Group Pace Archives - understand-culture

Until the Boss Leaves

In February 2010, the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training surveyed employees about their working hours. Among those who worked overtime almost every day or three to four days a week, 9.8 percent of non-managers and 6.2 percent of managers gave this reason: Shūi ga zangyō shite iru node, saki ni kaerizurai kara. Others are working overtime, so it is hard to go home first. Each person could give up to three reasons.

The report, published in 2011, also looked at the statement Jōshi ga taisha suru made kitaku shinai, I do not go home until my boss leaves. For both non-managers and managers, agreeing with it went with ten or more extra hours of work a month.

Planned Leave

Japanese employers can fix in advance the days on which employees take their annual paid leave. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare explains the keikakuteki fuyo seido, the system of planned granting. An agreement between labor and management assigns the leave days ahead of time.

To use the system, a company must first provide for it in its work rules.

Lights Out at 8 p.m.

In July and August 2015, the Japanese government ran a campaign to change the summer lifestyle of national civil servants, with work in the morning and early departure. Every Wednesday during the campaign, the government buildings in Kasumigaseki and elsewhere were, as a rule, to turn off their lights by 8 p.m. at the latest.

Employees who had come in early in the morning were, as a rule, to leave at the regular closing time.

Morning Work at Itochu

In October 2013, the trading company Itochu began to move away from a way of working that took night overtime for granted. Overtime after 8 p.m. was banned in principle and needed advance approval. Work after 10 p.m. was banned, and overtime was shifted to the next morning.

Newsweek Japan reported that work between 5 and 8 a.m. carried a wage premium of 150 percent.

Excuse Me for Going First

Otsukaresama deshita. Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu. Thank you for your hard work. Excuse me for leaving before you. A manners column on All About calls this the standard, safe phrase for leaving work before others. It suggests also asking whether there is anything to help with.

In the tea ceremony, guests also say osaki ni, before you, and dōzo, please go ahead, to one another before drinking.

Nobody Leaves at Five-Thirty

In 2018, Business Insider Japan surveyed 488 young employees about overtime. One respondent wrote: Teiji wa 5-ji han da ga, teiji ni kaeru mono nado inai tame hayaku kaerizurai. The working day ends at 5:30, but nobody goes home at 5:30, so it is hard to leave early.

Another wrote that the idea has spread that one should stay at work while others are too busy to go home, even when there is nothing to help with.

I’ll Go Home on Time

In April 2019, TBS started the Tuesday night drama Watashi, teiji de kaerimasu. (I’ll Go Home on Time), starring Yoshitaka Yuriko. Her character, Yui, carries a trauma from the past. Since then she has held that work is not something to risk one’s life for. She finishes her work with more concentration than anyone else and values her private life.

Staying Late

Sābisu zangyō, service overtime, is overtime work that is not paid. In a survey reported in 2015 by Rengo, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, about 40 percent of workers said that they had been in a situation where they had to do it. The average was 16.7 hours a month.

Tsukiai zangyō, keeping-company overtime, means staying at work after one’s own tasks are done, to match colleagues or the boss. In a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 12.8 percent named ending it, with bosses sending staff home early, as a measure needed to reduce overtime.