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Vol.65
Work Style Reform |
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Apr 06,2022 |
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When I was young, I used to work even on weekends during the busiest few
months every year with an
average of only 5 hours of
sleep. At that time, such a
working style was not so rare
that all the people, including
me, took it for granted, so we
just focused on finishing our
jobs without giving much thought
to it.
As I grew,
however, I started thinking
about the reason for long
working hours. I came to the
conclusion that there was no
huge difference in research
quality between our competitors
and us, which made the entire
research industry hesitate to
increase the price rates. That
is why we had to work overtime
to make a profit. Since then,
our company has worked on
improving existing services and
developing the industry's new
services. These initiatives
allowed us to set prices worth
the quality, which resulted in
changing our working practices.
In recent Japan,
the work style reform has been
promoted due to death from
overwork and labor shortages. I
think it is difficult to solve
this issue unless companies stop
competing with each other over
prices.
Another issue
is profit distribution. The
proverb "We are in the same
boat" can also be applied to
companies. In recent years, some
Japanese companies tend to
follow American companies in
which only executives are paid
well, but I think this just ends
up widening the economic gap
between the rich and the poor.
I always tell
employees to decide when to quit
by themselves. Companies should
create a working environment
where employees can work as long
as possible if they are
physically and mentally healthy.
In the case of our company,
which has an over 50-year
history, only 4 or 5 employees
chose to leave us before
retirement.
The work
style reform contains other
issues, but they do not look
like system flaws. Whatever the
reform, the most important thing
is that company executives need
to change the way they think.
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