Tuesday 5 February 2008

Office politics (2, final)


The couple fought. When they argued, Match liked throwing objects at her husband.

Two of these household items ended up at our place, after she threw them at Set, missed, and the objects broke. She couldn't be bothered getting them fixed, so gave them to Maiyuu instead.

One was a flat screen for a computer. The other was a paperweight shaped like an airplane.

If I quit a job on bad terms, I would not go back there. Thais have no such qualms.

Even after telling Set about his wife's behaviour, Maiyuu carried on doing relief work for them.

The day after the revelatory phone call to the husband, Maiyuu dropped in to the office.

Match looked miserable, but gave him a half-hearted wai.

'You were lucky - she could have scratched your eyes out,' I told him later.

Maiyuu found himself getting too close to his next boss, too.

His next employer, a gay Thai man in his late 20s, ran a shop at a night market, selling embroidered shoes, dresses, lights, and other homeware.

Soon after Maiyuu joined, his boss argued with his boyfriend, a part-shareholder in the venture. Maiyuu stayed overnight with his boss to keep him company after his ordeal.

The pair had known each other less than a month, but were already getting entwined in each other's personal lives.

Thais let the boundaries between work and private cross over in a way that westerners seldom do.

Even at work, employers and staff can get involved with each other where westerners might try to keep some distance.

I met his new boss at our home once. He stayed the night after he and his boyfriend entered another difficult patch.

I call him Poj, because he looks like like the Thai film director, Poj Anon.

When he was miserable, Poj would call Maiyuu for words of comfort and advice. Maiyuu used to take the calls in the bathroom, so as not to annoy me.

However, I could still Maiyuu making soothing sounds into the phone. At first I mistook Poj as a rival boyfriend.

I should have known better. They may be boss and employee, but because they are also fellow Thais, and gay, their work and private lives intermix.

The confusion over boundaries can present loyalty problems, as it did in Maiyuu's last workplace, where his bosses fought. It also affects the person left at home.

'Poj's argument had a knock-on effect on our relationship,' I told Maiyuu. 'While you are away all night consoling him, who is here for me?'

Since those early days, Maiyuu has grown up. If he takes calls from his boss, he sticks strictly to business. He no longer invites Poj to stay the night, and if Maiyuu sleeps over at work, it is because he is busy.

He sleeps a few hours, then carries on working so he can finish customers' orders. When the work ends, he comes home to me.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are welcome, in English or Thai (I can't read anything else). Anonymous posting is discouraged, unless you'd like to give yourself a name at the bottom of your post, so we can tell who you are.