A French supervisor who has been in Taiwan for three years praised Taiwan for its good public security, friendly people, beautiful mountains, but said he felt uncomfortable with his Taiwanese colleagues because “they never argued with me.”
Speaking in his first interview with the media since he came to Taiwan to work, Jean-Manuel Cros, human resources director at RT-MART Taiwan, said what he felt most uncomfortable at work was that his colleagues had never argued with him.
Describing silence as the first quality he noticed about Taiwanese people, Cros said that "everybody in France argues with the boss, even entry-level workers in a company," whereas Taiwanese workers do not usually stand up to their boss.
He said he had spent three years to encourage his colleagues “to rebel” because he wanted to hear the truth, adding that knowing what locals need is essential to blending into Taiwan’s market.
When your team is willing to speak the truth, they have a stronger sense of involvement and participation, rather than just take care of what is told to do, he said.
Shifting to talking about Taiwan, Cros praised the country for having three treasures, which are friendly people, good public security, and beautiful mountains.
He said that in Taiwan it is safe to walk on the street even at midnight, which is impossible in Paris.
Cros said he likes Taiwan also because it has beautiful mountains and seas. The quiet and uninterrupted mountains are especially a paradise to Cros and his wife as they both are outdoor enthusiasts, he said.
However, Cros said he couldn’t see why Taiwan people don’t like places of historic interest or anything old. They knocked down every place that was not occupied or not being used in order to construct new buildings, rather than reused and maintained them, and the loss of traditional architecture and culture made him sad, Cros said.