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In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

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171–180 of 192 posts

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#171
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some towns in Japan and Taiwan started playing music over city loudspeakers at 6pm that basically means "it's go-home time now."

? They do that in my Japanese town of Kumagaya but that is for the kids to go home because it is getting dark. It changes to 4 or 5pm depending on the time of year. Are you sure that music is to remind adults that it is time to go home?

It is for kids.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#172
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't get paid for their extra labour.

Alright - the term "overtime" here was confusing me. In America, overtime means getting paid 1.5x your normal hourly rate. I have a lineman friend who eventually gets paid 2x his normal rate over some number of hours. I don't know of a better term to use, but "overtime" is certainly a tricky one to use here.

In Japan it is generally called Service Overtime when it is for free, as it is a very friendly service you provide the company.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#173

In a place I worked, if someone left at 5:30 pm, the CTO used to joke "half day today?", even though the person came in at 9 am. In many places I worked in the US, it is somewhat of a badge of honor to spend long hours at work (how many of those are actually productive, is a different story). And these aren't even startups. This can't continue - an entire generation of people have been brainwashed that hard work = go…

I read the book “Why we sleep” and they present some statistics from studies. One being that lack of quality sleep from working such long hours which can negatively impact sleep and has massive economic costs due to workspace accidents, errors and poor judgement. From memory, one statistic showed Japan was losing the most money by far. I highly recommend the book for those interested in improving your life.

I found that study. It's pretty neat.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1791.html (PDF link near bottom)

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK I understand the definition, but the idea men should work themselves to death is not one actually held by society at large. Is it only Japanese Male toxicity? Why don't other places have this idea is it just because Japan is not enlightened? I don't think so. In my opinion it's about the workforce being traditionally male, not that it's a masculine idea to overwork yourself. That's why the argument doesn't hold wa…

It's specifically a cultural thing in Japan, yes. Some cultures have other levels of overwork at play but Japan has some unique issues in that regard. And your second paragraph makes no sense to me. Masculinity isn't about what is 'globally believed to be true', it's about what each individual culture believe constitutes masculinity. If you were to ask people from each culture what does it mean to be masculine or to…

If you can't even define masculinity all this discussion seems strange here. You are the one who keeps talking about 'toxic masculinity' like it's a decided phenomenon, but now you are asking if masculinity is not really definable?

I have no connection or investment in the term masculinity or global masculinity or toxic masculinity. But if I were trying to define something like that I would say the most identifiable traits across the set of people who are biologically male, not some nebulous concept of masculinity. You can examine traits across all areas however, like your beard example in that definition because it doesn't matter what one culture considers to be masculine, across all populations men have more facial hair. It's a biological attribution not a cultural one.

Is it true that more often than not across all populations, men and only men are expected to work themselves to death? I say absolutely not in my experience (working in the United States), maybe yours is different. Do you have any sources or evidence to support this idea outside of Japan? If not then you have no argument for toxic masculinity (as defined by that wiki, which I agree with others who have stated that it's a silly term to begin with)

That's why I would say across a global population it isn't a masculine or toxically masculine idea to work yourself to death, from what I can see in most countries men and women work about the same. And in Japan it seems to be becoming if anything a less 'masculine' idea, as evidenced by more females employing the same actions and ideas of the previous workforce so your only real example is drying up, they too are overworking themselves. That is what the original story is about. So why would overworking yourself to death be a male or female quality or socially expected quality? To me it's just a bad quality. Just because in Japan men work themselves to death does not make this a toxically masculine idea for the world at large.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#175
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some towns in Japan and Taiwan started playing music over city loudspeakers at 6pm that basically means "it's go-home time now."

? They do that in my Japanese town of Kumagaya but that is for the kids to go home because it is getting dark. It changes to 4 or 5pm depending on the time of year. Are you sure that music is to remind adults that it is time to go home?

I dunno, they did it in hachioji when I lived there several years back. I remember it being at 6 and I remember my coworkers telling me that was the reason for it but I could be mistaken.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe just turn the lights and power to the router and switched off with a timer at 5pm?

with the heat we have around here this summer, just shutting down the AC would make people wanna go home lol

If I shut the AC off in Houston things would break. The paint would blister.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#177
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't get paid for their extra labour.

Alright - the term "overtime" here was confusing me. In America, overtime means getting paid 1.5x your normal hourly rate. I have a lineman friend who eventually gets paid 2x his normal rate over some number of hours. I don't know of a better term to use, but "overtime" is certainly a tricky one to use here.

A better term to use is 'unpaid overtime'.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#178
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how do leaders convince people that change can be good? Showing the idea to a broad audience on tv is actually one way to do this. (although there are ways this can backfire)

I am convinced Obama was elected partially because the TV show "24" made having a black president seem viable and normal.

I am not sure about that one. Maybe it was the movie Deep Impact?

But I will tell you an actual and more direct example. The recently elected president of Ukraine LITERALLY is a comedian who was the star of a show where he plays the President of Ukraine! He had very little in the way of policies, but a lot of sharp humor, criticism of Poroshenko and the fact that many people routinely could see him on TV being the “President”!

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#179

In a place I worked, if someone left at 5:30 pm, the CTO used to joke "half day today?", even though the person came in at 9 am. In many places I worked in the US, it is somewhat of a badge of honor to spend long hours at work (how many of those are actually productive, is a different story). And these aren't even startups. This can't continue - an entire generation of people have been brainwashed that hard work = go…

Ditto. Happened to me in Tokyo - I was told work times were flexible and so in order to avoid peak Yamanote traffic I started doing 7-4 only to receive an passive-aggressive e-mail from the HR person that such behaviour can't be tolerated.

Re: In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home on Time?

#180
post #7

>In addition to cultural attitudes about the value of hard work, she said, some employers reduce costs by relying on overtime, and employees work the longer hours for the extra pay and to please the boss — promotions often depend more on time spent at a desk than actual productivity. Agggh hits to home. Arrogant American me rolled into a Taiwanese job expecting to skyrocket up the ladder on results alone. Nope, becau…

Paul Graham has an excellent essay [0] that might give some ideas on how the change could come about.

Its on American company /career culture changing from staying with one big company your whole career to multiple and smaller ones.

[0] www.paulgraham.com/re.html

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