28 June 2007

Office happenings

‘Can you please help me interview some people, please make up some questions’.

‘When?’

‘In 5 minutes’

The interviews went okay. They were in a mixture of English and Lao which made it a bit more interesting. They are less structured than what I’m used to, as Laos is in general- maybe I can do some ‘capacity building’ in that area. It surprised me that the thought the married woman couldn’t really do the job because if she had to do 2 weeks of work per year in the provinces the people wouldn’t take her seriously because she’s a woman. They commented her husband might not let her go even though her resume indicates she has recently done field work. This attitude came from the youngest woman in the organization and who I considered to have most perspective on things as she has studied overseas. Maybe they criticized her because she was the only woman interviewed? I’ve read Australian research that women are really silly like that, they’ll compete with each other rather than support each other.

Our organization received some funds. I’m not sure why, but they asked me whether I would agree to let them give the staff a pay increase. With all the years I’ve had studying economics, human resources and management and now working in development my head could not come up with a way to decide what to do. Maybe if I’d had some more time I might have been able to figure something out. Someone else sorted it out and it was decided that everyone’s wage was to be increased for the duration of the project with the theory that they would be required to be more productive.

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