The weather has turned kind of warm again, for a couple of days at least.
The only thing on the television is Donald Trump or a guy killing nine people and storing parts of them in his refrigerator. Not sure which of the two is less pleasant to watch.
Let's move onto something more interesting. What are Japanese staff surprised about when they move overseas and work in a foreign office. This story was on Rocket News, which is a great website to get a different look at Japan. Another version was on Japan today. They both come from the same source.
So let's get into it. What surprises people about working overseas.
1. Overtime (or lack of it)
Everybody has heard about karoshi. If you haven't, it is working oneself to death. The BBC breaks it down for you. You may have heard about the recent case at the PR firm Dentsu. Poor lass worked every hour of the day and chose to end it all than carry on. Shocking stuff.
As a foreigner, I have never had it happen to me. Maybe if I was in a high-powered job I would be, or if I chose to be a full-time teacher (because they work every hour God gives them). My wife has put up with it a little, but not so much.
One thing I do notice is the sullen look on people's faces when they are going home from work. They say that the seishain (full time employee life) is the way to go, but you work for every cent (or yen). That being said, the non-seishain life, or 'part-time employee' is such a disaster, with the lowest of low pays and zero benefits....... (tailed off before getting angry).
Essentially, overseas (or in New Zealand anyway), work is to facilitate life, whereas work here for many is life.
2. Unapologetic attitudes
The article speaks of people never saying sorry in Chinese offices. I worked in China, in a hotel, for a year and a half and can kind of get that. The passing the buck that is mentioned, that goes on everywhere. I think though, that the apologetic attitude comes from the overall Japanese way. People apologize all the time for the smallest things. I even saw a policeman apologizing for arresting someone once.
3. Tonnes of time off
This is somewhere I really think Japan needs to look at the evidence and realise that time off is not a negative. If you Google 'time off helps efficiency', there are heaps of articles from recognized thinkers and experts extolling the virtues of a holiday. I didn't go a Google search in Japanese. It would probably give an Error 404 message.
Not having any holidays is the way it's done here. Why? Because it's always been like that.
What if it wasn't done like that? Maybe lower suicide rate, maybe higher birthrates. Maybe everyone will just be a little more happy.
4. A focus on food
An army marches on its stomach as the saying goes. There is nothing wrong with focusing on feeding the machine. If you are working overtime, it goes without saying that you will do better if you have had something to eat. The body and mind will function better.
It's kind of funny, because when it comes to going out, the focus is very much on food. In New Zealand you go out drinking, either having a feed first or after. But in Japan, the drinking is usually done over a meal of some kind. Izakaya baby. Love it.
5. The obvious 'I' in Team.
This is drawn from the cliche 'There's no I in team'. No letter i in the word team, and no subjective 代名詞 I in a team.
This was something new to me when I got here, and I still aren't really down with it. I don't work full time anywhere, so the drinking party thing isn't really an issue for me. My lovely wife indeed worked full time (or should I say part time full time), so had to go out drinking with the company.
I take no issue with that, as I like a sip or two, but when it is 'expected' that you go, and you have to pay your own way, it gets a bit of a drag.
This is another area where I have not been immersed in the culture to a local person's level, so I can't really comment one way or another.
6. Reversed gender roles
I saw in the New Zealand Herald today that the new Labour party will extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks by 2020. Good on them. This could be one thing Japan could really look at to boost their birthrate. The thing is, either the father or mother can take the time off. Pretty cool, but it is usually the mum who does I think.
I have to say, with the prevalence of part time, or non seishain workers around these days, the old husband works and earns the money and the wife stays home stereotype no longer applies to many. As companies try to shift more and more people off full time, the benefits are lower, so mum is out working too.
There is still a great deal of gender bias here. It goes both ways though. As a man, I can't join my wife at her baking class, as there are no men allowed. Outrageous. I don't think the UN would spend their time on my case, but I feel so excluded.
7. Companies not caring for their workers
If you have made it this far, I hope you found my thoughts, as that's all they were, interesting. This last one really gets me mad.
This is a throwback to the old Japan. In the old Japan, with a job for life, the staff were well looked after. Putting the excessive workload and discrimination against woman aside, if you worked hard, went to drinking parties, apologized a lot, didn't take your sick days, and stayed in the same job; life got progressively better for you, and you could look forward to a nice retirement.
Although that still exists for some, it is not the case for many. To get the seishain jobs, you pretty much have to join the company straight out of university. If you go overseas for more than a year, the window will have closed, and you will be scavenging around for jobs that pays $US7.80 an hour, with no benefits, no sick pay, no retirement, no nothing. So, I call rubbish on this last point.
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