Bangkok Post, Thailand, Kriengsak Niratpattanasai Column.

Byline: Kriengsak Niratpattanasai

Dec. 7--A reader told me recently that she had kept several of my articles on file, and sometimes shared them with her subordinates. One of her subordinates read one piece and said: "Oh, I just learned so and so. I have to change my behaviour."

She then said to her subordinate: "You don't need to believe everything Khun Kriengsak says. You have to use your judgement and apply it appropriately to the situation. I don't mean that you have to do exactly what is said in all the documents that I forward to you. I just want to share it with you."

A foreigner recently told me a similar story. "Whatever I suggest that my staff do, they will do it word for word," he said. "It's like a formal instruction. All I really wanted to do was share my opinion with them, but most of the time, the staff took it as an instruction."

I also shared a recent work experience with him. "I received an e-mail from a Thai executive who, at the suggestion of her boss, had sent me an e-mail asking for one particular article.

"Her message appeared on top of the original e-mail that the expat boss had written to her, and I read it. He had just made a suggestion and said it was up to her whether she was interested enough to read my article. But she took the advice as a direct instruction."

There are two Thai words that cover the concepts outlined above: nae