Ok. That tops mine. Using an umbrella while snorkeling seems pretty whack.
On a bus from Yilan back to Taipei today. In one of those tunnels on Freeway 5 between Pinglin and Taipei we saw a bicycle rider! The woman looked liked she was on a weekend cycling trip. She was riding on the outer lane, not on the pavement close to the tunnel wall. Insane. Traffic was not that fast. My guess is 60 km/h, but man she was asking for trouble. She didn’t look suicidal or crazy. I wonder what brought her there. Mistook the freeway for the Beiyi Highway? Thought the freeway would be quicker? Should have made the news by now, there must be quite a lot of dashboard cam drivers who spotted her.
Not a place I’d like to be on a bike. And if I ended up there, for sure I’d be on the pavement section. Wonder if she’d come all the way through from Yilan.
There was a piece on the news of a Hong Kong tourist who was following his GPS navigator and crossed Hsueshan tunnel on a scooter.
Probably wanted to skip the many hair pins going up the No.9 and figured, I’ll risk my life instead of climbing the mountain.
I was in Yilan on Friday for a company outing in which I am the planning committee. Turns out my workaholic of a coworker decides she wants to tell me that morning that she’s pregnant and unable to attend this afternoons team building activities. I don’t have much authority over this and say, well noted and to tell her to let HR know.
Turns out not only was she not participating in the team building, she was excused to leave the company outing at noon. Pretty sure she knew she was pregnant before coming on this trip and probably should have asked to been excused instead of wasting the company’s money. Now the icing on top of the cherry-on-top is workaholic co-worker #2 left with preggy workaholic to make sure she was ok.
Pregnant workaholic had a valid excuse to leave, anyone would’ve understood the circumstances, but workaholic co-worker #2 did not have a valid excuse to leave the outing. All hell is going to break loose soon.
Another whack thing in Taiwan ?! 
So they’re both workaholics, but now one’s pregnant and the other’s concerned about her welfare. Sorry mate but it sounds like maybe YOU, and your expectations of your colleagues, are a “whack” thing in Taiwan. When they’re back in the office you can call them in for a chat
It doesn’t bother me as much as you may think it does from my post. I just felt like it was a whack thing and felt like sharing. However, I now think the post could’ve been shrunken down to: 2-3 month pregnant coworker knows of physical activities during company outing 120km away from home, but then asked to be excused on the day of the activities.
.[quote=“ranlee, post:1910, topic:38330, full:true”]
It doesn’t bother me as much as you may think it does from my post. I just felt like it was a whack thing and felt like sharing. However, I now think the post could’ve been shrunken down to: 2-3 month pregnant coworker knows of physical activities during company outing 120km away from home, but then asked to be excused on the day of the activities.
[/quote]
That seems to be typical Taiwanese behavior. You haven’t noticed it? When they don’t want to do something, they will inform you at the last minute with what is considered a social acceptable excuse. That way, no one tries to pressure them in the meantime.
It is common behavior , true. Socially acceptable behavior.
You always need an ‘out’ in taiwan to save everybody’s face.
She may have felt pressure to attend and didn’t know how to say no? She may also have guessed you would change the agenda so she would be stuck there and bringing it up at last minute was more optimal. Her pal then gets to accompany her…bonus!
That or they are really concerned about the pregnancy. I would just keep my mouth shut and leave it at that.
There’s also the Taiwanese taboo about not announcing your pregnancy until three months have passed.
This explains why over the years I’ve noticed co-workers who are suddenly wearing what look like maternity dresses despite not showing a baby bump, or who seem to be showing a baby bump, but they say nothing about it. And nobody else says anything for fear of being rude. Then, perhaps a few weeks later, there’s an official announcement.
Oh, I am very well aware of the behavior. It’s just sad that it comes from the younger employees (around 30 give or take a few years) of the company. You usually expect it from the Aunties in their late 40s and 50s.
I’m sure they had already planned to leave before the physical activities began since the big boss man adogah was only there for half the day. I’m almost 98.374% sure that he has no clue who my two co-workers are and it didn’t even matter if they showed up in the morning or not. Great use of company resources these two coworkers. Lunch was 1600NT a head, team building activities were by head count and the lunch boxes we got for dinner were not cheap either.
Ok I lied, I’m pretty furious about this.
In the words of a great and wise Master I used to know (old retired building supervisor living in crawl space next elevator control box)…你想太多了！
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That’s pretty much a worldwide thing, the risk of losing the baby in the first 3 months are extremely high compared to the rest of the pregnancy, hence it’s best not to announce until the high risk period has passed.
Take a chill pill, I used to worry about these type of things but in the whole scheme of things there’s better things to spend your time on. If they are there for the lunch and dinner or not there it’s still 1600NT a head. I’d only be pissed if numbers were limited and someone didn’t get to go because those 2 got chosen instead.
My highly caffeinated drink isn’t helping with the chillaxing, but I’m sure it’ll blow over me once I leave the office. I do have better things to worry about.
It’s not the first time they have left social gatherings early because, all you need to do is show face, right?
It sounds like you need a holiday
I understand the feeling. Hang in there, bro.
At least, you are lucky to have workaholics in the office and not chupopteros (freeloaders is the closest translation).
Somebody was walking their hens -pretty nice hens, very healthy, BTW- at the park yesterday.
I call your pretty birds and raise you…dragon
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That’s crazy…monitor lizard?
I’ve seen people letting their green iguana run around a bit in the park.