Very, Very, Very Rewarding!!

I was riding home from work today thinking about my job here in China.....and what would best summarize my sentiments. Well Victor and Roman from the new Citi bank credit cards sum it up pretty well....at least, most days.

The team that I work with is 100% Chinese and their working experience ranges from none (a new hire starts Thursday) to a few years. However, they all have A LOT to learn which is where I can help. They are growing by leaps and bounds each day. In 3 weeks, I've seen tremendous progress and am encouraged by their willingness to learn and do whatever I ask of them. I had one of the guys doing a headstand on my driver's van because I led him to believe it would clear his thinking regarding a difficult technical issue. Seriously, I am humbled by their trusting nature and hard work ethic. Very, very, very impressed!

Chen Wei, Zhao Jianqing, Charlie Ren, Qi Ling, and even the customer Wang Chao are quickly developing improved skills and pushing this vehicle design towards production. They have shared with me that their livelihood depends on this launch because GM is treating this as a "real world test" to see if they can be successful. If they fail, GM may not reward them with more work. The vehicle will be built in the USA (Fairfax, Virginia) and in China. So, they/we must satisfy 2 customers - GM North America and GM China. And on top of that, some of the engineering is based out of GM Europe in Germany! You may wonder if I'm just enabling these people to ultimately take our jobs in the US. That's for another day and another blog.....

Now, some days are frustrating and the communication can be exhausting. I do lots of coaching/teaching/mentoring but I enjoy seeing them make connections and develop an understanding. At the end of my time here, these guys/girls have to be able to fly on their own. That kind of environment is exciting and very, very, very rewarding.

On a lighter note, I was initially taken aback by some of the noises I heard at work. You see, hawking up loogies (sp?) and belching are common public noises in China. And they don't stop at hawking, they proceed to purge it in the garbage. In China, it's not poor etiquette to belch, especially during mealtime, because it indicates your pleasure with the food.

However, they do have some boundaries. I learned quickly that dropping a stinky bomb on my neighbors desk was not taken as "Ryan really enjoyed the baked bean curd at lunch!". J/K. They do, fortunately, draw the line at farting in the workplace. Although, with my lack of smell, perhaps SBD (silent but deadly's)are encouraged. That may explain the sly grin I see on my neighbor's face after lunch. HMMMM.

The other thing that is interesting are the restrooms, and, no, I'm not going to go into great detail or post pictures.....unless you ask me to. I will say that the men/women share an area with the sinks and that the entryway to that area has a "gunsight view" down the wall with all the men's urinals. It's different but still works out the same. The toilets are also very different than ours here but that, also, is for another day/another blog.

We learned that Santa in a moving company van shows up on Thursday at 9:30am to deliver our plane-shipped stuff. Tonight at dinner, Anna was talking about the Barbies, Polly Pockets, and dress up clothes. Also, the shipment includes more clothing, diapers, lots of kitchen supplies, Christmas presents, wrapping paper and toys!

FYI, Christmas is Monday and you've still got wrapping to do!