A Chinaman Company

1) Interviews you for an overseas posting but assigns you to work locally when you accept the job.

2) Informs you after you have settled into that job that they will post you overseas after all.

3) Convinces you to take the overseas posting by telling you that it comes with
- 4 round trip tickets for you and your family home a year
- 8 days off during each trip....not including your 14 days of annual leave
Then, changes it to
- trips for you but not your family. Although when you try to go on a trip, be prepared to come up with a good explanation. Like your mother died and your father cut of his nose!
- and those 8 days....you can build those up by working 7 days a week. So, in a quarter...thats 13 weeks....you would have made up 13 days but 5 of those are 'freebies' for the chinaman and you can keep the 8.

4) You can of course not work those 7 days a week but watch out for these words of wisdom:
- my wife also complains that we don't spend enough time together....I just drag her and the kids along to the office and put them in the meeting room.
- sure...i have a 10 yr old son who needs me now that he's growing up. but i don't have time for him. yours is just a baby, he won't know the differece.
- don't be so calculating with the company. it will reward you in the end. just work hard, you'll see. stop going home at 5 everyday ok!

5) Has official working hours of 8am-4pm. But thats just on the contract. Its just a piece of paper that doesn't mean anything.

6) Provides an equal opportunity work place for all engineers.....if you are MALE. If you were FEMALE, you would have been screened out when your resume was sent in. There's the pile for MALE applicants and over there, beside the desk, in the TRASH are the female applicants. Its because they'll get married and have babies so....lets spare them the separation anxiety.

The list goes on and on....but I'm a little too riled up to get my thoughts in order. I've always referred to these companies as 'Chinaman Companies' .. but what are they really called. I have no idea.