pedagogue comments

Before I came to Japan, I used to be a manager for a computer store. I spent years working my way up the ladder and when I got to the top of it, I was practically worked to death. It got so bad that I ended up on medication for stress. I took my case to HR and was simply told that management are expected to put in a sufficent hours to run the business. Many of my company friends were in exactly the same situation as me, with nowhere to turn. The area managers were under worse pressure so they could offer little to no help. Its very easy to sayjust quitbut my colleagues had invested a lot of time and effort gaining their management positions and the majority of them had families to support. There are few opportunites out there for other management postions. I spent 2 years looking for a decent, similar alternative but like most others, I was un-able to find one. Luckily for me, I plucked up the courage to follow my dream of teaching, quit my job, did a teaching course and gained a position out here in Japan. However, Im in the minority here as most people are un-able to find viable alternatives, especially those with families.

Classic old vs new school clash! People are waking up to the fact that other countries encourage you to work to live instead living to work. Compare Japan to Denmark where they encourage you to have a minimum of 6 weeks holiday in a year The kids know that when they join a company, they practically hand over their identity to them. The idea of your identity being wrapped with your company is now an out-dated notion. This generation have grown up watching their parents work themselves to death and have realised theres more to life than this. Who can blame for their reluctance? If companies start introducing notions like flexi time, company holidays and the like then people will buy into that and theyll end up with loyal hard workers.