All Work and More

If ever you have an opportunity to work in Japan, I would suggest just pass it by unless it is in the quality control section at a Beer factory or better still, at a contraceptive factory. Else you better have a steel constitution and are a professional sword swallower or Fire thrower or such. I am sure the Japanese can handle that. The Japanese seem to have an almost inhuman capacity and will, to work till the point where their famous last words are

" Regards,

Yours sincerely

Kenji Tanaka".


You might think I am joking and well face it, I am but I can guarantee you that you can safely expect 2 Japanese colleagues to have a conversation like

"Say, what are you doing on Friday , after work ?"

"Nothing really, why ?"

"Why don't you join us, Kenji and I are going to write some emails and do some Powerpoints ?"

"Really, sounds great man ? Will you be making copies too ? "

"Muliple man..multiple "

"I am your man guys. I will be there"

" Great , see you there. Get your mom too "

It is really tough to imagine a Japanese relaxing. Have you ever seen a young middle aged Japanese tourist ? Either they are retired hat wearing hordes or young unshaven backpackers. One with a lot of money and the other with a lot of time. Once they enter the working world, they just cross the portal into a parallel universe where the Birds don't sing and no paper ever gets stuck in their copier. It is not that the Japanese do not get any leave. 20 days annual leave is common practice but the average leave taken is only 8 days per year and falling. 8 days is what I take to recover from the hangover of a vacation. Their normal working day almost seems to be an Olympian endeavour for sheer perseverance. Assuming they have the same DNA as the rest of us, I don' t really see how can they keep it up ? When I used to go to sleep , I could see the IBM Japan towers from my Hotel window where the lights used to be up everyday till midnight. I guess sleeping is something of a capital offence in Tokyo.

The contrast is especially glaring if you compare it with Germany where people will not even be able to recognise you without some DNA fingerprinting if they see you in the office after 6 PM. In fact even the German Outlook "Out of Office assitant" does not work after 6 PM. In German, the official word for Friday is Freitag (or Free day) which should tell you something about scheduling important meetings (or even emergency operations or invasions on Poland) on Fridays. May be that is what explains Hitler's moustache. Must have started shaving before he relaised that it was Friday. Also, have you ever seen a Japanese with a moustache. You do the math.

I personally believe that work is as important as play unless my boss is reading this in which case "What exactly is play ?". You heard the saying All work and no play makes Jack sought after by all Union lawyers but not in Japan which has ridiculously low labour unrest. So the question is what makes them tick ? The answer is, " I don't know " but I am guessing, if I write a few more mails and prepare a few more presentations, I will.