It seems coworkers who have more experience often feel the “right” to be condescending towards their less experienced counterparts. Sometimes, the behavior escalates into harassment. I feel as though the hierarchical nature of Taiwanese society reinforces this notion.
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Yes, but it seems westerners are excluded from this paradigm. We are not junior or senior… we’re just “other.”
Also, while it exists here, I’d say it’s worse in Korea and Japan. When I taught in Seoul, a student was absent, so I asked her classmate where her “friend” was (as they were always chatting with each other). She laughed kind of embarrassed and replied: “oh she’s not my friend, she’s my junior!” Ouch.
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Yes.
Guy
Every workplace has the 倚老賣老 culture.
Example?
I’ve seen managers treat local employees like serfs…
Like “go get me some coffee”?
errands are part of it yes, and also "go buy binlang for a client " .
basically the assumption is that workers are meant to work and shut up, if you are junior your opinion doesn’t matter.
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Sounds like every college internship in the US. Mine was fine; apparently my mother’s errands included taking an antique clock to go get repaired, among other things…
That sounds a lot more interesting than actually working.
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送死 
I don’t think we’re outside of the system, more that we are less likely to contribute to it. While it’s less risky for us to actually stand for ourselves since they would tolerate that as they consider it a foreigner’s quirk, it does alienate you in the long term if you don’t play in. But it does allow you some leeway from the worst stuff…
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Good first post, nice insight, welcome, etc.
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Does your manager also make up problems that don’t exist?
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