There´s still a lot of MEXICO

I know I haven´t written in a long time, but I´m going to jump back on the band wagon now!

I can list hundreds of examples of Americanization in México. From the incorporation of Halloween just the other day to Walmarts, Sams Clubs, TGIFridays, Chili´s, McDonalds, etc. there´s a lot of American influence. Unfortunately, there are some aspects of American culture that México really should incorporate! For example.

DRIVING! In the US, we have 4-way stops and red-lights at intersections. We know who´s going where because of turning lanes -- heck, we actually have lanes! There is nothing like that in México. Down here we don´t have lanes -- even on the highway! It´s just whereever you fit! We have no stop signs or red-lights at most intersections, so you just go driving through them honking your horn, hoping that there´s not someone doing exactly the same thing from the opposing direction. But luck doesn´t always pan out. Just yesterday I saw a car not too far from my house that was T-boned from a car at these intersections where you can´t see if anyone´s coming from the other directions but there´s no stop signs or lights. It´s crazy!

I´ll give you another example.

I went to pick up my dry cleaning, thinking it would take, oh, 30 seconds because I had my taxi waiting outside in the middle of the street. I show up and the old man is examining a sweater for stains. He says, "momentito" aka "just a sec." I think, ok, I´ll be patient, this can´t take more than a minute. No! I´m a paying customer and this old man decides to go through a HUGE pile of clothes to check for stains while I´m just standing there! I stood there for 9 minutes waiting for the old man to go through this pile of clothes. I said to myself, "I´m never coming back here! They are loosing my business!" So, moral of the story, México is far behind the idea of customer service and the idea that if they don´t provide good service they´ll loose business!

Need more?

As you know, I work in an office at a Mexican company. What I see is very typical for Mexican businesses as I hear stories from my friends.

My colleagues work very long hours! They arrive at work between 9-10am and most stay until 9, 10, 11pm! Why? Because they have "so much work" -- but I seem them chatting about how much work they have versus actually doing it! I can get the same amount of work done between 9am and 5pm as they can when they stay until 10pm. The people showing up at meetings are always 30 minutes to an hour late! Yesterday, my meeting was supposed to start at 1pm....but it didn´t really start (because everyone was late) until 2pm! As an American, you have to be sooooo patient if you want to do work down here!

Until next time!