11 March 2010
A Global Village
I work in a very multi-cultural environment where 80% of the employees are all foreigners. It feels like working for the United Nations, with at least 60 countries represented. So it is not surprising that I am not motivated at all to speak Dutch or practice my Dutch. This also makes work very interesting and challeging--with all the confluence of cultures, temperaments(!) and varying backgrounds (and egos too having a lot of highly educated professionals employed specifically for their expertise).
During lunch it amazes me to be sharing a table with 10 or more different nationalities. Funny, with my Italian sounding family name, people are curious where I come from given the fact that I do not really look Italian. Some colleagues are surprised when I say that I come from the Philippines. "You are quite tall for a Filipino", some of them would comment. But again, there is the usual stereotyping.
What I like about my job is that I work a lot with stakeholders in developing countries and emerging economies so in principle I work with different time zones. In principle, I do not even have to be in the office all the time because all my projects are located abroad. However, since I also need to work with various experts, I also deal with a lot of Dutch and European counterparts both in the private and public sectors so in that regard I still feel very much connected to Europe.
Speaking of developing countries, I am getting some interesting projects and the travel prospects are leading to the Philippines, Maldives, Nigeria, Bangladesh and....Pakistan. The next few months will be an interesting mix of travel adventures.
