Working Environment

There are some cultural and workplace peculiarities and idiosyncrasies you should be aware of when coming to work in Hong Kong and we will try to outline them in this article.

If you have been sent to Hong Kong by your employer, or have been offered a job by a local employer, it is probably the case that you have some kind of special skill or work experience, in which case you will represent a considerable investment for your employer, who will want a good return on that investment. As a result, long working hours are commonplace in Hong Kong, often in excess of 50 hours per week. You will be expected to pull your weight in this regard and should expect to work late on a regular basis.

English is widely spoken in the workplace but local staff invariable communicate with each other in Cantonese. Business cards are all the rage in the territory and they are exchanged almost as often as the handshake. When giving and receiving business cards, or anything made of paper, like bank notes etc, you should do so with both hands.

Your social life will be more involved with your work life than you may be used to. Hong Kong people consider workplace and business relationships to be an important part of their lives and climbing the ladder or moving your business relationships forward may be hard for you if you try to keep work completely separate from your personal life.

In truth, the days of the classic expat posting in Hong Kong are in decline and you are more likely to be in a role that integrates you into the local working environment, rather than an aloof privileged expat in the old fashioned sense. While there are still many tens of thousands of Westerners in Hong Kong, the numbers are lower than they once were.

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