Air locked inside the office

I have received requests to share findings and feelings from the work perspective. This episode provides all the fun and excitement that goes on within office premises in Singapore.

Now having successfully raised the expectations, let me share a secret: office life in a multinational company doesn't really change that much from one country to another. On the contrary, it keeps surprising me again and again how overwhelming can be the power of a shared global corporate culture: Everybody speaks the same language (No, that is not English, but acronym infested Nerdish), they all have a place in the same organizational structure that is replicated in each country, they share the same concerns to a minute detail, there are too many back to back meetings, they share the same tools and processes (need to add that they all have the same warm feelings about processes).

In my line of work I probably shouldn't be as pleasantly astonished how internal IT can actually work on a global level. But I am: same badge works on the doors once given accesses in a matter of seconds, laptop picks up the same WLAN and starts to work directly, printers are all accessible through the same system and as mentioned all the tools used are indeed the same (although finally having a freedom from claiming my hours -- how sweet is that!)

Obviously there are also differences. There really aren't that many occasions where I would get to speak Finnish. To the extent that I found myself thinking in English also outside the office. I work in a truly multinational team with colleagues from India, UK, Australia, China, US and naturally Singapore. We venture out for lunch much later than back home where there are people standing orderly in a queue waiting already before the cafeteria opens at 11 AM. The security seems to be also tighter around here. Accessing a bathroom that is shared with another company in the same floor of the office building is a space craft air lock type of an experience with interlocking doors which cannot be opened at the same time (I just anticipate the first time I will go to the bathroom and realize that I have left my badge on the table <-- this is the excitement part promised in the first chapter). 

Finally there is the matter of number of hours being spent at the office in a day. There was a recent study published in Europe which demonstrated that Finnish people are among the group that spends the least time in the office compared to other fellow European office workers. In Singapore the tendency seems to be more of an Asian approach with number of hours at the office being a value in itself. Once again the company culture seems to have a veto right with the focus on the outcome in all the countries.



As a teaser for the next episode: it will feature various dangerous animals which lurk around when I'm sleeping.

As chatty as you can get

Gotta comment on my own posting from yesterday: Talk about chatty taxi drivers! Today I was driven by an elderly Chinese gentleman who talked and talked like there was no end to it during the whole trip from work to a potential school for a campus visit. This guy just couldn't stop talking and laughing out loud (LOLing?) almost about every possible thing there is.

It is not really customary here to tip (which I really appreciate), but I decided that this was such a fun ride that I proposed him to keep any change from notes of intentionally too large denomination. But he didn't want to hear about any of that. On the contrary it was he who insisted on actually giving me money from his own wallet so that the fare was lower than the meter reading!! Suffice to say, it was me who reminded him to turn the meter on in the first place after we had left my office building. He forgot to turn it on while busy talking to me. He said the lower fare was because I seem such a stand up guy for paying the effort to willingly integrate into Singaporean society through learning my new surroundings and reading the local newspaper (vs. subscribing to news from home country). I wonder how he got those tidbits as he didn't let me do any of the talking...

Totally recalling the original initial feelings

Commuting to work this morning -- by bus mind you -- I picked up interesting comment from morning radio show: "PIE is congested, affecting TPE and quite possibly ECP". Singapore is very fond of TLAs (three letter acronyms). The list of acronyms in SG seems endless. Over the last few days I have come across at least  MOM, HBD, MRT, DBS, ERP, GST, NRIC, EP and also the names of the highways as mentioned over the radio.  The plethora of acronyms borders on the extend of acronym usage within one specific global IT conglomerate.

It's not only acronyms, but having visited Singapore previously on private trips, there are number of apparent things which didn't surprise me anymore. In terms of comprehensiveness, I try to memorize some of the very first impressions I had on my previous visits. I am not planning to rephrase wikipedia entry of Singapore as such, but emphasizing on some of my original initial feelings.

Singapore seems to be a model society when it comes to harmoniously integrating different ethnicities and religions. There is probably more to this when digging in deeper into the society, but the first impression is definitely a positive one. On any given street one can spot a hindu temple right next to a mosque right next to a catholic church. There are total of 4 official languages used (Mandarin, Malay and Tamil) in addition to English being shared by all groups, which seemingly increases internal unity among the population. The accent of local English takes a while to get used to, but level of English is very good compared to any other Asian country I have visited. For example all taxi drivers speak English -- which is not the case for example in New York! Taxi drivers tend to be often actually a very chatty bunch of people. I just got an extensive marketing speech for Asus padphone during my latest Taxi trip.

One thing that cannot be left unnoticed on the very first trip to Singapore is the amount of trees, flowers and overall greenery left in between the buildings. Too often in the concrete jungles of any major metropolitan cities the trees are strictly confided to their own areas within fenced parks, but over here the city planners have had the sense of not hiding the tropical nature of the geographical location of the country. Just for example the East Coast Parkway (aforementioned ECP) -- highway leading from the airport to the city -- is surrounded by umbrella trees giving shade and cut in half with endless bushes and flower beds.

Another apparent finding is the general cleanliness of the surroundings. One doesn't really find any rubbish or trash whatsoever thrown on ground anywhere within the city. There is not a one broken public property (like a bus stop or trash cans) in sight. After visiting a public park in Berlin during one weekend, I have seen the other end of the same axis. There are most likely couple of explanations for this: primary one being the draconian nature of law interpretation in the country. The punishments for any devious activity no matter how minor in nature (like jaywalking, littering, driving a car with black smoke coming out of the exhausting pipe...) can be very severe from extensive fines to public caning and eventually to capital punishment. So as long as I'm able to resist my urges of random acts of vandalism like spray painting over a diplomats car, I am happily enjoying very safe and clean surroundings. But in addition to fear of punishment, I believe, one main motivation of upholding to these virtues is the positive feedback loop: as long as everybody puts out their cigarettes in the provided ash trays nobody wants to be the first one to start littering the grounds.

Finally I could go on and on about the first impressions around different cuisines served around here, but I'll save that as a completely separate blog entry -- perhaps multiple entries.

First day @ office

Even though 5 hour time difference did not mess up my head too badly, in the morning did not feel adventurous enough to start finding my way to office with public transportation, but jumped into a taxi. The hotel I ended up in is located far away from everything else but my office -- still it takes 15 minutes with a taxi to get there. Taxis are relatively cheap mode of transportation compared to the way things are at dear old home country. However expect to get myself orientated around public transportation the soonest.


Realized pretty quickly that with wearing a suit I was way overdressed. Not only doesn't the local business attire expect a jacket but also it’s unbearably hot outside with a jacket on. Inside I could do with a jacket actually because the aircon is tuned all the way up to a setting resembeling the weather during mid-winter in Finland.

As part of a major global company, there is a process (or typically several) for everything, including for relocation. There were number of colleagues from HR department running me through different forms and practicalities. By the looks of it, I'm hardly the first one to go through these activities.

As for the actual work activities, the relocation practicalities have been fortunately taken into account. Therefore, for the first 2 weeks I will be having the needed freedom to run on different errands.

Kicking things off with succulent shrimps

A challenge was set forth for me to blog my experiences regarding backing my stuff and relocating from wintery Finland to sunny Singapore (hence the title of the blog). I have been pondering on the challenge for a week and finally realized that if I don't start to document the peculiarities during the first weeks, I will loose my childlike sense of wonder sooner rather than later. Thus here we go...

Great Adventure is about to be embarked, yet I cannot shake the initial feeling of discomfort. The final words of my 6 year old son, just before I left my old home, were “Please hold me tightly, Dad, just one last time”. I will migrate myself first and my family follows me after a few months when I have settled in. But I have to wonder what have I just thrown myself into?

Then again on the very first evening dipping into hotel's infinity pool way above the roofs of nearby buildings and watching planes coming in closer and rolling out their landing gear almost at the touching distance makes me feel that I’m not in Kansas anymore -- or in Helsinki for that matter.

First experiment into eating out was obviously a positive one. But then again is there any real possibility for an epic failure when it comes to food in a city of whose habitants’ favourite pastime is eating out. It has also been said that there are absolutely no reasons for not eating well in Singapore. On the first evening it was Peranakan cuisine (let me google that for you: “Peranakan or Nonya cuisine combines Chinese, Malay and other influences into a unique blend”). Amazingly succulent shrimps with aromatic and spicy paste served on a bamboo leaf. Good stuff. This is, indeed, a start of an adventure.