Boot Culture/ TC Culture / Buttering Up Culture whatever you call it but I found it widely prevalent in Pakistani culture. I had a chance to work both in Pakistan and and America and difference is so obvious. Desis do try to use their ‘charms’ on goray bosses but I hardly found if it works. But at the same time they try to ‘boot polish’ their desi bosses and they end up getting promotions and what not. I think its one of the gifts that we inherited from our older generations, under British rule.
Have you noticed the same attitude in your office ? any experiences ?
SP in Americans I found it very less, though desis always try to butter them up but they hardly do that to each other. Don’t u think so ? and Yes it is a very third world thing I guess .
You mean Kissing ass? It always works, except If you make it too obvious that you're kissing up to get something. So yeah, it's not just a Pakistani thing. LOL
***Its an Asian/Arab trait …I’ve worked in the Middle East and it was prevalant there.
It was the primary reason for Quitting my job because I just could NOT get myself to do that and without it your efforts are undermined.
Not only internally to get ahead in the workplace but also extends to getting anything done. I’ve had patients actually threaten me in the hospital a few times in ME because they were refused admission or told to wait their turn in busy Emergency or Clinic.
An Example : This one guy whose wife i’d already seen ahead of another patient had the gall to start screaming at my nurse to hurry up the admission procedure and when I intervened and asked what was the problem he goes:
" Tell her to do it fast or i’ll leave ! …
i’m like sure go ahead your wife is about to deliver but your welcome to take her elsewhere and then he goes
" Hurry up or i’ll call the Director General of the Health authority in the Country …
I gave him my telephone and told him to go ahead or would you like me to dial the number ! …That Shut him Up !
Its attitudes like that which give birth to Cultures like this. Its like if we have contacts we can get things done and the best way to do that is exploit those contacts by name dropping or sucking up to someone for no good reason just to get something done !
It is used mainly by people who know well that they don’t have what it takes and so use "LURPAK " to get what they want !
Boot Culture/ TC Culture / Buttering Up Culture whatever you call it but I found it widely prevalent in Pakistani culture. I had a chance to work both in Pakistan and and America and difference is so obvious. Desis do try to use their 'charms' on goray bosses but I hardly found if it works. But at the same time they try to 'boot polish' their desi bosses and they end up getting promotions and what not. I think its one of the gifts that we inherited from our older generations, under British rule.
Have you noticed the same attitude in your office ? any experiences ?
well i dont mind ppl buttering (kisi kay kaam ki tareef ker dena kuch dunnah nahi), cuz the one who is being buttered is more questionable to me. I dont know why some ppl are so arrogant and full of themselves?
insaan ko insaan he rehna cheyee hai, khuda say mokabala mut keray. werna fayron jaisa haal hota hai!
well i dont mind ppl buttering (kisi kay kaam ki tareef ker dena kuch dunnah nahi), cuz the one who is being buttered is more questionable to me. I dont know why some ppl are so arrogant and full of themselves?
insaan ko insaan he rehna cheyee hai, khuda say mokabala mut keray. werna fayron jaisa haal hota hai!
Some people like to do it and some people like it to be done to them. I think incompetency at work is a major cause behind this phenomenon . Job insecurity pushes people to do stuff that is beyond their job duties. Sorry souls.
There is no solution. In desi environment even if the worker in competent, there is a possibility that there will be some other incompetent person working under him OR with him to butter up the superiors.
ADDENDUM: This is not limited to just desis, GORA log also do that in a very subtle way.
Some people like to do it and some people like it to be done to them. I think incompetency at work is a major cause behind this phenomenon . Job insecurity pushes people to do stuff that is beyond their job duties. Sorry souls.
Any solutions people ?
Solution :Quit Your Job if U don't like it....... :D***
Xeno do you have same working environment where you work now ? From your response I feel that sometime people do it just because of peer pressure or may be just following the group dynamics. How you feel about that ?
Sheyn if you go back in time with all the unlimited authority, how you will fix this problem ? Have you ever noticed your colleagues doing it to your seniors or whoever was in higher authority ?
It’s just not peer pressure or group dynamics. There are many factors like limited or new opportunities, tough competitions, bad company economy, incompetence etc etc which play a role. Gora would do it by passing unnecessary appreciation remarks like “you are teh man” “The man” “The big boss” or rushing to buy “rounds” when he is out with his bosses, and a desi would do it in a very obvious way and will get chastised by you and me.
It was very much part of the work environment where I worked , so yeah it happened all too often there. For a while I even tried the "if you can’t beat them join them " approach but I just couldn’t pull off the buttering…its just not my style !
But if I had unlimited authority I would say that for a department to function certain responsibilites should be left to a neutral third party who is uninvolved with the daily interaction with staff so they can make unbiased and objective decisons like alloting work and duties fairly and equally. It was and is one of the biggest complaints in a department with more than one employee having similar postions so delegating things fairly becomes a chore and there is always bias.
Either a Dept Head should be a little removed from the general workforce and uninfluenced by them but that is never possible so it always helps to have things like Promotions , Task Assignments , Duties alloted through a PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND PRIVILEGE ASSIGNMENT TOOL… where x number of hours put in entitles you to y privilege or acquiring qualification A entitles you to Promotion B.
Eliminates human bias and the need to get a "recommendation and butter someone to get what you want .
^that's all true, but even after all that- there'll still be some of it present and it's human nature because everyone likes to be appreciated, whether they deserve it or not. I have only worked in US, but in three entirely different professions and its as prevalent as air. Goras do it, desis do it, chiptay do it, some do it more than others- not a race but depends more on the person. I was lucky to have worked with some very good colleagues, and even though I always saw it happening, it was more subtle than other places.
I guess when you do it right, it comes under good mannerisms?
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