Working Culture in Kuwait

This topic rarely makes me laugh because of the frustration I deal with....but apparently everybody else seems to find humor in it.

True Story - Based on Actual Events:

Kuwait is an interesting place....the clients here sorta remind me of my mother. She wants the latest and greatest technology but doesnt know how to use it...what makes it even more frustrating they want to buy a ferrari california for the price of a tata nano.

When submitting a proposal, the client whispered to me [serious face] "do you know what it takes to win this deal?" My ears perked up and I leaned in hoping to learn some valuable intelligence...so I asked what??? HE says: "do it for FREE!!!"

I guess you get customers like that everywhere, but its also frustrating when you work in a culture where there is such a primitive use of email. A coworker and I were having a similar issue where all our emails were being bounced back. So I asked our tech support specialist on our team to investigate the issue. The reason I call him our tech support specialist is NOT because that is his designated role...ITS because whenever I ask him a question, he'll respond with "only technical please" - which leads me to believe you can only talk to the guy if you have a technical question.

Also, if you have been keeping up with the blog, this is the same individual that spelt quotation....COTASHIN - So anyways back to my story.....my coworker and I explained the issues we were having with our email...and his solution to the problem was to create a support ticket and send it to the company that manages our email exchange server. I removed actual names and email ids for privacy reassons, but this is the exact copy of the ticket that I was copied on:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Hi

> My self Tom i am working in XYZ company we are using net firms
for mail access.

> But two of my colic r not receiving the mail from outside and due to that
we r facing lots of problem we have check form our side and there no issue.

> My colleagues mail ids are

> johndoe@XYZ.com

> johnsmith@XYZ.com

> Please look into matter

> Waiting for reply

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now why this support ticket tickles the crap out of me is the way he spelt colleagues...."But two of my colic" --- and in the next sentence he spells it perfectly....WTF

Oh and what makes it even funnier is if you know what the word colic means....its an intestinal disorder usually with babies when they cry uncontrollably because of the gas trapped in their digestive track causing discomfort in the abdomen and colon.