Pay Day Anxiety: A Monthly Certainly for Expat Workers in China?

Pay Day Anxiety: A Monthly Certainly for Expat Workers in China?
Sep 10, 2021 By Jessica A. Larson-Wang , eChinacities.com

Every month when payday rolls around, especially around the national holidays when I’m due paid leave, I get an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know this feeling is irrational. I have a good, stable job, I’m on a legitimate signed contract, and I’ve not once been given a reason to doubt the integrity of my employer. So why is it that I still have this unshakeable feeling that some terrible calamity is surely about to befall me around pay day?

pay day anxiety

Once bitten, twice shy, I suppose. Most expats workers in China, aside from those lucky enough to be employed by reputable international firms, are probably used to the rather unstable nature of working and getting paid here. English teachers in particular usually have a wealth of stories about being fired without warning, having their salaries docked, their schools closing unexpectedly, and their pay delayed. This sorts of thing is, of course, unacceptable, but chances are that anyone with any significant work history here will have had to swallow at least one bitter pill over the years. Finding fighting for their rights fruitless, many disgruntled expat workers in China end up cutting their losses and leaving posts or the country entirely with a bad taste in their mouths.

I started working in China in 2003 at a big and famous university in Kunming. The pay was laughingly low, as was the norm for university work in that area at that time, but I enjoyed my job and didn’t complain about the salary as I knew what I was letting myself in for when I signed up. The drama only came when I decided to leave.

At the end of my contract, I turned my passport over to the university’s Foreign Affairs Officer (FAO) so he could convert my expiring residence permit into a tourist visa while I got my affairs in order. When I went to pick up my passport, however, the FAO claimed that he’d overpaid me since I’d not worked a full month for my final month in the job. Of course this was ridiculous, since nothing was stated in the contract about pro-rating the last month’s pay and I’d already spent the entirety of my paltry salary. Still, the FAO threatened to keep my passport unless I gave him more than 1,000 RMB.

Getting desperate, I threw a fit right there in the office, attracting the attention of the FAO’s boss, who asked what the issue was and told me there was no question of me having to return any money to the school. He gave me back my passport and apologized. I later learned that the FAO was eventually fired for (what else but) embezzling school funds in a rather ingenious scheme that involved taking the TVs from foreign teachers’ apartments on the grounds that they were “broken” and replacing them with cheaper models. He was then selling the “broken” TVs for his own profit.

Although my story had a relatively happy ending, it was only the first of many questionable experiences I had as an expat worker in China. Over the years, I’ve accumulated my fair share of horror stories, although my stories are tame compared to some I’ve heard from other expats.

That isn’t to say that I’ve never had a good experience working here or that the good doesn’t outweigh the bad. It’s simply that bad experiences tend to leave a rather deeper impression. If you read online expat forums, particularly those relating to teaching English in China, it’s easy to get the impression that there are simply no good employers and you’d be nuts to accept a job here. The truth of the matter is that good jobs are a bit like good relationships; they’re not always easy to find and maintain, and it takes some experience to tell a good one from a bad one. It’s also true that the more desperate you are, the easier it is to find yourself in a mess.

The fact of the matter is that all expats, no matter what they’re doing here, are working away from their homes in a society with very different rules. We often enter into situations with rather unrealistic expectations, at least by local standards. We expect high pay, sociable hours, Western standard accommodation and, most of all, superiors we can have an open dialogue with. In all honestly, however, the horror stories of expat workers in China all pale in comparison to what many Chinese workers have to put up with on a daily basis.

Chinese workers, for the most part, take what they can get, do what the boss says and work uncomplainingly. If they find themselves being unfairly treated, they tend to stick with it until the situation gets truly unbearable or they find something better, at which point they will quit. My husband, for example, worked for four years at a large company, never knowing month to month when exactly he would get paid. Pay day was supposedly on the 5th of each month, but sometimes it would be the 1st, sometimes the 15th.

In another example, the Chinese employees at the university I worked at in Kunming would routinely work overtime and through their lunch hours without pay. If they were even a minute late, however, they’d lose 100 RMB from their 1,000 RMB salaries. While expat workers would most likely be irate at either one of those situations, many Chinese employees take this sort of thing in their stride.

Perhaps problems arise when people apply their own expectations to people of another culture; when Chinese employers expect foreign workers to have a more Chinese attitude to their work, and when foreigners expect foreign attitudes from their Chinese bosses. Either way, after years working in China, I’ve never quite managed to strike the correct balance between my expectations and what I know can be the reality.

Pay day anxiety may just be the one thing I can truly rely on each month...

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Keywords: Expat workers in China

7 Comments

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ecc_4881708

Hello Dear, I am Prof. David Auckland from the UK, I am 51 Years Old, based and grown up in the UK with my 3 years old daughter. I need honest and trustworthy workers to work with my family,such as an Au-pair, Nanny, Babysitter,Nursing mother , Housekeeper, Cleaner ,Driver and a Security Guard. I would preferably from the Philippines, India or anywhere in the world to come and work for me in the U.K even if you are not ready please help me to find someone that can work for me if you have family then you can come with them. I am willing to offer £550 (Five Hundred & Fifty Pound Sterling) per week and will provide monthly shopping allowances as well as accommodation. If you are interested please contact me on my email address: Email: (4881708@gmail.com) Thanks Prof. David Auckland

Nov 06, 2021 19:40 Report Abuse

Dennis610

It is ok and acceptable to the development of the country

Sep 25, 2021 03:34 Report Abuse

sorrel

yes, it is acceptable to mistreat employees and hold them to ransom by not paying salary owed WHEN owed. How better to control workers than withhold their salary?

Sep 26, 2021 15:45 Report Abuse

allanmacatangay9

I am proud and confident become part of eChinacities.com this is big apportunity and privileged not only for me for global and world it would be great and productive,,your mission and vision should help encourage more people..hope all members have a team work God bless and take care everyone,

Sep 17, 2021 14:12 Report Abuse

Spiderboenz

Why did the other answer get harmonized?

Sep 15, 2021 01:19 Report Abuse

Guest17124634

It is quite true what you said about the work culture in China. I'm glad your good overall experience outweighs the bad anyway. To further add on to the argumnet that "Chinese workers, for the most part, take what they can get, do what the boss says and work uncomplainingly.", this happens not just because we Chinese workers take what we can get, but also because we're poor at workplace communication, especially when upward-managing (managing own superior). I remember a few occasions when I balled up and went to the boss' office and talked about a few issues. After a few times, I managed to convince the boss that some of the decisions or policies will only work against the company, which kinda helped change the boss' mind in the end. I did so not by playing the defending-my-right card or pointing out straight what was wrong with the company's behavior, rather I brought up what it could do to the company's good (like loss of morale, less sales, higher staff turnover). If this won't get the boss reflecting, I don't know what will. I guess different cultures takes different approaches/attitudes to achieve same result. It does take a bit of getting used to.

Sep 10, 2021 10:58 Report Abuse