Work in Colombia: different?
Work in Colombia: different?
maybe you work here before, but here is what I think of it
It has been always really strange to me the work ethic here in Colombia. This is what I have notice from jobs I have done and what I can see happens outside the country.
First of all, majority of jobs here are payed by salary and not by the hour. So people don’t really have a baseline of how much their hourly wage is, there is not really a way to recognize or value the time someone spends in the work. Summing to that, because salary is already paid regardless of the amount of time in the workspace, employers won’t really care the amount of overwork.
Now, work in office people tend to overstay their time doing more work, it is not uncommon to leave the office after-hours.
Take this story from one of my cousins. She is a lawyer, office time goes as regular form 9 to 5, but always said that because her boss was busy in court she always came back around 3pm. And that was a big issue, she believed real work started when she got there and started to correct other people work, so at the end of the day she never left at 5pm, always was more than that.
Obviously she complained a lot and said that that boss was not a particularly good person. But she stay in that position for two years.
And trust me, she is not the exception.
You can always see how much people overwork without a real monetary compensation. I don’t really know if thats something only happening in Colombia but I can tell the experiences here.
I have some theories about this:
-The lack of real opportunities here, people have to overstay in their jobs regardless of how bad their treatment is, including the overtime work that won’t be paid.
-Some cultural way of thinking that guided us to think that working hard is a way to impress the boss in the job.
-Maybe some people don’t really appreciate their time and maybe the perception here is that time is not associated with money.
-I am sure that many people if their boss ask him to stay for more work, they will be ashamed to ask to be paid the extra hours. I am sure about it.
At this point, now I could never see myself working extra hours without a real monetary compensation. My mindset is different now and the jobs I have I know are just an income, and how stupid would it be to leave extra money on the table. But as I mentioned, for much more people their jobs is not only the one and only chance to work, but also associate their jobs with their personality and who they are.
Thats what I have notice, and again it might be a cultural latin trait, but as a Colombian I can only be certain about behaviours here.
And thats a big difference here, maybe what is what is called life-work balance here is not as good in other countries that won’t push you or take advantage of you after hours.
Thats my way of view how the workforce is here, but maybe you have a different point of view, we can have a discussion of it in my Twitter account, please reach out: