Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs
Jul 14, 2022
Discussion#1 Challenges of Transition to the Post-Covid Japan: Retention Issues and Generational Gaps
Blogs from The Third Way Working Group
- Despite Covid is still at large, EU and North America have already moved on to deal with other serious threats. China on the other hand is still sticking with the Zero Covid policy. Japan is kind of in between.
- Due to the decreased human interactions caused by two years of pandemic, people who have different opinions such as anti-Trump and Trump-supporters, are even more widely divided. The lack of interactions with others and exposure to different opinions have made many people stick with their old views without enough opportunity to learn other perspectives. As a result, the divide has been enlarged.
- People who tend to live in their own virtual world now live more deeply in their own virtual world without leaving the house. And they are more and more disconnected with and separated from the real world.
- Due to the big existential challenges such as pandemic, war, inflations and climate changes, many people are just struggling to survive day by day at home and at work. It is hard for many people to come up with a clear vision for the future.
- But as an old proverb goes “A man who has no vision for his future has to come back to his past. “, many societies seem to have some political and business leaders who advocate to go back to the old nationalistic and traditional values and getting more and more followers.
- Many people who have traveled the world, worked as white collar workers in the business world with good education tend to have more liberal democratic views while many people who have lived in the same hometown, worked as blue collar workers in the local community with limited exposure to different ideas tend to have more conservative and authoritarian views.
- Despite many challenges, the pandemic gave Japan a strong push to transform its rigid unhealthy ways of working. Many Japanese are now enjoying working from home which would have never happened if the pandemic had not hit Japan.
- In Dubai, the government has started issuing the Digital Nomad Working Visa for those who want to work for companies in Dubai but remotely from foreign countries.
- People have more and more stress, anxiety and fear due to the sudden accumulation of serious existential threats over the past few years, e.g. COVID-19, War in Ukraine, Climate Change, Inflation, Divided America, Gun Violence in the US and also in Japan.
- Many people at work in Japan are also highly stressed and one more big challenge such as another big earthquake or another terrible event or further lowering Japanese Yen etc could push them over the limit of their maximum stress tolerance. We need to think about what company leaders can do to support employees’ wellness as well as their own wellness to navigate this extremely stressful time.
- We need to focus on what we can control rather than what we can not control. Also we need to achieve a healthy balance between challenging realities and positive outlooks.
- Whether you should cut cost or invest more, whether you should increase remote working or more physical interactions, should be discussed to achieve a more healthy balance, aiming at finding some social stability.
- At the time of the East Japan earthquake, many women found that it was not only food that helped them survive but also cosmetics. Sometimes, when the time is tough, we need to deliberately pay attention to the positive side of life. That’s why shopping could be often therapeutic for many people.
- Due to the decreased human interactions caused by two years of pandemic, people who have different opinions such as anti-Trump and Trump-supporters, are even more widely divided. The lack of interactions with others and exposure to different opinions have made many people stick with their old views without enough opportunity to learn other perspectives. As a result, the divide has been enlarged.
- People who tend to live in their own virtual world now live more deeply in their own virtual world without leaving the house. And they are more and more disconnected with and separated from the real world.
- Due to the big existential challenges such as pandemic, war, inflations and climate changes, many people are just struggling to survive day by day at home and at work. It is hard for many people to come up with a clear vision for the future.
- But as an old proverb goes “A man who has no vision for his future has to come back to his past. “, many societies seem to have some political and business leaders who advocate to go back to the old nationalistic and traditional values and getting more and more followers.
- Many people who have traveled the world, worked as white collar workers in the business world with good education tend to have more liberal democratic views while many people who have lived in the same hometown, worked as blue collar workers in the local community with limited exposure to different ideas tend to have more conservative and authoritarian views.
- Despite many challenges, the pandemic gave Japan a strong push to transform its rigid unhealthy ways of working. Many Japanese are now enjoying working from home which would have never happened if the pandemic had not hit Japan.
- In Dubai, the government has started issuing the Digital Nomad Working Visa for those who want to work for companies in Dubai but remotely from foreign countries.
- People have more and more stress, anxiety and fear due to the sudden accumulation of serious existential threats over the past few years, e.g. COVID-19, War in Ukraine, Climate Change, Inflation, Divided America, Gun Violence in the US and also in Japan.
- Many people at work in Japan are also highly stressed and one more big challenge such as another big earthquake or another terrible event or further lowering Japanese Yen etc could push them over the limit of their maximum stress tolerance. We need to think about what company leaders can do to support employees’ wellness as well as their own wellness to navigate this extremely stressful time.
- We need to focus on what we can control rather than what we can not control. Also we need to achieve a healthy balance between challenging realities and positive outlooks.
- Whether you should cut cost or invest more, whether you should increase remote working or more physical interactions, should be discussed to achieve a more healthy balance, aiming at finding some social stability.
- At the time of the East Japan earthquake, many women found that it was not only food that helped them survive but also cosmetics. Sometimes, when the time is tough, we need to deliberately pay attention to the positive side of life. That’s why shopping could be often therapeutic for many people.
Sponsor
