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Insights into Working Effectively in Vietnam
To thrive in Vietnam’s business landscape, it’s crucial to grasp the local mindset and work culture. This article explores five key mindsets among Vietnamese workers in various environments, revealing insights into their work attitudes and approaches to rewards.
The Varied Paces of Vietnam’s Economy
Vietnam’s economy functions at five distinct speeds, influenced by a blend of local and global factors. These speeds reflect diverse working environments, including the government sector, private enterprises, and foreign companies. Gaining a clear understanding of these economic dynamics is essential for achieving success in Vietnam’s business landscape.
The 5 Personae in Vietnamese Business
1. The Frozen Civil Servant: A Career Without Incentives
Starting their career at an early age with a modest salary of around $250 per month, the frozen civil servant secures lifetime employment through cooptation. By retirement at age 60, their income ranges from $400 to $1,400 per month for a minister, supplemented by food and transportation allowances. However, this stability comes at a cost—there’s little to no incentive to work harder or improve performance. In fact, resistance or delays in processes often create opportunities for bonuses, encouraging quicker approvals or “stamping the paperwork.” This system highlights the challenges of productivity in such roles.
2. The Local Private Company Employee: Challenges in Performance and Incentives
Like frozen civil servants, local private company employees are also driven by incentives. However, these bonuses are often distributed privately and are limited by boundaries set by employers or clients. Favoritism—whether toward family members or specific employees—can undermine a performance-driven company culture.
Additionally, private companies often hire large numbers of workers with low starting skill levels, which makes significant salary increases across the board financially unfeasible. Culturally, Vietnamese employees value wage uniformity, as it helps maintain social harmony and avoids the embarrassment of salary comparisons within the workplace. These factors combine to create a challenging environment for fostering performance-based growth.
3. The Fast and Furious Oligarch: Vietnam’s Privileged Tycoons
In Vietnam, the “fast and furious oligarch” represents a unique category of businessperson granted immense privileges—essentially a “license to monopoly”—within one or multiple sectors. These individuals must move quickly to maximize profits during their limited “term,” typically lasting 2 to 5 years, as dictated by political circumstances.
During this window, they aim to achieve extraordinary results, often aspiring to billionaire status.
These oligarchs frequently enter industries they have little or no expertise in, leveraging their “carte blanche” access to secure business licenses and bypass red tape that would normally take competitors months or years. However, their business acumen often falls short in three key areas: developing a long-term international perspective, strategic recruitment planning, and sound corporate financing. Their short- to medium-term focus frequently leads to dead ends or fleeting successes, which may impact their suppliers and partners.
For those working with such oligarchs, the experience can be unpredictable. Unless the billionaire in question has a visionary approach, their autocratic decision-making—sometimes influenced by questionable advisors, including geomancy or feng shui masters—can create a volatile business environment.
More significantly, their privileges often stem from unsustainable sources, such as family connections, political ties, or bribery of influential figures. With Vietnam’s recent crackdown on corruption through rigorous anti-graft campaigns, these advantages are increasingly under threat, further challenging the longevity of their success. This lack of enduring “business skills” poses a significant risk to both their enterprises and those who depend on them.
4. The Foreign Company Employee: High Salaries and Job-Hopping Tendencies
In Vietnam, working for a foreign company often comes with a significant salary premium, typically 30% to 100% higher than local standards—sometimes even more. This is largely due to English fluency, which is seen as a key qualification, even if other, more skilled Vietnamese professionals without English proficiency outperform them. This trend is not unique to Vietnam but can be observed across Asia.
To understand this career trajectory, simply visit a Grade A office building in any major Asian city or dine with corporate professionals of different ages. Their career paths typically follow a predictable progression: from fresh graduate to manager, culminating in a “lifetime achievement” farewell event. After retirement, many settle into a quiet life of gardening or golfing, depending on how high they climbed the corporate ladder.
While foreign company employees often possess a baseline of workplace ethics instilled through education, their loyalty to employers can be fragile. A mere 15% salary increase from a competitor is often enough to entice them to switch jobs, regardless of their actual performance or skill level. This tendency for frequent job-hopping poses challenges for long-term team building and sustained organizational growth.
5. The nostalgic peasants: The Post-Tet Exodus: When City Workers Return to the Countryside
This phenomenon is uniquely Vietnamese and occurs frequently after Tet holidays or during economic downturns—whether sector-specific or global. When urban life becomes too challenging, some workers, particularly migrants from the countryside, decide to leave the city behind and return to their rural roots
These individuals often succeed in the city due to their intelligence, determination, and courage. However, their connection to their “quê hương” (hometown), with its simpler lifestyle and familial support, always lingers in their minds. A triggering event—such as workplace conflict, inability to cope with inflation, or a disappointing Tet bonus or salary increase—can prompt them to leave. For some, the Tet holiday serves as a convenient time to make a semi-permanent or permanent exit from the urban “rat race.”
By ghosting their jobs and stepping away from the stresses of urban business life, they return to their family homes, free of rent and financial pressures. Although the rural lifestyle may involve lower income, it offers the chance to help the family, enjoy a slower pace of life, and avoid the stress and burnout associated with city living. For them, it may not be paradise, but compared to the struggles of city life, it’s an escape they’re willing to embrace—even if it means others can “go to hell.
In conclusion:
By ghosting their jobs and stepping away from the stresses of urban business life, they return to their family homes, free of rent and financial pressures. Although the rural lifestyle may involve lower income, it offers the chance to help the family, enjoy a slower pace of life, and avoid the stress and burnout associated with city living. For them, it may not be paradise, but compared to the struggles of city life, it’s an escape they’re willing to embrace—even if it means others can “go to hell.
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