Building Friendships with Local Staff

At every U.S. Embassy and Consulate, there are Locally Employed Staff (LES) working along side American officers. In fact, there are usually more LES than FSOs. In my section, the LES are absolutely essential to getting the job done - they are entering data into the computer system, printing the visas, actually pasting every single one into its matching passport, and bundling them for return to our partner bank branches across the country.

FSOs and LES have friendly interaction and chatter throughout the day, but come lunch time, a great divide is revealed. Officers set off in small groups to restaurants with high expat traffic; local staff rush to less visible canteens and noodle shops. And the same scene is repeated from 12:00-1:00 in offices all throughout Shanghai.

Nobody really aims for this scenario, we just automatically sort ourselves out by mother tongue and preferred cuisine (and maybe price range). It seems like cross-cultural friendships don't come as easily in this job as they did in the NGO world.

One thing that has helped is that two months after arriving at post, a shake-up of team structure placed my team of FSOs sitting interspersed amongst some LES. Being physically next to so many LES has helped us get to know each other and facilitate more personal conversation beyond "Excuse me, can you please send this case back to the applicant." This led to the point where I could invite some of the LES who are in a similar life situation (i.e., late twenties and not married) over to my house for an afternoon baking party. So fun! And meaningful conversations happen so much more easily when someone is showing hospitality.

Not long after, an LES with the English name of "Elf" invited her best office friends and some FSOs to her hometown for Memorial Day weekend. One other FSO and I took her up on it. 

We took an early morning train from Shanghai to a small city named Zhuji (诸暨). Although Elf's parents live in a modern middle-class apartment block, we drove out to a well-preserved walled village compound, the "Village of a Thousand Pillars." Farming implements from the Cultural Revolution era were stacked in courtyards 200 years old; layers of history resting quietly together.

The next day we went to a nature park where there were supposed to be five impressive waterfalls in the low mountains surrounding the city. Reaching the waterfalls involved a boat ride across a reservoir and then a more peaceful walk through the woods: 

For the first time in seven months, near solitude in nature:

Solitude is short-lived in China. Here's the more typical nature park scene we found upon reaching the waterfalls: 

 

Ah well. At least it was charming to see city kids out with butterfly nets and bug-catching boxes.

Like the afternoon baking party, I think this trip went a good way in helping build real friendships with some of our LES. I'm so thankful that at least in an entry-level tour, this kind of thing is possible. Some of the most basic diplomacy we do is how we relate to our Chinese colleagues in the office.