. There was the usual general banter, until people gradually began to settle down to listen to what Mike had to say. It was “Orientation Time.”

Mike began:  now that the pandemic was over, he expected everyone to report to work in-person as mandated by Head Office. He thought it was only reasonable as a number of areas in Metro Manila had poor internet connection, making hybrid work difficult. On the other hand, communication signals were more reliable in their BPO office.

Further, he was installing a clock-in system whereby people would have to sign in when they arrived at work and sign out when they left. To address the problem of heavy traffic, Mike introduced flexitime. Within certain parameters, staff could elect to come early or late as long as they put in eight hours of work each day with an hour’s staggered break time. He gave each one a week to decide on their work schedule. Glancing at his team, he could readily see that these announcements were not welcomed.

The following months were trying. He learned that after office hours, many of his staff often gathered with their former boss and enjoyed a few beers in the nearby bar, or sometimes, especially on Friday evenings, sang karaoke well into the night. Everyone had a good time. It was, in fact, the social interactions that most of them liked about their jobs. What Mike was doing now with his staggered work schedule was breaking up the group. On his part, he was deeply disappointed to be left out.  He, too, could be easy-going and jovial.  Moreover, he wanted to socialise with his staff and get to know them on a personal level. What better way to do this than to join his team over drinks outside the office?

In due course, Mike felt isolated. He noticed that people would whisper behind his back or stop talking the moment he passed by. Monday mornings were usually kuwentohan (storytelling) time when the women would narrate about their family’s outings and the men about their latest basketball match. One Monday, Mike observed that the office was abuzz with exchanges of digital photos and stories about one of their group’s big christening the day before. Not only was Mike not made ninong (godfather), which was the usual practice, but he wasn’t even invited!

Things came to a head when Mike called Flor, one of the staff, to remind her not to chat on Facebook for a long time or watch the latest Korean drama during office hours. He was careful to use the “sandwich approach”, i.e., say something good about the employee, then the criticism, and end it with another good observation. Flor, however, was deeply offended. Nobody had called her attention to this before—she felt it wasn’t as though she wasn’t doing her job. She rushed out of the room in tears and thereafter refused to talk to Mike.

These office dynamics went on for some time until one day Mike received an email from Head Office; attached was an official petition letter signed by all 15 staff members. They claimed that Mike was unduly strict and asked to be relieved from reporting to him. Instead, they wanted him replaced!

Mike was particularly hurt to read that the first signature, written big and bold, belonged to his neighbour Freddie. He and Freddie lived in the same condominium building. It had seemed that both men were starting to develop a friendship outside work—they would sometimes eat dinner together in a nearby coffee shop, and Freddie would fill him in on some of the goings-on at work. This was something Mike very much appreciated. Why would Freddie now do such a thing?

Mike reminded himself that he was assigned to his position because their BPO was not performing well, especially at this time when many foreign companies didn’t bother with BPOs as they could get similar services from online platforms. Further, he knew that if they did not generate higher revenue, they might no longer be able to justify their existence. He had thought his job was to professionalise his staff's practices so they could be more productive. He told head office as much during their succeeding Zoom dialogue.

Confused, Mike asked himself, what was he to do?

COMMENTARY

During the interview, a question was posed to Mike: what was his Singapore experience like?

“It was a whole new experience, and over time, my mindset changed because I could see their system was working – it was much easier for work to get done, and to feel a sense of accomplishment -- although it did seem for a while that people were not having as much fun at the office – no joking around, meetings started on time, and being late was embarrassing. There was a strict divide between work and after-work hours.

“They had a well-defined structure. Their policies explicitly stated which behaviours were permissible and which were forbidden, so the managers had no problem enforcing them. For example, they had quantifiable Key Performance Indicators (KPI) tied to bonuses or penalties. And KPIs were closely monitored and adhered to. We also have structures and policies here in Manila, but these are often not well thought through, and what is written on paper is not always taken seriously.

“Work here in Manila moves because there is a lot of flexibility. Rules are not as rigid, and you can bend them when you need to find ways around obstacles to get your job done. Also, when things break down, you know who can help and who you can call for favours. Moreover, officemates don’t mind stepping in for each other.

“Singapore felt almost the opposite. Work was expected to pass through formal systems, roles were clearly delineated. What staff did left a trail in the form of tickets, logs, approvals, and audits, which were integrated into their systems and embedded in their work culture. Therefore, one does not have to rely on favours or improvisation because the system itself carries the work. That meant they didn’t have to reinvent one-off solutions each time a similar task had to be done”.

There was a to-and-fro discussion between Mike and the interviewer, which led Mike to answer his own questions.

INTERVIEWER (INT): You are introducing new elements that should change the work behaviour of your staff. Change agents are not always popular, especially when the new practice runs counter to the workstyle of the group.

Yet, as change agent, you are poorly placed as you don’t have the authority to force compliance among your staff. As you know, that is the problem of people in middle-management. They usually are given responsibilities, but without the corresponding authority. The final authority rests at Head Office. Theyhave the authority to force compliance.

MIKE: "I know I can’t march them and order them like a military staff sergeant who can command his troops into obedience. That’s why I want to sellthe idea of change to them, to persuade them that unless we improve our productivity, Head Office will close us down. We all have an existential problem. I want them to understand that."

INT: And how do you plan to do that?

MIKE: "I don’t know yet, but I have thought about this carefully. Maybe take them out to a beach somewhere and have a weekend strategy session. I can lay bare our shared problem of underperformance. It helps that our performance is quantifiable in terms of revenues generated, so I can easily support my claim.

"I can then ask them for their own ideas on what to do. Maybe they will reject some of the new structures I have tried to put in place, such as clocking in and out, staggered office hours, and forbidding them from spending hours on social media whilst at work. But how then do they propose to solve our existential problem? I am, of course, presuming that our jobs are important to all of us.

"So that they understand where I am coming from, I can share what the work structure in my former company was like, and why it worked – the reason I tried to create similar structures at our BPO office here.

"In the meantime, I would share the information with Head Office so senior management is in the loop and can approve or disapprove of what I am trying to do here. . . . all told, I simply think good, inclusive communication is essential if I want the support of my staff and secure the permission from Head Office.

"I know that I cannot change the cultural attitudes and values of mykababayans (countrymen). Work habits are difficult to change, even if I had the power to compel them. So I have to work around these attitudes and values. For example, time to Filipinos is not commoditised – we cannot internalise the idea that time is money and it should be used wisely. Being late or early doesn’t mean much to my staff. This is exacerbated by the fact that we do have physical problems in both our geography and infrastructure.

“So, despite what I said about good communication, I intend to keep some things to myself. Again, another example: I need a buffer. I might set a deadline, say, two weeks earlier than required.

“I have a big advantage – coming from here, I can see both sides of the coin, and I instinctively know what to compromise and what to stand firm on. I am trying to strike a balance. I think we shouldn’t lose our proclivities for merriment, but we should tone them down so we can adopt measures to increase productivity as well. We need it if we want this country to develop economically”.

Mike knew, naturally, that these ideas were easier said than done. The following months would test whether his planned interventions would work.