11.15
The other day, this was kept on my desk. It says 今日は定時で帰ります. Literal translation would be ‘Today, I shall leave at regular time’. Natural translation, ‘Today, I shall not do overtime’. Nothing wrong in whats written there, but the attitude is annoying. Of what I can infer from it, there is some kind of guilt expressed in going home ‘on time’. Its almost as if, working over time is obvious (当たり前の事 in japanese). So someone who works efficiently and goes home on time has an impression of someone who doesn’t like work, or doesn’t work hard enough. People don’t even bother to ask before scheduling meetings at 8pm. I have attended meetings starting at 2am. Up to a certain extent, I confess there is a natural high about the whole thing, but when it starts becoming an everyday affair, screw you, I’m going home. I’ve also been asked whether I have any plans for the weekend. If not would I have any problems working on the weekend. Hell yeah, I do have a problem! Even though I don’t have any ‘plans’. I guess thats one thing about Japanese people I will always fail to understand. Life is not just Enjoy or Work. There gotta be that time where you do your thing. Even if it means watching TV. But then, even I would agree, spending a weekend watching Japanese television…. not my cup of tea.
Keeping aside the work culture thing, the real reason behind writing this was probably cutting costs. People here invariably tend to take it easy and work into the late hours of the night. Coz apart from managers and senior engineers, everyone gets paid overtime. So if you don’t have any plans for the weekend, go to work n get paid to watch YouTube. Sick but true. (The words written in the cloud are, 集中して頑張ります, I shall concentrate and work hard. ). Only today ^^
Ady
