As I said in my last post, during my time in Beijing this summer I worked at the Main Press Center with very few foreign volunteers. Because of this, I worked and interacted with mostly Chinese volunteers/workers. This made it very easy to pick up on the differences between our cultures, especially in the work environment.

The biggest difference between Chinese work culture and American work culture is found in the work ethic. I think I'm a pretty hard worker, but the Chinese have a different idea of being a hard worker. They work long hours, often shifts of 12 hours or more. I became friends with a couple of entrepreneurs who started a jewelry business. They claimed to work 12-hour days, seven days a week. I spoke to a few executives at CCTV who laughed when I told them most Americans work Monday thru Friday 9am-5pm. Even some Chinese people I met working in the hospitality industry admitted to working 60+ hours a week on average. And their excessive workloads were confirmed in my experiences with the Olympics. I worked 12-hour shifts every other day, and worked less than anyone in the MPC. My supervisors worked as many as 36 hours straight!

And not only do they work a lot of hours, but they work hard. One day I was working with five Chinese volunteers. Our supervisor came over and asked us to do something (first in Chinese and then in English). As I was waiting for the English translation, I was nearly a victim of a stampede as the Chinese volunteers ran by me in a full sprint. I thought maybe the instructions were to prepare for a fire drill, until my supervisor turned to me and gave me the menial task of putting stickers on the workstations. I simply said OK and WALKED (albeit fast) away to perform the task.

The Chinese work so hard that they need to take a rest afterwards. In fact, rest plays a critical role in the work day. After I completed a task, I was not asked, but ordered to "have a rest." Throughout the course of the day, it is quite common to see tons of Chinese workers having a rest. We even had beds in our back office. But bed or no bed, the Chinese workers find a place to rest.

And this didn’t just happen in our Olympic venue. I asked my friends and part of their 'work' day was spent sleeping! And even beyond the Olympics, I saw security guards, receptionists, and even taxi drivers (not driving) having a rest on the job.

Trust me, I am definitely not opposed to napping, but it seems strange getting some shut-eye at work. But I guess when you’re working as hard as they seem to be, you deserve a rest—even if it is on the job. Maybe corporate American should incorporate this into the workday, could you imagine the increase in productivity?

By Allison Jones

While I couldn't care less about Palin, Guiliani, or McCain, their comments regarding Obama’s experience as a community organizer got my fellow nonprofit employees fuming.

Aside from the fact that they will praise each other for their community involvement, (thus making their insults at Obama blatantly hypocritical) I have always assumed that the act of people taking their lives into their own hands and strengthening their neighborhoods was the one thing people across the political spectrum could agree on.

In fact community members and community organizers are the few people who tend to draw on public and private resources, disdaining dependence while demanding acknowledgment for their own activism and agency.

Community organizers are diverse, embodied by pastors who do what they can to feed those in need, to teachers who go out of their way to get parents involved in their children’s education, to tenants casting aside their fears and demanding fair treatment from their landlords. Community organizers and community members are the bedrock of this country.

I realize that their comments were merely cheap shots at Obama, but unfortunately those comments attack an identity that so many people –moved by frustration, injustice, or a genuine love of their neighborhood –take on with limited resources and experiences. At its core it reveals a disconnect from communities across the country and a disregard for how this country evolved in the first place.

However, what I do like about these comments is that they often require people to think about what community organizing means, what it looks like, and what it entails. These comments prompt reflection and hopefully will motivate people to support community organizing rather than tossing it around like an insult and dirty word.

Allison Jones graduated from Haverford College in 2007. She chronicles her life as a newbie in the professional world at Entry Level Living.

Seems like we keep sharing good news and not-so-good news on Student Loans. Here's the latest installment.

In Massachusetts, the state's Educational Financing Authority has come back from a summer hiatus, and will once again be able to provide students with loans. The agency had been negotiating for several months before getting approval to float a bond issue, which in turn will enable loans to proceed normally for the remainder of the 2008-2009 academic year.

On a federal level, the House has passed a bill (now going to the Senate) extending the education department's authority to shore up the federal guaranteed loan program to meet demand.

There has not been as much progress, unfortunately, with Sallie Mae, the corporation that has traditionally processed most student loans. They are still locked in a dispute over bidding for additional loans, and that is tying up a lot of would-be borrowers.

Hey there. Remember me? I used to contribute fun and exciting posts to 3Gen. Well I’m back here at Experience, ready to start writing. But first I wanted to fill you in on what I’ve been up to during my hiatus.

I spent an incredible two months in Beijing this summer volunteering for the Olympics. Seriously. Thirty-three students from my school, Emerson College, were selected to participate. Twenty Emerson students were assigned to the National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) as flash quote reporters for the Olympic News Service. Ten students covered different sports including softball, cycling, basketball, baseball and boxing. Lastly, three students were assigned to the Main Press Center (MPC), home to all the international and national journalists and photographers. I was in the last group, and initially wasn’t very happy about it.

What I originally chalked up as unfortunate luck turned out to be a blessing. The three of us were the only foreigners among 300+ Chinese volunteers working at the MPC. After the first week, we had alternating schedules which meant we never worked together. Instead, I worked every shift with a team of 8-10 Chinese volunteers.

Some of the benefits of my assignment (aside from the free tickets to events and the closing ceremonies) were my insights into the Chinese culture and work ethic. Stay tuned to read more about my experiences in China, specifically my observations about the Chinese work culture and environment.

In my last semester of my senior year of college, I managed to schedule classes from 9 to noon, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. See, I thought I was just getting a great schedule which allowed time for school, work, and hmmm, non-work.

What I didn't realize was that I was actually way ahead of the times. How so? Well a number of schools are now adopting 4-day weeks to save on energy costs. Forget about the fringe benefits of no classes on Fridays, it means all those heating, air-conditioning and electrical costs are cut back dramatically.

A recent CNN story on Brevard Community College in Florida pointed out that the 4-day week saved the school $267,000 in energy costs over a one-year period. Translate that into both a more energy-efficient operation from a Green standpoint, and also savings for the college that could be redirected to classes and student programs.

The trend, and it certainly seems to be a trend, is spreading to schools across the country, and also moving "downward" to high schools and elementary schools, particularly in the northern areas of the country, where it's often done only during the coldest winter months.


Of course, what we need to work on next is convincing more schools AND workplaces to adopt those altered workweeks. Love to be able to recreate something close to my senior year schedule, wouldn't you? TGIF! No, really, TGIF!

If your school or your company has gone to this kind of revised schedule, tell us about it, OK?

Photo by pvera

By Allison Jones

I was upset by this article in a Yahoo Column discussing the impact that the overwhelming amount of debt that college students are taking out has on their psychological and physical well being. On the on hand, many colleges have taken the lead on this issue and have greatly reduced the amount of loans they place on students. Harvard is the most famous of the universities taking such steps and I am incredibly proud that my alma mater, Haverford College, has also taken the lead among small liberal arts colleges to address this issue.

At the same time I have realized that the ability to give away millions of dollars to students is a privilege in and of itself that seems to only be occurring among elite schools. Interestingly these are also the colleges where graduates make the most money. Additionally, a sad reality is that these colleges often have strict admissions guidelines leaving out many students, often impoverished, who have not had the education and networks necessary to be admitted to these schools.

So instead of simply celebrating the slow yet necessary direction elite colleges and universities are taking to educate, why not move the discussion towards the the importance of colleges and universities reaching out to other colleges and universities?

Students and the country overall have a lot to gain from such collaborations.

1. The population served by colleges and universities is incredibly large and diverse resulting in greater impact: Some schools count a large number of students who are the first in their family to attend college while others reap in big money from legacy admissions. Given the diversity of constituency it is imperative that we are always aware of best practices and have access to the best resources so that everyone is capable of being healthy productive citizens.

2. The role of colleges and universities in society may be questioned, yet they are a necessity: As the economy fluctuates people will always question whether it is worth it to go to college. No matter which direction the debate goes, the importance of colleges and universities to society will always be critical. Scientific and social research is powered by colleges. Universities are places of personal and professional discovery and the power wielded by some schools truly knows no bounds. Some colleges set up high schools for teens while others have free health programs.

3. Pooling together resources means more resources to share: At the end of the day no matter how much money my school or schools like it promise to give, the economic diversity of these schools is low. That shouldn’t automatically result in poor access to education. Rather, it should result in more resources being shared to ensure that students have what they need to be successful. As mentioned above, what they offer to communities is incredibly valuable so it seens logical to extend these benefits to ther colleges that may be lacking them.

I’d like to start brainstorming actual steps colleges could take to working more with other colleges in an effort to reduce costs and making a better college experience for potential students. What are some examples of colleges working together well with other colleges? What have the results of such collaborations been? What are the drawbacks of this kind of relationship? How can we get schools interested in having this conversation put on the table?

However, colleges and universities appear exempt from this suggestion often doing what they can to make themselves stronger and more competitive than the next school. But as students take on more loans and hardly make enough money to pay back those loans, there has never been a greater time for colleges and universities to work together to educate our country. My biggest push for non profit organizations is for them to realize the importance of collaborations. In order to increase our resources and strengthen our ability to help others we can’t operate as though we live on an island and are the only ones who can address a particular issue.

Allison Jones graduated from Haverford College in 2007. She chronicles her life as a newbie in the professional world at Entry Level Living.