It’s no wonder people in China are afraid of making decisions and assuming responsibility for decisions if what I witnessed on Monday is the norm in China.
I was at the office of the co-publisher I work with. And the two editors I was going through the page proofs with suddenly requested that we take a photo together. They explained to me that they had to do so to prove to their boss that they are working with me. They even started taking pictures of the page proofs that were lying on the table. And there I was thinking how bizarre the whole situation is. There’s absolutely no trust at all in one’s employees.
Then I’m also told that books are picked at random to undergo a quality check. For every “mistake” they find, e.g. the line should be one point thinner in width, 0.5/1 demerit point is given. If the book hits a certain number of demerit points, the editor working on it will be fired.
I just think it’s ridiculous to be fired over such little matters. There’s absolutely no room for mistakes. It’s like in China you’re only marked for the bad things and never rewarded for the good. It’s no wonder this climate of fear prevails where mistakes and failures are not tolerated. Such an Asian thing! So annoying!