Can You Leave Before Your Boss Does
Bea and a Tokyo marketing manager compare the unspoken rules of leaving the office, from Manila's exact 6pm exit to Tokyo's long goodbye, and what happens to the person who breaks them.
How Sick Is Sick Enough to Stay Home
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Show notes
Sick days and who gets to take them
Lena is a software engineer in Berlin who stays home with a cold and does not think twice. Chidi has worked at a Lagos bank for nine years and has never called in sick. Bea puts them in one conversation and asks the questions each finds strange about the other.
- German sick-note culture and why employers rarely argue with it
- Nigerian banking hours and the quiet cost of showing up unwell
- Bea on Manila call centres, where a sick day could mean a client complaint
- Trust, surveillance and the manager who counts
- What each guest would borrow from the other's country
A plain, useful episode. Managers of international teams, this one is for your next meeting.
Transcript
Welcome back to Clocking In Across Time Zones, I am Bea Santiago. Today's question is one that divides every international team I have ever worked with: how sick do you have to be to stay home. My guests could not be further apart. Lena is a software engineer in Berlin who stays in bed with a cold and feels no guilt, because the law and her manager both expect her to. Chidi has worked at a Lagos bank for nine years and has never called in sick, and says it with some pride. I let each of them ask the other the questions they find bizarre. We talk about German sick notes, Nigerian banking hours, my own years in Manila call centres where a day off could cost a client, and what each of them would steal from the other's country. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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