Ne, nigde nije kao kod mame ali navikni se!

Ja sam verovatno poslednja osoba koja bi trebalo da piše ovaj blog. Ja sam se onog 3.8.2010 spakovala i laganim kasom srpske železnice otisnula u beli svet sa namerom da se ne vratim. Ja nisam otišla na fenomenalno plaćen posao ili neku visoku stipendiju da se bavim nekim naukama koje meni prijaju. Otišla sam na stipendiju od 150$ mesečno da učim indonežanski jezik.

U Srbiji sam imala stalan posao u dobroj firmi koja i dalje dobro posluje, imala sam platu od 500eura koja bi verovatno sad bila veća i možda bi i lepo napredovala. Vidim da su neke moje kolege dobile dobre pozicije i lepo im ide. Srećna sam zbog njih ali meni to nije bilo dovoljno. Otišla sam na stipendiju od 150$ da učim jezik koji mi otprilike nikad neće trebati. Budala jel da? Pa ja na to nisam tako gledala.

Kad sam stigla u Indoneziju našla sam posao da predajem engleski part time, radila sam online, išla po malo na časove, putovala, uživala i kad sam odlučila da mi treba kancelarijski posao, našla sam ga u Indoneziji i u Maleziji. Odlučila sam da prihvatim onaj u Maleziji.

Ne, nisam zaradila milione ali sam živela na visokoj nozi. Putovala sam, izlazila, jela po restoranima, priuštila sam sebi sve što sam želela. Nije mi bilo bitno da imam gomilu para na računu i da putujem kući na gastarbajterski odmor.
Tako živim i sad u Nemačkoj. Sad sam pravi gastarbajter ali i dalje nisam. Kad idem kući idem na par dana zato što moram da obavim neku papirologiju. Kad idem kući ne kupujem gomilu poklona za rodbinu i prijatelje. Svako dete mojih rođaka i prijatelja ima u dečijem fondu po neku paru od mene naravno za kafanu ali to je to.

I dalje nemam milione na računu pošto sve spiskam na putovanja i ne mislim da dignem kuću u dedovini sa sve lavovima. Znam, nikad od mene čovek neće biti.

Nego, da stignem do onoga o čemu sam htela da pišem. Pišu novine kako je tamo neki otišao u beli svet i kako se mukica posle mesec dana vratio kući jel ga nisu dobro plaćali. Ili vratio se kući jer je stalno padala kiša, ili vratio se kući jer mu komšije nisu nazvale pomoz Bog... Budem ja dobra i pročitam sve to i nasmejem se slatko. Te priče su jako simpatične ali potpuno nerealne. Neko ko se posle mesec dana vrati kući nikad nije ni trebao da odlazi. Šta je mesec dana? Treba bar 6 meseci da se stisnu zubi i pregura početna nostalgija i da se navikneš na nove stvari. U Evropi ćeš svuda naći burek i jogurt. Jeste, neće biti baš kao naš ali navikni se. Nisi valjda otišao iz Srbije i očekivao neku drugu Srbiju. Jeste, ima mnogo naših ljudi napolju ali navikni se da nisi kući. Jeste, u Irskoj stalno pada kiša, valjda si znao gde je Irska pre nego što si krenuo?! Jeste, slabo te plaćaju, izguraš mesec dva pa nađeš drugi posao samo dok se malo navikneš i upoznaš ljude. Jeste, komšije ne razgovaraju sa tobom, nađi druge ljude sa kojima ćeš da razgovaraš. Kolege u firmama su uvek za pivo, stranci koji žive tamo su uvek za druženje. Jeste, drugačiji su od tvojih ortaka iz kraja ali navikni se. Ako si odlučio da kreneš onda zagrizi i kreni.
Ne, nigde nije kao kod mame ali navikni se!

Ovo pričam iz ličnog iskustva i iskustva gomile prijatelja koji su razbacani po svetu. Imam par prijatelja koji imaju super plaćene poslove i firme ih šalju po svetu. Svi ostali su otišli sa željom i voljom da se bore za neko bolje sutra koje nisu videli u Srbiji i u tome su uspeli. Smešno mi je što novine nikad ne pišu o tim ljudima nego samo o ovima kojima je kući najbolje i kako je svet jedno veliko strašno mesto.
Novine naravno uvek pišu o naučnicima koji naprave neki bum i to mi je uvek super ali tu se nikad ne spominje da se ti fenomenalni umovi nikad neće vratiti jer Srbija nema ništa da im ponudi. Tu se samo veliča činjenica da su iz Srbije kao, eto, brilijantni mladi umovi iz naše zemlje. Manje više, svi ti brilijantni umovi su trenutno na listi čekanja za pasoš zemlje u kojoj su.

Tako, ako si odlučio da ideš, stisni zube i kreni. Smesti negde u dubinu svog mozga da ideš negde u nepoznato i da što pre prihvatiš taj drugačiji svet oko sebe lakše će biti.
Ne, nigde nije kao kod mame ali jebeno se navikni i prestani da cmizdriš po novinama! 

Going global or not?

What does it takes for company from non English speaking area to go global? Open minded employees, simply as that. The biggest thing that can push one company not to go global are actually it's employees in headquarters.

The management has open its mind towards new markets, they open mind towards new employees in new markets, they are doing everything right but it still doesn't feel right. Why is that? 

The most important thing for an employee in new company is to feel welcome and to feel part of the team. On first day of work everyone should feel welcome and that they have their place in the office or in the team. If company doesn't provide that on first day or during the first week it is quite hard to feel accepted later. 

As part of management team you need to lead your team in accepting different people from different culture, you need to engage more into team building, to talk more to ask more. The issue with most companies in Asia is that they go boom, they go global and they end up staying exactly where they are when it comes to their employees. They believe that practice they are doing at home base  is applicable in other offices too and that employees should follow blindly. Most of local employees in countries don't understand that concept. They don't understand the ways of the country that company is coming from. They don't understand customs, religious believes, language and many other things. If company is going global, employees in base office should see that too. 

Companies are usually sending experienced employees from base office to other offices to handle work. Those employees can outnumber locals and they end up grouping and not having any interaction with local employees. Even once in a while when they decide to socialize, the spirit is gone and those socializing events turn out to be dull and boring for locals. Of course, base employees are having heaps of fun since they are still speaking in their own local language and the food on the table is usually from their country since they are not willing to try any other food. 

The older employees are different. They are willing to socialize, to try new things and to help with work, but younger generations are quite closed and not willing to team up. It is quite lethal for the company because old one's will be gone and young ones will stay. 

Until now I believe you guessed I'm talking from personal experience. It has been a while since we had lunch all together in a meeting room. When we're going to meeting room, base employees go to another room to have lunch. They share their food, chit chat, laugh, ... the worst thing is that they make older employees feel ashamed. We already got used to it and we're living with it. 

Still it's quite down feeling when group of them (when I say group it's usually 10+) goes out to lunch together and they don't even bother to invite us. Not even for a sake of good manners. 

In their minds they are going global with the projects and new markets. In our minds they didn't move from the place they came from. 

Landing to Kuala Lumpur

Finally I started working. Well no, that is not the most exciting part of my life in Kuala Lumpur and after months of doing nothing I can tell you that is quite difficult and until I don’t get into the movements of the company, I will not have too much work to do. Getting internet access in my company is quite hard and complicated and I have been questioned for at least 3 times why do I need internet access. Fuck it, again I started working in finances and there are loads of terms and things I don’t understand and guys that I’m working with are staying in the office for ages every day and me, torturing them to explain to me what is simple cut off or benefit claim would be just me being lazy. Until I get all of those definitions, I will just look around like a sheep and think what to do and how to do it. After clicking on loads of websites and trying to get trough I realized that only website working is google and all of its applications and blogger is one of them so I can easily access my blog and write as much as I want since I came to the company, the company itself is making my job quite difficult so i decided not to do it, but to wait for "The Man" to get back from London and get things straight.


Anyhow, I fucking love this city, with beaming positive energy all around and such a big mixture of nations and people this is the city where every corner has something new. People who are here for longer tell me that it gets boring after a while but there is also rest of the Malaysia and SE Asia to be explored once when and if I get to that level. The fact that KL is home to AirAsia says it all.


It was quite difficult to find an apartment but I managed that too with a help of some people that I knew from earlier and some new people who came to my life and became instant angels. The thing is that when you come to new city and you don't know anything and don't know where to go, people who will help you are usually people who were in the same situation few years back. Jelena met Joice in the office and that girl spend loads of her free time to help us out and she used her perfect bargain skills and got us quite cheap place and we don't have to sign any contract. For beginning the flat is quite good but probably we will move as soon as we find something nicer and cheaper... :)


When I arrived I stayed for couple of days with Mun, an old friend from CS and then I moved to Borjan's place for 2 weeks until Jelena and I managed to find a place on our own. Staying with Borjan at one point was chaotic since there was 8 of us in the flat and having a tight situation between him and his ex girlfriend who is still living there, some moments were not so nice but still, I would like to have a chance to do something for Borjan, to show him how much I'm grateful. Words aren't enough. Unfortunately I can't cook sarma for him since there is no sour cabage even if I lived in desperate hope there is.

for sure the story will be continued