business customs
i have been very, very curious about this so i hope someone might be able to clarify for me O_O
my dad has been away on a business trip in israel where his company is doing contract work in addition to another company for an israeli company. now, it's pretty standard business practice that when a client gives you business, you take them out to a nice dinner, usually at the start of the job and at the end. so when my dad and his associates first got there, they took their clients out to dinner two nights in a row, where the clients ordered the most expensive things on the menu and the finest wine, so that it ran about $200 a head. now, the third night, they hadn't made plans to dine with them, but the clients called up and said that they'd made dinner reservations. my dad and his coworkers thought that meant oh, we took them out to dinner twice, now they must be 'returning' (a common gesture in taiwanese/asian culture) by treating us to dinner?? so they get there, it's a really high class restaurant as usual, and the clients order up the most expensive stuff on the menu, the most expensive wine. now, when it comes time for the check to come, everyone's just endlessly drinking coffee, i guess because my dad and his associates didn't ask for the check. so one of the clients says something to the waiter in israeli (which they don't understand), and then the waiter came and dropped the check right in front of my dad and his coworkers! so of course, they paid up. the job took about 10 days, but each night the clients kept wanting to go out to a fancy dinner of course with the implication that my dad's company would foot the bill. finally my dad started refusing because the level of work was a lot and lots of time gets taken up by long, fancy dinners, and he and his coworkers were working long into the night to finish the job, they'd end up not getting much sleep if they had to take the clients out to dinner because they'd have to work on things afterwards, too. this continued up until the job was done- they'd push to be taken out to dinner, and would even schedule meetings so that the ending time would be around dinner time.
now, my question is, is this acceptable behaviour in middle-east business customs? as far as i know, by american business standards it's generally frowned upon to dine extravagantly on the company dime EVERY SINGLE DAY (once in awhile is ok), but as far as taiwanese culture standards, this is seen as being really, really rude- to make the reservations, invite someone, and then stick them with the bill AFTER already having been treated to expensive dinners several nights in a row AND ordering all the most expensive items on the menu! i dunno even by american standards this is pretty bad behaviour.
i am soooo curious as to whether my dad's clients were just opportunistic jerks looking for endless fancy meals for free (i mean being treated a couple of times is standard, but expecting fancy dinners every single night???) or whether it's the common practice over on that side of the world O_O
my dad has been away on a business trip in israel where his company is doing contract work in addition to another company for an israeli company. now, it's pretty standard business practice that when a client gives you business, you take them out to a nice dinner, usually at the start of the job and at the end. so when my dad and his associates first got there, they took their clients out to dinner two nights in a row, where the clients ordered the most expensive things on the menu and the finest wine, so that it ran about $200 a head. now, the third night, they hadn't made plans to dine with them, but the clients called up and said that they'd made dinner reservations. my dad and his coworkers thought that meant oh, we took them out to dinner twice, now they must be 'returning' (a common gesture in taiwanese/asian culture) by treating us to dinner?? so they get there, it's a really high class restaurant as usual, and the clients order up the most expensive stuff on the menu, the most expensive wine. now, when it comes time for the check to come, everyone's just endlessly drinking coffee, i guess because my dad and his associates didn't ask for the check. so one of the clients says something to the waiter in israeli (which they don't understand), and then the waiter came and dropped the check right in front of my dad and his coworkers! so of course, they paid up. the job took about 10 days, but each night the clients kept wanting to go out to a fancy dinner of course with the implication that my dad's company would foot the bill. finally my dad started refusing because the level of work was a lot and lots of time gets taken up by long, fancy dinners, and he and his coworkers were working long into the night to finish the job, they'd end up not getting much sleep if they had to take the clients out to dinner because they'd have to work on things afterwards, too. this continued up until the job was done- they'd push to be taken out to dinner, and would even schedule meetings so that the ending time would be around dinner time.
now, my question is, is this acceptable behaviour in middle-east business customs? as far as i know, by american business standards it's generally frowned upon to dine extravagantly on the company dime EVERY SINGLE DAY (once in awhile is ok), but as far as taiwanese culture standards, this is seen as being really, really rude- to make the reservations, invite someone, and then stick them with the bill AFTER already having been treated to expensive dinners several nights in a row AND ordering all the most expensive items on the menu! i dunno even by american standards this is pretty bad behaviour.
i am soooo curious as to whether my dad's clients were just opportunistic jerks looking for endless fancy meals for free (i mean being treated a couple of times is standard, but expecting fancy dinners every single night???) or whether it's the common practice over on that side of the world O_O