[TheIronStar]

Just a question from a frustrated and clueless person:

How does one maintain work-life separation in an era wherein guanxi is necessary to even find a remotely genuine job lead and when work advancement often involves building relationships that often border on being more personal than business (e.g. networking, drinks with co-workers, etc.), or involve using time that normally would be allocated as off-work time (e.g. digital tethers like social pressure to use CrackBerries on time that in an earlier era would not have had one tied to the office, volunteering to get one's name around)?

(I'm an American, and the manner in which networking seems to dominate over credentials and the like in one's job search even in my own country is something I find frustratingly Third Worldish; I didn't go around dueling through schools and polishing my skills just so faction after faction can play the "You're nothing unless some friend of mine says you're something" game like something out of junior high school.)