How Hiya is Seen in the Filipino Workplace
If you want to hurt a Filipino’s feelings, simply say that they’re “walang hiya.” Translated literally, this means “shameless” in Tagalog, but this word can’t fully carry the implications of its original form.
Being seriously seen as “walang hiya” is equivalent to being rebuked — not only does it tell you that you’re an embarrassment, but it also implies that you weren’t raised well enough to understand the need for shame and decency. “Walang hiya” reflects the supposed inferiority of your surroundings, capabilities, and everything in between.
You may be wondering: when is someone called walang hiya? Realistically speaking, the word arises depending on how a person treats those around them. You can become “walang hiya” with blatant rudeness — perhaps you’ve spoken badly of your elders or refused to show gratitude towards people in power. On the more severe end, “walang hiya” can be used to describe adulterers, traitors, thieves, loudmouths, and any taboo that comes to mind.
In the Philippines, being dubbed as “walang hiya” can turn you into the subject of endless snarky comments and gossip, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can and will get isolated, exiled, or worse, depending on how much you’ve “lacked shame”. Across Asia alone, people have been disowned and killed for varying degrees of shame.
While things have gotten more humane over time, shame remains an intrinsic part of Filipino culture and Asian culture at large. To be well-liked and respected, especially in settings like the workplace, it is expected that one exercises humility, which is often intertwined with shame. This means accepting the grandest of achievements with utmost grace, not daring to talk over others, and learning how to have tolerance to embody the ideal.
These are just some of the ways hiya finds its space in any Filipino workplace, but it doesn’t stop there. Let’s take a deeper dive into how shame makes its presence known within the Filipino workplace.
Reputation and modesty
To keep one’s work reputation intact, a Filipino must always speak with tact. This leads Filipino workers to avoid confrontation even if it means skirting around important discussions for the sake of other people’s feelings. For example, when there is a need for a feedback cycle in the Filipino workplace, the presence of hiya may make a Filipino worker think twice before delivering their comments directly or at all. While honest feedback has its advantages in improving the workplace, hiya tells us Filipinos that it isn’t worth being direct and honest, perhaps even blunt, as we may be perceived as rude or shameless. Hiya gives the lasting impression that telling white lies and “letting the small things slide” is far better than being misconstrued for delivering hard truths.
Filipino workers ask themselves: “What good would full disclosure pose if it’s at the expense of one’s reputation?” No matter how hard we may try to convince ourselves that we can be more confident and outspoken, society at large still prefers and expects modesty. Directness can far too easily be misinterpreted as arrogance, and that’s not something a Filipino would want to be tied to reputation-wise. This is especially true when so much of the work we do involves the act of keeping the peace. Hiya urges us not to be a burden when we simply want to deliver honest criticism. Through hiya, Filipino workers would rather accustom themselves to dealing with inconveniences of varying levels than to be “high-maintenance” or “difficult to work with” for voicing out our concerns.
Getting along and going with the flow
Here’s another incredibly important thing in any Filipino workplace: the idea of pakikisama, which can be roughly interpreted as camaraderie. Another interpretation of pakikisama would be the act of going with the flow and agreeing with or yielding to the majority. As important as it is to be competent on your own, Filipinos may put a premium on the need to get along with others to succeed. Even if you’re great at what you do, if you don’t seem to work well with others, you’ll likely be shunned and overshadowed by slightly less excellent people who possess better teamwork skills. How does hiya play into pakikisama, then? In simplest terms, pakikisama is built on hiya — the fear of having people see you as a burden.
It may be considered “shameful” to be seen as burdensome through complaints, even though you might have all the right to voice out your concerns. When surrounded by different people from different backgrounds with varied interests and intentions, you’re bound to make compromises so you don’t end up “ruining” the mood. Do you disagree with a coworker older than you? Hiya will tell you that you still need to use honorifics and revere anyone higher up in the hierarchy despite how wrong they may be! See someone slacking off at work? Hiya would ask: do you really want to be a snitch who ruins all the fun? Do you really want people to isolate themselves from you out of a lack of trust? Whenever you’re around others, hiya will remind you to “act accordingly” and “go with the flow” if you don’t want to be a social outcast.
Balancing “hiya” with confidence
Clearly, hiya isn’t going away any time soon with how common it is today. Hiya can stop you from stepping out of line in conversations and overstepping boundaries, which are probably just some of the reasons why it remains prevalent in the Filipino workplace and society at large. However, even with all this in mind, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Filipino workplace can further improve with the right amount of courage overpowering hiya from time to time.
While hiya does serve as a mediating and filtering force, we can’t deny that it hinders us from getting to the point. As previously mentioned, hiya discourages us from giving honest feedback out of concern for our reputations. Beyond that, though, hiya can stop us from getting what we want from our jobs, and hiya can make us believe that we don’t need to stand up for ourselves when faced with abuse and mistreatment.
Thus, instead of going for either extreme of erasing hiya entirely or simply tolerating it, we ought to strike a balance between shame and confidence. Practice honesty with tact, embody sternness with good intentions, speak out with grace, and set boundaries — these are just some of the ways to preserve the value of humility found in hiya while giving ourselves space to be human beings. At one point, we ought to pave the way for empathy and humility that do not equate themselves to passiveness that does more harm than good.
About the Author
Ally De Leon is a Growth and Marketing Mission Specialist at KadaKareer. She’s a freshman studying Communications Technology Management (which is just an SEO-unfriendly way to say marketing) at the Ateneo de Manila University. She’s at her happiest whenever she writes about any thought or feeling without getting mental blocks, reads a book she can highlight all over, eats a full mug of double dutch ice cream, and hears Jeong Jaehyun’s voice in NCT songs.
About KadaKareer
KadaKareer is a career development platform for underserved students in the Philippines hoping to launch their digital careers. “Kada” comes from the word barkada, which means a group of friends. We are a Filipino student’s cheerleader, coach, and support group throughout their entire career journey!
