Monday, June 07, 2004



Mr. H is back from Macao. Only a few days mind you.
He was supposed to be back forever in April but they just keep sending him back to China. He is not overly happy about it and neither is his family. His youngest son has been really upset.
The sad thing is that this story is all too common here in Japan. He went to the Macao factory for a short one month business trip to work on the production line one year ago. He still has not been allowed to come home. The boss wont let him. He sneaks into his house about once every two months for about two weeks and then he is gone again. Totally crazy!!

The main reason behind the stay is because they have been having tons of problems with this new factory. About 80 percent of these problems come from the employees themselves. There was actually a strike at one time. I laughed at this. The Japanese mentality just dont work in China boys!! Mr. H`s words were `They dont love Sumitomo`.
I went `Ya?` and why does this surprise you.

We think the same in North America. We dont love our companies back at home, we just work for them. They provide us with a job that puts food on our tables and lets our kids play hockey. There is the odd person who really LOVES their company but most of us will respect the company if the company respects us. It is a give n take thing at home. We would never dream of dying for a company.

Well in Japan they would and do.

It has actually reached a point that there is an official Japanese word for it that translates to `Death by over work`.
At home we read about that in sweat shops but here in Japan we read about it in well respected companies. There is something wrong there.

I have students who have English class with me more often then they have dinner with their wives and I only see my guys once a week. YUP! Scary!
In the past four years I have seen some of these guys transformed from not too bad looking and ok healthy to having saggy bags under their eyes and a growing saggy paunch, Their walk looses its spring and turns into a shuffle. They get pale and I mean real pale. Some end up on medical leave for stress but most keep plugging along. I have had two people actually have a brain overload that resulted in them temporarily loosing their eye sight. There are a line of beds in the nurses room where certain people must go for doctors ordered rest that is supervised by the nurse.
I have one guy with two VERY young kids. He goes home every day for supper and has a bath with the kids so that he can give his new baby a bath. Then he gets out, dries off, puts his work clothes BACK on and heads back to work. Use your imagination as to when he gets home.
My neighbour upstairs comes home at 11 every night and he starts work just before me.

I have almost reached a point where I have given up understanding why they do this to themselves. There is no living and no life. It still boggles my mind that they can actually create new things.

I am just glad a married a Chinese guy who doesn't think this way. His very happy when he has a job but he is not going to choose his job over his family.


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Posted by (Top)Andrea::6/07/2004 :: 0 Comments:

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