Hi everyone, just a little rant. Feel free to remove if this is not the right time/place etc.
Met up with a (Japanese) friend at the weekend. She was complaining how her foreign colleagues just go home after they finish work. Said it was selfish to not help Japanese colleagues with their tasks.
I also have had Japanese colleagues imply I’m lazy for leaving on time. I work 9 hours a day with 20 minutes to sit down and eat something. After my classes finish, I’m finished. However, somehow people side-eye me for not staying past my contracted hours.
Leave me alone.
Everyone needs to just do their jobs and go home.
Rant over.
30 comments
Welcome to Japan work culture. Not sure if they will change any time soon despite you not liking it.
Depends on the company culture. Also it’s not exclusively a Japanese thing since I have seen many instances of Chinese workers in Japan doing extra work during weekends just to meet deadlines.
Overtime can go to hell. Overtime killed my brother. Zero sympathy
Get new friends.
My company has a very convenient and efficient “flex time” policy, where there are 5 “core hours” on weekdays (10am~3pm with a one hour lunch break) during which you have to be clocked in. Outside these hours, you can basically allocate your work hours in whatever way you want.
Start late and finish late; start early and finish early; take a 2 hour break after 3pm before resuming until late evening; take a few hours off one day and do those work hours at a later date, perhaps on a weekend; whatever floats your boat. As long as the total work hours for the month are done and you’re present during those “core hours,” you’re good.
It also means that on certain days when the company is especially busy and needs me to stay in late, I can do so without feeling like it’s somehow unfair – after all, this system provides much more freedom, and I can’t complain when I’m able to work on my own terms most of the time, clocking out when I’m tired and working extra hard when I’m energetic.
This system just makes sense, and it’s the one thing I’m going to miss dearly when I change jobs next year.
Oh no, you got side-eyed. Could have been an envious side-eye. Japanese people I’ve spoken to before say they envy the western working culture and that they wish that they could just go home when they finish. Maybe they were side-eyeing you with envy?
Also, sometimes there are issues with going home on time and with foreigners. My wife’s always worked for international companies and some of the foreign members will duck out early and leave their team members to finish which creates more work for the Japanese people.
I constantly turn down extra work, the one year I took the bait was awful mentally, physically, and for my family. Remember when the dust clears, the company and your co-workers will not be there for you. Take care of yourself first.
Japanese care more about the process than the result.
Westerners care more about the result than the process.
Both have their merits and flaws, especially when it’s at the extreme side of the spectrum.
This is not a work culture thing, this is a general culture thing, period. In Japan, group cohesion is more important than yourself. Leaving earlier than everyone won’t be unnoticed. There is a reason people stay late, it’s the same pressure that keeps people having their mask on in the street. It is the same pressure that makes sure customer service is high quality.
Yes it sucks, but it has its pros. I am not telling you to stay late. Don’t do it, but don’t expect society to change for you. Find another job, create your own job, or reconsider why you are living in Japan – if you can’t stand that the group takes priority, you will have a hard time feeling happy.
I am in a sort of unique position I suppose. I find my own tasks and get them done on time.
When I get sucked into other tasks, I have noticed there is so much time wasted with people not deciding on a solution and spending hours not deciding. This causing them to stay late.
Make a plan. Execution of plan. Go home.
I’ve found that most of my fellow Japanese teachers could finish work on time if they worked more diligently. And those who are all claiming to be busy are not as busy as they claim to be. It’s all part of the “honne” “tatemae” thing. Public appearance is more important.
If your coworkers are working overtime, that’s their choice. If they were to go home right after their shift is over, it becomes a management problem. And another worker should get hired to complete the work. The management’s lack of resource planning is not my problem.
The romanticizing of overtime is toxic. And I refuse to contribute to it.
yeah, 9 hours without a proper sitting time is hell. You’ll end up in the hand of chiropractor when you are older.
With this kind of culture, yet Japan wishes to have more offsprings. How can that be possible when the whole energy has been sucked up in the working place.
Welcome to the circle jerk of keeping up appearances at work.
Even the kids get in on it.
When I was an ALT I left at 4 on the dot, and some of the elementary kids would ask why I’m leaving so early. “Cause I’m done, and I have a life outside of work. bye”
The problem is you work for a traditional Japanese company/school/eikaiwa etc. Gaishikeis usually don’t have this problem, with the Japanese people working in the company making good use of flex time and almost never doing overtime, at least where I work. Culture is very important
I’m going through a business Japanese book right now and it advise that if you go home on time, and your colleagues are staying for overtime, then you should ask “is there anything I can do?” I believe the true masters of this technique always ask, and never receive a yes response. If you’re getting side eyed, see if you can put on a show…
Beats the purpose of お先にしつれいします
When people say selfish here, in many cases it’s:
“This person is doing the thing I want to do and I’m too miserable and chicken shit to do it myself so I’ll moan to every proxy I can about this person”
I remember getting called selfish once because I was going to the gym on my days off and trying to get in shape whilst the person that said it was working six days a week at a job they despised. I cussed them out and laughed
Tell her to work more efficiently next time. People who finish their task on time are the good workers, the people that do overwork are the bunch lazying at noon doing their excel file in 50 minutes what could take 15 minutes.
When people make comments like that, I respond with a very passive aggressive “yes, I feel so sorry for those Japanese staff having to stay late. It’s too bad they are so inefficient and can’t get their work done in time and want the foreigners to stay and help them”
While I believe in confirming to the culture I think this is an aspect foreigners can model much needed change. Under it all most Japanese people hate this aspect of work culture as well.
If people aren’t able to finish work on time, it’s on them and their time management. Sometimes there’s a lot of work that needs to get done and it might require overtime. Work should be output focused and not input focused. If I’m super efficient and finish work in 6 hours instead of 8, that should be something good and not seen as a negative.
I live in Korea and it’s the same thing; I also have friends who live and work in Japan. My Korean friends who live and work in Korea but were working in America for many years say that the Koreans like to ‘look’ busy and they will argue in meetings over the font in a ppt presentation, or the higher ups will ask for a ridiculous amount of edits or redos, causing workers to have to stay late. My Korean coteachers like to see messy desks and a computer with numerous pages open on the screen because that means you ‘work hard’, even though the desk looks horrific and you can’t find anything, and 3/4 of the browser windows are for yt or online shopping. I got a little chastised at one job for having a clean and orderly desk and not many browser Windows since it equates to not working much or being lazy; like no, I just know how to focus and prioritize my tasks, thanks. My friends in Japan have said it’s the same thing, and it’s to give the illusion of working hard, but 2/3 of the office time is browsing the internet and waiting on a higher up to tell you to change something for a presentation or the likes.
I find it hilarious people expect help with their tasks from others that finished quicker than them. It’s also funny they think other people are “lazy”. If you can’t finish your tasks on time and others can, maybe you’re the lazy one?
There’s nothing lazy at all about being efficient. My first job back in England I was regularly able to leave early because I finished everything quickly. Rewarding people for doing their job well by letting them leave early is much better than punishing them by making them cover for less efficient people (unless they’re getting paid significantly more than the person that needs their help).
You only have one life. You can live it for yourself, or you can sign it over to your boss – who obviously understands your situation and has your best interests at heart. It’s not like he would ever sacrifice your well-being to please the higher ups in the corporation or appease the shareholders’ demands for greater ROI.
When people gave me crap about who does what including who stays longer to do what, I started sending emails in the morning outlining tasks in detail. Anytime someone didn’t respond, I took note of it and just assumed we would do things my way. Anyone who deviated from the morning task list, I pointed it out to them. Eventually I think this annoyed everyone enough that they just left me alone to do my own thing which was better. Overall the work environment still sucked and I ended up quitting for a better job.
Amen. I worked at Zenrin in Tokyo office. The CEO/honbucho would always side talk me about how I go home early (5-6 PM). “You should remember that these are Japanese who are watching you and learning from you. Bosses should be first to arrive and last to leave the office”
I showed up on time (not 1 hour early). I worked my ass off non-stop until I finished all my deliverables + any extra tasks I might take on myself. I finished by around 2-3pm each day, but occasionally worked until 1am with 15-16 hour shifts if needed.
Despite the bitching, when it came time for meeting with the board, I accounted for 30% of their revenue as a company with 2000+ employees.
Just do your job and make yourself unfireable. Screw overtime.
Just tell em to go fuck themselves 😂
My wife is Japanese and works a “part-time” job, but she is constantly working nights and weekends because there’s work that needs to be done. Her salary is shit and it makes me furious that she puts up with it.
Valid rant. Upvoted.
If Japanese colleagues can’t finish their tasks during the working time, they need to do one of these two things:
1. Learn how to work more effectively.
2. Learn how to plan their work to avoid unrealistic estimates.