Japanese? Overwork? No way.
Here’s a great article from The Age(Aussie newspaper), about Japanese overtime work:
Overworked Japanese feel the strain
By Deborah Cameron, Tokyo
March 6, 2006IT’S not green tea and sushi that power Japan, but dyspepsia medicine.
Terrible bosses, lack of sleep, bad work habits, salty food and stomach ulcers are why.
When Australian Nobel laureate Dr Barry Marshall arrives next week, it will be as though a saint has touched down in Tokyo. It was Dr Marshall whose Perth laboratory drew the link between a common stomach germ and ulcers. He proved the cure by drinking a beaker of bacteria.
For about half of Japan’s population, the cocktail was unnecessary — they already had the bug and close to 1 million have ulcers. The cure — a short course of antibiotics — is now standard treatment.
Still, all is not well with the national stomach. Japan remains awash with antacid concoctions and spending on non-prescription and herbal remedies topped 1.2 billion yen ($A13.7 million) in 2004. Stress at work is blamed.
Here’s a snapshot: fewer than half of workers take their paid annual leave; there is a mountainous 7.2 billion yen of unpaid overtime; paternity leave remains frowned upon; 41 per cent get less than six hours sleep; and working yourself to death is so ingrained that it is recognised by the courts and honoured with a special word, karoshi.
Official Japanese statistics and OECD figures showing a slight decrease in overall work hours are viewed sceptically by labour experts.
The passenger cars of Tokyo’s subway trains are an excellent study of the consequences of stress, overwork and exhaustion.
Yesterday there was a kerfuffle in this reporter’s carriage when a young woman went to sleep while standing up and lost her grip on a strap. She stumbled on to a seated passenger who was also asleep and whose startled cry woke others. After much bowing and apology, everyone resumed their positions.
Although flexible and part-time work is more available, it is mainly for low-skilled workers. A secure job still involves superhuman dedication and with it, stress. Japan’s companies seem to want change and have looked to outsiders for solutions.
Foreigners now run Sony and Nissan, and a woman has been put in charge at Sanyo. All of them are charged with forging a new corporate culture.
Brian Martin, a management consultant who teaches leadership skills to executives, said outside help was needed to undo ingrained attitudes.
Poor organisation, reluctance to delegate, failure to set clear goals or to communicate a purpose — all typical shortcomings among managers — caused inefficiency, office stress and problems at home, Mr Martin said.
The resurgent economy and the more modern management strategy of competitors might be the needed incentive, he thinks.
But the evidence points in the opposite direction. A study published in 2003 in Japan’s Journal of Occupational Health found a fatal connection between economic prosperity, stockmarket performance and death rates.
As share prices went up between 1985 and 1990 and unemployment fell, death rates among workers rose. And the busier they got, the more they died.
The sad thing is, a great deal of Japanese workers overwork for no reason. I know of many Japanese who stay at work many hours overtime each day, doing “volunteer” work until their coworkers go home. If someone only works for the 8 hour work day, leaving at 4:30 or 5:00pm every day, they are often considered lazy by their coworkers. Sometimes it seems like Japanese office workers try to do their work in the most inefficient way possible, so as ensure they will work overtime. Does Japanese office culture revolve around a system of self-punishment in the name of working “hard”? If you finish your work quickly and efficiently, does that mean you didn’t show your “ganbaru” spirit?
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You’re exactly right about most workers just hanging around until their bosses or colleagues leave. They don’t have anything to do, but can’t risk being viewed as lazy. As for the vacation time, many companies don’t “allow” their employees to take consecutive days off. So workers get one or two days per month here or there rather than being able to take a whole week off to get away from it all.
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You’re exactly right about most workers just hanging around until their bosses or colleagues leave. They don’t have anything to do, but can’t risk being viewed as lazy. As for the vacation time, many companies don’t “allow” their employees to take consecutive days off. So workers get one or two days per month here or there rather than being able to take a whole week off to get away from it all.
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Although your vies is partly true, I do not think you get a full picture of workplace in Japan. There are a lot of Japanese who want to go home early but just cannot because they have a lot to do in the office. Working quicly and efficiently does not necessarily makes us to leave the office early, for the more capable one is, the more tasks he/she is assigned. And usually we do not say no.
One of the problems is that most japanese take it granted that others
are also in the office late, and they call colleagues at night and tell them to do something for them, like “please send the updated data and document by tomorrow morning.” We usually does not reply that “what time do you think it is now? I am about to go home and I cannot help you today, sorry,” because we
also often ask others to do something in a hurry at night. Maybe
the colleague just come back from a customer visit and has to reply to his
inquiry right away. Or maybe i have to ask for a help to the sales department because the operation in the facility is in trouble and production forecast is going to change dramatically. Many Japanese do not wait for their boss’s leaving office when they finished what to do. They work late almost every day but they go home or go for a drink when possible.
If your friends are in the office late only because of the reason you mentioned, they are lucky, or maybe they are not considered competent.
One more comment; I am currently working with people from various countries and they all are supposed to be very smart, but I do not think in general that
they work efficiently. They are often irresponsible for their job. But yes,
many of them leave office quickly. The great thing is that that’s not a
problem at all.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Although your vies is partly true, I do not think you get a full picture of workplace in Japan. There are a lot of Japanese who want to go home early but just cannot because they have a lot to do in the office. Working quicly and efficiently does not necessarily makes us to leave the office early, for the more capable one is, the more tasks he/she is assigned. And usually we do not say no.
One of the problems is that most japanese take it granted that others
are also in the office late, and they call colleagues at night and tell them to do something for them, like “please send the updated data and document by tomorrow morning.” We usually does not reply that “what time do you think it is now? I am about to go home and I cannot help you today, sorry,” because we
also often ask others to do something in a hurry at night. Maybe
the colleague just come back from a customer visit and has to reply to his
inquiry right away. Or maybe i have to ask for a help to the sales department because the operation in the facility is in trouble and production forecast is going to change dramatically. Many Japanese do not wait for their boss’s leaving office when they finished what to do. They work late almost every day but they go home or go for a drink when possible.
If your friends are in the office late only because of the reason you mentioned, they are lucky, or maybe they are not considered competent.
One more comment; I am currently working with people from various countries and they all are supposed to be very smart, but I do not think in general that
they work efficiently. They are often irresponsible for their job. But yes,
many of them leave office quickly. The great thing is that that’s not a
problem at all.
Rate this comment:
0 
0