Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs

・Some working mothers are still complaining that the companies are setting online meetings at the time of picking up children. The lack of consideration on the company side still exists.

・If she can not tell her company about this issue out of some kind of fear, it is surely an issue of psychological safety.

・Maybe her manager has no clue about the situation of working mothers if he never experienced the same situation and nobody ever told him. It could be an issue of ignorance.

・It seems there is still some mental block(or hesitation) in Japanese companies toward flexible work hours because managers often don’t know how to manage and employees don’t know how to perform in flex work hours.

・When it comes remote work (work location flexibility), there is still a strong voice about the issue of fair treatment in the light of those employees who can not work remotely ,e.g. factory workers.

・Japanese generalist people management system rotate people among different departments based on company needs leaving no room for employees to choose their job. Hence the fairness issue always arises when you try to implement a remote work policy.

・In Japan, fairness often does not mean equal opportunity for everyone like in the rest of the world. It means everybody should be the same!

・As for men-women dynamics at home, working from home has made it easier for some couples to work together and to be more productive and happier but some couples who are still stuck in the old way, e.g. wife still has to do all the household works and support her husband, are finding it very challenging and stressful.

・Because many people are no longer spending such a long commuting time every day, it is easy to assume that they now have a much nicer, easier and more comfortable lifestyle. But it is not always the case. In a way, coming to work and working in the office provided people with a framework and a timetable to follow. Working from home has taken away this framework of self-organization. As a result, there are many people who are just idling drifting between video meetings without knowing what to do.

・Working from home is a new trend not only in Japan but the whole world. People should have a moment of self-reflection regarding their lifestyle, workstyle and relationship etc upon this occasion.

・Maybe after a while, Japan should have a massive 反省会(Reflection Meeting) regarding how the new normal & remote work have been handled in Japan.