Working A Typical Office Job In Thailand
By: Cheyne Logan
Tags: Thailand, Working Overseas, Digital Nomads, Asia

Ahh..... Working in Thailand.

Sipping cocktails on a golden beach every evening. Waking up to the aroma of chai tea each morning. Spending weekends frolicking in the year round tropical sun. And all while maintaining a profile online to rival any popular Instagramers photoreel.



Bordering on a bucket list activity for millenials, dropping everything to act like they’re defying capitalism in South East Asia, while living on a a mcdonald’s salary, dominates search results about working and living in Thailand.

One of the reasons this dream doesn't die is the sheer volume of these optimistic 'how to live on 500 dollars a month in Thailand' videos that get pumped out.

And yet there's very few follow ups with the gritty sequel, known as - 'how I lived on 500 dollars in Thailand for 3 and a half weeks, then had to sell my crypto for a return ticket home'.

Because, as it turns out, living on the same amount of money as a Thai factory worker equates less to an Elon Musk lifestyle and more like a poor university student living off ramen and scabbing other people's beer lifestyle.

Even if you've had enough of capitalism and want to eek out a minimal existence in line with the Buddhist mantra of the people of Thailand, youll discover the difference between zen and poverty in a developing country as you soon realize Thais belief in the middle path is only outshone by their love of reaganonomics. Either Thais love shopping or there is some serious money laundering going on in these mega malls that continue to open on a near weekly basis here.

It's also amazing how quickly the locals enthusiasm for a foreigner diminishes the moment you stop coming to their business and contributing to their kids university fund and a new pick up truck.

For the majority of foreigners, there is only 1 type of work here that consistently provides good financial security while living in Thailand and it is working as a professional for a multinational.

But trying to find information about this type of work online is like searching for your uncles sources when he declares at a family dinner Covid19 was caused by Hilary Clinton getting growled out by a bat. A lot of hear say and insanity.

But 5 years ago I moved to Thailand for this type of work. And without the need to perpetually hype about how awesome life is here I'll actually be honest about what working for a multinational entails in Thailand and why it realistically is your best shot at financial freedom. But also why it isn't for everyone.

Pro – Visas

For westerners in Thailand you shouldn't consider yourself a real Thai expat until you've seen a minority complaining about how they're treated in the west and thought to yourself '...what a pussy'.

Over here the Thai govt is about as concerned for foreigners freedoms as Donald Trump is in securing Colin Kaepernicks nfl rookie card.

What most tourists on a beer bucket booze fest in Bangkok won’t discover is that Thailand is a military dominated nationalist country. And as Thailand is also the country with the least equal distribution of wealth in the world it means foreigners aren't even scraping the bottom of the barrel with poor Thais. We’re the mould growing on the outside of it.

You likely won't worry too much about your freedoms when your main concern as a tourist is if the girl your mackin on with is actually a dude. But when you live here you are dealing with restrictive, constantly revised and haphazardly enforced immigration visa laws all the time.

At least, I think this is the case.

The online gripes about visas and immigration by Thai expats makes me wonder if Tucker Carlson nightshifts as head of the immigration bureau in Thailand. Because when you work at a multinational here these anecdotes about visa nightmares sound like urban legends.

Working for a large company means they take complete care of every aspect of your visa, leaving you with very little reason to pay attention to the specifics of what is going on. The only thing we need to do is bring our passports in to work once every 3 months and give them to a cute girl in HR. A few hours later she gives the passports back to us, leaving us with no idea what levels of pain and frustration we've been averted from.

And it doesn’t just end with visas. Taxes, transport, insurance, rent and even schooling for your kids can be covered in these expat packages. My parents even get covered through my healthcare package back home.

Meanwhile retirees, self-employed workers and a lot of English teachers are left to fend for themselves with the crazy laws and regulations.

Considering how commonly and vigorously discussed this topic is amongst foreigners in Thailand, and the effect visas can have on pulling families apart, I really believe that the piece of mind of your visa being completely taken care of is the biggest benefit to working for a multinational.

Con - Same Old Work

I mentioned previously this type of work is easily the most financially secure work you can get in Thailand. The irony is that this assumption is also regularly pointed out by people who are constantly travelling, partying and enjoying life in Thailand.

It truly is a case of the grass is always greener as these vloggers can literally be advising me my job is better than theirs, and yet I'm watching their well edited videos, espousing a free nomadic lifestyle, while thinking to myself...

'I'm so jelly!!!!'.

If videos were made about my routine in Thailand I highly doubt anyone would think they're watching a Dan Bilzerian documentary. Hell, maybe a doco on his accountant if I’m lucky.

5am wake ups and 11 hour work days tend to exclude you as life of the party here.

And don’t expect to move here for a multinational role and the working situation to be eased because you think Thai people are lazy as you once waited "20 god damn mother fucking minutes" to get served a Pina Colada at Koh Samet.

If anything, laws here mean you lose a lot of benefits, not gain any. Hell, I work an additional 65 hours a month more than I did back home.... That's the equivalent of the entire series of breaking bad + El Camino... every 30 days.

Yeah, it also doesn't help that I work for a Japanese company, who are the type of people who would catalogue a book like 'The 3 Day Work Week' alongside Lord of the Rings, as a fantasy novel. At the same point, this dedication to work is pretty consistent across the board here, whether it’s an Asian or western company.

Pro - Consistency

The main reason this job is spoken of as the mecca of Thailand work is because of the financial benefits. But what's better than a lot of money?

BOOBS of course!

Oh. And the security of consistently earning that much money!

So many foreigners in Thailand work part time, get casual hours or rely on the variability of sales results as their income each month.

While it means they can forever tell people their regular income by using the 1 random month they made a fortune, it also means they have difficulty keeping up this facade while doing runners on 200 baht drink bins.

Plus things like Covid19 can treat them like a teenage girl on Jeffery Epsteins island. Not only destroying their income, but totally wiping out any savings they had too. But multinational work pays you a regular salary.

Even though I admire the people who travel and sporadically move around places regularly, I also enjoy being able to do things like actually budgeting and saving money.

This concept probably doesn't seem that weird to people working in the west, but being able to afford to buy a house or save for your retirement is a luxury in Thailand which a lot of foreigners working here wont see.

Cons - Isolation

You know the saying you can choose your friends but not your family. Well, not when your an expat. I'm the only person from my culture, nationality or race at my company. And the only native English speaker.

For the introverted type that might sound amazing, but after you spend a week listening to Thai girls talk about babies, food and gossip you'll be dying for a high brow conversation about Kim Kardashian ass.

This might not seem like a big deal to people hell bent on living in Thailand, but try to imagine 5 years of working in a department where not one of your co workers knows who icons like LeBron James, The Beatles, Steven Spielberg or The Simpsons are.

Because of Thailands nationalistic based education system Thai people make Americans come across as worldly as Sir David Attenborough. Thais from Bangkok or who have lived overseas generally have a far more worldly viewpoint, but regional and rural Thais are lucky to know anything about the rest of the world unless it involves Football, Taylor Swift or Taylor Swift playing Football.

In my time here I've been through world events that didn't even make a blip on the radar. And I'm not talking about western-centric topics like Harvey Weinsteins downfall or Brexit. I'm talking about things like no one knowing who ISIS was in 2014, what's been going on in Hong Kong for near on the last 2 years or how any country besides Thailand is being affected by Covid19.

While it can be liberating to avoid the nauseating current affair topics that dominate western media, it'd still be nice to work with people who can name at least 1 of the 7 wonders of the world, ancient or modern, know which countries were involved in WW2 (especially when your own country was part of it and fought on both sides) or understand there are actual cultural differences between a white Russian and a white South African.

Pros - Upgrading

I mentioned the routine of money before, but the power of my money here compared to what life I could afford in Australia has basically bumped me up a few classes.

I sincerely believe, especially after living it for 5 years now, that the only reason working for a multinational is the unicorn of jobs in Thailand is because of the salary size. Because it sure as hell isn't the work.

And while I believe in a work/life balance, I also have no issue with sacrificing so much time working to ensure the future prosperity of my wife and daughter.

This means that even though I don’t get to enjoy Thailand life as much as thousands of other expats, I feel secure in knowing that my family is experiencing the finer things in life thanks to the high salary we are lucky enough to receive in this type of work.

So I may not have exciting experiences or a leisure lifestyle every day here. And while expats may be talking about bars or holidays or beautiful exotic locations, I'm usually at home dancing to Baby Shark or Let It Go with my daughter for the 10000th time in a row.

But it's totally worth it with being able to provide for her things I never had myself growing up.

Cons – Keep It In Check

That doesn’t mean that life is also completely boring here either. I still get out, travel, socialize and experience deathly like hang overs. Just far more infrequently than your average expat.

The only issue is that during these moments of leisure and pleasure you have far more responsibility to not screw up.

I have friends here who do nothing more than talk about which bar girls they’ve slept with, are sleeping with or want to sleep with. I’ve got friends who can’t recall the last time they went to bed sober or woke up before midday. I’ve had friends who have ended up in jail for the night due to drink driving or a wild time on the piss.

I just can’t partake in those types of shenanigans.

Not only do I have a responsibility to my family and position at the company, but the overall social expectations of people’s behaviour at my company is more in line with the Amish than the Sodomites.

Girls in my department have quit for being bullied because they talked about drinking and socialising a lot. Women who even just frequent bars for drinking with their friends are considered sluts at my work. This place is so far contrasted to the hedonistic world of Walking Street in Pattaya or Soi Cowboy in Bangkok that people honestly think I must have somehow taken a plane to 18th century Salem instead of modern Bangkok

To maintain a working relationship at my company I need to adjust to the expectations of the majority. And I work in a department with 3 Japanese men and 42 middle class Thai girls.

A lot of foreigners have no idea of the difference in conversing with a Thai bar girl to conversing with a regular uni educated professional woman outside of a major city.

They still adhere to societal peer pressure with their conservative viewpoints and attitudes handed down from their family, most completely unscathed by the international cosmopolitan viewpoints that get shared frequently in a metropolis like Bangkok.

You just don’t share with these types of people that you got shitfaced on the weekend, visited a few pubs and later had a one night stand with a girl whose name you can't remember, unless you want to be perceived as a dreg of society.

Pros - Saving Grace

On the plus side, this peer or career pressure definitely helps keep you in line in a country which could pass for a modern day Deadwood.

It can be really difficult to maintain your bearings on what is or isn't acceptable when most foreigners I know are glamorizing a life of debauchery and mayhem. And it doesn't take much to normalise it here either. Especially when your friends don't share the same responsibilities as you.

When I first moved here I had plenty of days where I'd return home absolutely sloshed just in time for a shower and head straight to work. I probably had more (cough cough) sick days in my first year here than I had in my whole career back home. And I clearly remember the routine of getting woken up during meetings by my employees throwing candy at me.

I was burning the candle at both ends and under other circumstances I could have easily lost my job, succumbed to the wild life and likely partied my way to a feeble exit from Thailand like so many before me.

But not for one second have I ever thought im any better or stronger than people who have fallen on hard times in Thailand. I'm just incredibly lucky that I had people around me who consistently made it clear how I was behaving wasn't kosher and I'd better clean it up.

We all know that feeling of shame when one of your parents says 'I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed' . Well imagine facing that every day from 40 pseudo mums/staff mates when you walked in on Monday morning with a killer hangover already.

I always find it weird when I hear people talk ill of all Thai girls in massive generalizations as every girl Ive ever worked with may be pretty boring and culturally close minded, but they're also the most inspiring, generous, and caring people I've ever met in my life and definitely kept me on track to maintain a good life here.

Cons - Keep A Lid On It

The actual rarity of this type of work, and the fact that the most common thing people hear about these jobs is the money, means that when discussing what you do with other foreigners it can spark its fair share of resentment.

I learnt this even before I started my job, as when I moved here I took a month long holiday in Bangkok and stayed in a hotel accommodated by a lot of long term expat teachers I used to drink with regularly.

One night the conversation turned to what I was doing in Thailand, as I never actually went to work like the rest of them, and I was naive enough to discuss not only my job but also my salary, under their request.

After that night none of them spoke to me ever again.

I don't hold any resentment about it. Its incredibly easy to create feelings of insecurity about money anywhere in the world, and Thailand is no exception.

Westerners may share similar cultural backgrounds and identities, but when someone is talking about trying to live on less than $500 us dollars a month, while another is talking about deciding between a BMW or a Merc, its inevitable that contrast is going to create problems with a lot of people.

In other words, you may not have the opportunity to associate with people who fit into your financial demographic here and it is in your best interest to shut the fuck up about it if you are financially secure. Because a hell of a lot of people aren't.

Pros - Skills and Opportunities

If you decide to make the move to Thailand and start a life here, guaranteeing it will all work out is virtually impossible. And that's taking into consideration whether you want to stay here forever or just enjoy a few years of fun in the sun before returning home.

But if you're under 50, and whether its 6 months or 6 years down the line, if you do return to your own country it is highly beneficial with this type of work to know that you're not creating a blank space on your resume, but actually adding some credible experience to it.

The job market in the west was incredibly competitive before covid. Now its just a slaughterhouse. And trying to convince a western employer that your 3 year gap leave of teaching English to 6 year olds in Thailand makes you a better candidate for a role, than people who spent that time actually working in the field, means that for some foreigners returning home could be daunting.

Imagine being 30 years old, returning to your country after 6 years of working here as an English teacher and having to start at the very bottom in your career, alongside people nearly 10 years younger than you. Ive had friends who have done this and for them it's been like starting a 100m race 5 seconds after everyone else.

This is luckily something you don't have to worry about in these multinational roles. The skills and experience you gain over here not only translates in most countries, but it actually provides you with further opportunities to relocate to even more countries.

In the last 3 years I've been offered roles in 5 other countries through my company. Once they learn that you're willing to relocate for work and can settle into a foreign environment you become valuable to multinationals looking for people who can spread processes, procedures and culture around their organization.

This is because, despite the allure of living and working overseas, the vast majority of people wont leave their family and friends when it comes down to the crunch. Relocating, and doing it successfully makes you incredibly valuable not just to your own company, but any large company within your industry.

Cons - Shysters

It also makes you incredibly valuable to scammers, con artists and fraudsters who have very little to lose and salivate at the idea of bleeding you dry.

I must have been in my role here for less than a week before I got my first call from a boiler room. Since then it's just been relentless.

Stocks, digital currencies, charities, environmental programs, conferences, training programs, property investments.

If I answer my phone and don't hear a Thai or Japanese accent I will usually hang up now. Because not only are these places nearly always illegitimate businesses who look like their websites were set up by a crack head using ms paint, the people calling are always at the very end of their rope if they're prepared to actually work for these shysters.

The major cause of this are sites like LinkedIn, where these businesses most likely buy lists of names, locations and companies from people who have scraped all the data on these sites previously, like a phone book of western expats located in Asia. There obviously must be some business in it due to the sheer amount of phone calls I receive, but I just cant imagine how gullible an expat would have to be to believe a company searching for clients via scraped databases staffed by struggling expats, who are only working for them because they have no other option, screams out as a golden investment opportunity that went under the radar from the big companies.

But, hey, thats just me.

So, there you have it. Some perspective of working for a multinational company in Thailand.

While it may sound exciting or apealing to some people out there, I can also imagine that what I've said might have provided a good reality check for some people who now realize it isn't all its cracked up to be.

Weighing up the financial and lifestyle benefits against the hard work and hours you need to put in here is vital before thinking this lifestyle is for you.