3. Workplace politics
It seems that it is a cultural thing. In Japan, positions do not come with written descriptions. And duties that might seem to not be your concern might become your concern if a certain person in a position of authority deems it so. Hence the phenomenon of English teachers handing out tissues at the station. This is a deliberate attempt to hamstring your ability to question the authority of your manager. "That's not part of my position description!" is not an acceptable retort even when asked to do something dangerous, demeaning, or downright stupid, because your position is whatever you are asked to do by your superiors.
Now, my Western sense of progress would suggest that perhaps this will change, but my jaded sense of Eikawa madness would tell me that this will definitely not change.
Change in my Australian workplaces was a constant and welcome force, blasting new efficiencies into every minute of every day. In Australia, pretty much no big companies use faxes anymore, and if they do, they're e-faxes, instantaneously filed in a TRIM record system, time stamped and electronically available instantaneously to multiple users. In Japan, the mindset is: "if we've never done it before then why would we do it now?" That seems to be a satisfactory argument for never trying it. It's not even a "if it's not broken, don't fix it" argument, because it can be broken for prolonged periods of time without being fixed because it's not the efficiency of the practice, but the unchangingness of it, that is seen to be the virtue. Thus, paper faxes sit on fax machines for weeks on end:
"We just received your resignation."
"I sent it 3 months ago!" (true story)
Hence extremely old fashioned practices remain in place in Japanese companies, far after they have been consigned to the dust bin elsewhere.
There is a hierarchy set in stone in almost every situation, and nowhere is this more apparent and unshakable than in the workplace. Seniority determines almost every move. The bottom of the pile is not a pleasant place to be, and junior employees wait with barely contained excitement for the next bus load of company juniors to be admitted, so that they can get off the bottom rung and start ascending the ladder. Career progression is highly predictable, regulated, and in most cases, automatic. Promotion is again based on years served, rather than merit. In front line Eikawa positions (teachers and staff members) staff turn over is so high that promotion is only ever achieved by very few people with the resilience to sit out the monstrous time in a junior position. New staff members with very little experience (and no job description to guide them) bungle their way through their extraordinarily long working days, making a mess of pretty much anything they touch (except sales). No one knows where anything is, or what they should be doing. A lot of energy is spent on looking busy. My inner cynic sometimes believes that "looking busy" takes up more hours of the average person's working day than actually doing anything productive.
Now, as far as the gravy train of English teaching in Japan is concerned, I believe that train has well and truly left the station. The "Bubble Economy" years of ridiculous high wages, short hours and long holidays are long gone. Your average English teacher works fairly hard for a moderate wage. Particularly on first arriving, English teachers are comfortably compensated in their first year, but as their living expenses (especially health and social insurance) increase with each year, what seemed like a relatively cushy salary, begins to look less viable as a long term prospect.
Particularly if you are a gifted teacher.
Because the final thing I have ascertained about corporate culture in Japan is that lazy workers get given less work, and good workers will be worked into an early grave. Now, my work ethic is like this: "I like being rewarded for hard work with leisure or perhaps cash-monies for a job well done." So rewarding hard work with more work doesn't sit particularly well with me. When my hard work gets me more work, but someone who "slobs around" all the time is not asked to do any work at all, for the same pay... well, I'm not up for it. So, if you are in Japan and you are identified as a competent person - Lord help you. You'll rest when you're dead.
Perhaps this culture of workmania is because the idea of leisure is a relatively new concept. The 5 day working week is only 40 or so years old in Japan, and still many people "choose" to put in birth rate crippling amounts of overtime, or work 6 days a week. Many public schools still operate 6 days a week. Leisure time is usually spent eating out or shopping (the two greatest joys of the average person's life) and thus time off is thought to be a thing to be avoided, because it is exhausting and expensive (unlike working, which apparently is not exhausting and saves money).
This is the sound of one hand napping whilst the other hand does all the work. I'm looking forward to going back to a real job.
