I've been living in Dhaka for the last few years. Ask me anything.

[ammark]

In my experience as a corporate trainer as well as having worked in an ForEx dealing room in Dhaka, and now in a 100% local Bangladeshi quite small enterprise, a fundamental issue at the workplace is "culture".

In the bank I was in a team of fundamentally very hard workers. They are very smart, quick thinkers, have a lot of work load and do it all at the expense of "work-life balance". But the fundamental problem is one of productivity, of mindsets and a mental approach that degrades productivity and perpetuates the issue of working long hours without being able to enjoy a good home life. A big issue for that is "Sir office theke na jaowa porjonto ami jete parbo na". While this might seem "irrational" the reason is often that some sir at the top has neglected/or taken on a certain bit of extra work, and now insists on his subordinates to (help him) do it last minute.

- first of all it is completely unprofessional to delegate work after work hours for which your subordinate is not supposed to be responsible. This lack of accountability is insane.
- secondly, in doing so, often times the subordinate has wasted a lot of time (many hours) not doing anything and simply waiting for the task to come his way!
- Bottlenecks and backlogs - everyday we stayed late at the office because we were waiting for someone else's work to come through to us which we would have to work on and complete. Often times the backlog was perpetuated because the other office had its own similar dynamics that are mentioned above.

When we were training X MNC or Y Big Bangladeshi Conglomerate, we were trying to observe, evaluate and help them apply certain skills that would increase trust between employees from different departments (meaning often times they would not even be interacting with each other much). We often saw here that there was fundamental issues in workplace communications that were ineffective and often counterproductive with different employees being on different wavelengths.

There is a fundamental issue of mindsets where managers stifle creativity or new ideas simply because of their seniority (implying experience, age, knowledge, etc). On the other hand, as in the case of Kabir bhai's uncle, there is an intense need for micromanaging, simply because while 1 employee has good talent and accountability and skills, the rest are all incapable of owning up to responsibility.

I have noticed this in quite a few places, there is a mindset of inferiority where "upor theke na order ashle ami eta korte parbo na" or "apnara senior, apnader kothatei shob cholbe". Business processes in local firms are intensely bureaucratic and personality/individual focused rather than process driven. And a fundamental problem I'm facing in my work is that, I cant really change the processes with my limited resources. On the one hand, my biggest assets regarding product knowledge and technical skills are in a position that new ideas, criticisms or objections regarding say product delivery are dismissed outright by them. They are very dogmatic in their mindsets and opening them up to change is really hard.

While those who are out there on a day to day basis interacting with the market do not have the support and resources necessary to contribute to crucial decision making. So when there arises a problem from the customer side, there is often a blame game played, jharis and shouting bouts, after which people seem to hurry up and run around a bit, and then the problem repeats itself.

Overall, the biggest problem is of the lack of accountability, and how often times people dont take any responsibility. And this gets perpetuated and standardised in workplace culture. The damage this does to productivity is terrible. People work hard in Bangladesh, but they are incapable of working smart and of correcting the problems due to established workplace culture and bad management practice. And its actually sad, that because of resource-constraint even impact-assessment, follow-ups and performance evaluations get thrown out the window instead to focus on day-to-day operations most of the time.

[Kabir]

Good details there, Ammar.

Completely agree with the "upor theke order na ashle korte parbo na" pointer. I was once called a chicken by my boss for being too nervous in taking ownership of what I was actually responsible for! Wish our work culture worked that way too!

Really, what's the solution to this problem? As Ammar is saying, because when they were juniors they had to go through the same thing. And now they're staying back late, while their subordinates are waiting for orders, killing time, productivity, and everything. This is a vicious cycle!

One question, and I've always wondered the state that BD companies are at in managing their work. Do they utilize IT systems for managing their work and client relationships? How do they check-in their work without feeling nervous of losing to a competing colleague who might steal their idea? Could the check-in processes not be used to provide credits to the individuals actually doing their work? How do they measure people's work on a constant basis? What sort of reporting goes into it? What are their key performance indicators? How do they get measured?

[ammark]

^^^ Issue about ownership of one's own work - this is a problem in Bangladesh because of the absence of positive reinforcement/incentives while there is huge amount of negative reinforcement which serve as disincentives. You were saying about checking in work - even in the bank I worked in, as given in my previous post, subordinates often do not get credit for their extra work. The credit (if any) will be taken by the manager in question. This in itself is a disincentive, given that first of all they are not being acknowledged for their contribution. On the other hand when things fail, the burden is then passed on to the subordinate. I have seen first hand that because of a manager's failure for his own work that certain subordinates were not supposed to be involved with, the subordinates suffered through withholding of annual bonuses.

Circumstances such as these are again an effect of the negative culture. And when it threatens employee promotion prospects and pay, people would rather play it safe than take the risk of taking ownership and responsibility. There is no value placed in having autonomy over your work. On the other hand, especaially in banks, if you dont stay back for extra hours, extra work and sucking up to boss, then you wont be considered an effective employee. This is so widespread that it is often outside of middle management and employee's comprehension what ownership of work actually means. Instead you have a culture that enables and perpetuates NASTY workplace politics.

And trust me, no firm is immune to these sort of things. Even GrameenPhone has had its turmoils with senior management and currently with employees striking. Only BAT and Unilever are reputed to be the best in employing sound management practice, but outside that, nowhere is safe. Standard Chartered only recently implemented a policy that doesnt allow working late, but the culture is pretty much still the same no matter how much people sugar coat it.

[BANFAN]

ammark: And trust me, no firm is immune to these sort of things. Even GrameenPhone has had its turmoils with senior management and currently with employees striking. Only BAT and Unilever are reputed to be the best in employing sound management practice, but outside that, nowhere is safe. Standard Chartered only recently implemented a policy that doesnt allow working late, but the culture is pretty much still the same no matter how much people sugar coat it.

Happy to hear that they are still maintaining that reputation.

I worked for a few years in BAT and I was amazed seeing almost a zeo hierarchy there. Extremely performance oriented org and they have an excellent appraisal and measurement system in practice.

[Crisis]

Thanks ammark for the info.
What about timeliness? Do people start work sharp on time?
What about adda? - people go make cup of tea and then have an hour of adda?
What happens when loadshedding happens ? All work comes to a halt?

Btw, from what I have read so far as stated by you, I would have great difficulty working in BD in such unprofessional environments.



British American Tobacco - BAT ?

[ammark]

Originally Posted by BANFAN
Happy to hear that they are still maintaining that reputation.

I worked for a few years in BAT and I was amazed seeing almost a zeo hierarchy there. Extremely performance oriented org and they have an excellent appraisal and measurement system in practice.

Absolutely. We've worked with BAT in quite a few projects, and they were our most prized client. Not just because of their interest in doing programs with us, but because they actually followed up on their own with sustained implementation of our recommendations, with regular impact assessment and evaluations of our work. BAT's professionalism made all the difference in us feeling good about our work. In fact both my bosses were ex-BAT. Most other clients, despite having good intentions and repeatedly engaging us as consultants, simply werent capable or as professional to independently follow up and make continuing implementations and assessments for our programs.

[Zeeshan]

ammark smammark... ekta tooldar* mere dey eikhane

[samircreep]

It's just sad that a company that sells cancer is the most efficient and professional company in BD.

But very astute points anmark and Dhur. Spot on. I have worked almost all my working life in BD and I fully concur.

[BANFAN]

Originally Posted by samircreep
It's just sad that a company that sells cancer is the most efficient and professional company in BD.

But very astute points anmark and Dhur. Spot on. I have worked almost all my working life in BD and I fully concur.

Ya that's sad.

Apart from their professionalism in business, BAT is also the best Socially Responsible Company of the country.

[samircreep]

which i also found to be ironical. i'm creating cancer on one hand while planting trees as well. mojar bepar.

they also have a very good marketing unit and hire very bright local kids. kudos for that at least.

[iDumb]

so dhurr bhai, where can i get a good date in dhaka....for under 100 dollars? since u know everything.

[BANFAN]

Originally Posted by iDumb
so dhurr bhai, where can i get a good date in dhaka....for under 100 dollars? since u know everything.

I recommend 'Chondrima Uddyan' for you.... It's less than a $ ...

[Dhurr]

Originally Posted by iDumb
so dhurr bhai, where can i get a good date in dhaka....for under 100 dollars? since u know everything.

Hey Orpheus, kajer buas won't charge you a hundred dollars. Why do you want to waste your money?

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Wonder what the software industry looks like in Bangladesh. You can only know so much from reading up online, so I'd be interested in an insider's POV. Is there a lot of R&D? Are there many product driven businesses or is it mostly consulting? Is there any innovation whatsoever? Do Bangladeshi companies get a lot of outsourced work?

Not planning to move back at all, just curious.

Dhurro Dhurr bhai, apni bole shob janen, amar proshner uttor dilen na to! Ami ekhane chagoler moto boshe boshe tension loitachi aar apnar kono patta nai!

[mac]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Dhurro Dhurr bhai, apni bole shob janen, amar proshner uttor dilen na to! Ami ekhane chagoler moto boshe boshe tension loitachi aar apnar kono patta nai!

Best person to answer your question is WarWolf bhai.