Just a few lines of background, as it would be very unfair to convey the idea that Vietnamese people are slackers: they are anything but lazy, actually. Generally speaking, I consider them as very hardworking, with a special mention for women. This is particularly evident in the countryside, where 70% of population still live today: it’s impressive how women, even when looking very old, work in the rice paddies, covered head to toe under the burning sun and bent on crop for hours. Or in water up to thighs, depending on the growth stage of rice. Vietnam is the second exporter of rice in the world, and farm labor is still mainly manual: rice farmers can rely only on water buffalos to plow the soil, the luckiest share one machinery with many other families, for acres of fields. Moreover, in this male-dominated society, women are also in charge of housekeeping , taking care of large families, cooking, raising kids and feeding the animals of the farm. I can only imagine which consequences one day of this life may have on my back pain!
Moving to the big cities, in Hanoi, shops are open 7/7 from 7 am to 8 pm and over, you can go to the hairdresser or to the esthetician on Sunday, and in the private sector most of the offices are open on Saturday, and employees are entitled to 12 paid holidays per year. Ok, we could argue on labor productivity and efficiency according to Westerners’ standards, but still, they have a strong work culture.
Anyways, their timings and “routines” at work are quite shoking for an Italian, raised following a set of unwritten rules and social norms that nobody dares to question. So, while I am struggling to change the perspective and accept the way they behave, at the same time, I admire and envy their culture, as an expression of open mind and smartness.
Who said that if you are tired and sleepy, but you are in the office, and you have 5 hours of work to go, you cannot take a short nap to recharge? Why do we take for granted that sales persons must stand waiting for customers all day long? These people have a lot of downtime of course, so what’s wrong with them if they put a cloth on the floor, or – in case they sell clothes – just lay down on fabrics that they have on display, and take some rest?
Ok, now that I looked open minded enough, we can go through my astonishment when on my first day at the office my colleagues kindly invited me to join them on the sofa right after lunch. Or in my early days in Hanoi, when entering a shop and looking around for a sales person, I couldn’t find anyone…at eye level. And I am not only talking about grocery shops, or those “odds and ends” stores, where you typically don’t expect the ultimate shopping experience. Same story when I went to buy an i-Phone, an activity which requires a queue and an appointment in a futuristic space anywhere else. I was in a kind of “Apple Store” (not exactly Steve Job’s concept…) and while I was arguing with the guy about “8” vs ”7”, value for money and performance…out of the blue, somebody from underneath the counter got up and said hello. I leant out of the counter and I saw a bed made of cartons and cloths. Sorry but I couldn’t stop laughing, and luckily the girl didn’t look bothered at all, she just smiled at me. She was actually relaxed after nap time.
People who are spending most of the time on the street, especially when they have a commercial activity, or work as parking attendants or security guards for example, developed a creative talent in putting together any kind of portable bed or solution to nap. Together with the adaptability needed to sleep in any possible position, litterally on any surface. The background helps, as most of the houses here don’t have a proper bedroom, nor they are used to have one bed per person.
And so the motorbike saddle is very popular to lay down, using the steering as a pillow. And with just 2 poles and a net, here you go with a comfy and ready-to-use city-hammock.
It happened many times that I went to pick up the laundry and the lady was sleeping on a deck chair at the entrance, I felt quite uncomfortable waking her up…so in the end I decided that there would be another occasion to pick up the laundry.
This would be totally unacceptable at home, where everybody is always in a hurry, always angry and complaining about traffic, public offices and facilities, people’s incompetence, weather and whatsoever.
I would certainly be outraged and upset if my laundry wasn’t ready by the time the pick-up was planned in my tight schedule.
But this is their country, and you play by their rules. Maybe are better than yours, or at least you can make an effort not to deliberately assume that you are on the right side.
Thank you Vietnam for giving me the chance.
Vietnam overload 