Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs
Aug 18, 2022
Discussion#1 How or if we should draw a line between our public & private life in today’s Work/Life Integration age.
Blogs from The Third Way Working Group
- Do people really want to integrate work and life? If people like their job, they probably do. But if they just work for paycheck, they probably don’t.
- Some people do better by separating work from life (like many people in Germany). For those people, work/life separation is more relevant.
- But in Germany, there is a much higher level of acceptance when people prioritize their personal life. They can tell clients that they are going on vacation or it’s already closing time etc while Japanese have a much lower level of acceptance.
- There are more different options in work styles these days. If you are an entrepreneur type worker or running your own business, your work and life may be inevitably more integrated. But if you are a contractor type worker, you may want to limit your time and energy spent on work and secure your own time as much as possible.
- We can follow the following questions.
Q1: Do you like to work? Yes/No
Q2: Do you like the work you do? Yes/No.
Q3: Do you like the company you work for? Yes/No. If your answer is yes to all three questions, you are ready for work/life integration. But there are also many people who say “I need to work to get money and whether I like it or not is irrelevant.”
- In the West, there is a trend called “quiet quitting” where workers are determined not to do anything above and beyond what is in the contract. They can not afford to quit jobs but they don’t like their jobs either. So they stay at work by doing absolute minimum. How to engage this kind of people is a big challenge for the management.
- Japan is actually spear-heading a new movement called Society 5.0 which is a new work style well integrated with technology such as big data/AI etc and aims at achieving a more human-centric and mindful way of working. (Ikigai-oriented)
- As the prerequisite of work/life integration, there must be work/passion integration. If your passion is not in your work, you probably do not find motivation to integrate your private life with your work.
- The Japanese people are often very good at working together for CSR activities and social events. They show tremendous passion for those societal causes. However, when it comes to the business, many of the same people show much less passion. It is probably because the “Why” and “What” of social events and CSR activities are clearer and easier for them to relate to than the purpose and benefits of their business activities.
- There seems to be a gap between the mental aspiration of the Japanese to make more noble and social contribution and their actual physical work conditions with low pay, hierarchical culture, increasing workload with constant labor shortage etc. It is understandable that some people get realistic about their work reality and get really cynical about it. More and more Japanese may also follow the trend of “quiet quitting” in the near future. Then there will be not so much work/integration in this country.
- Some people do better by separating work from life (like many people in Germany). For those people, work/life separation is more relevant.
- But in Germany, there is a much higher level of acceptance when people prioritize their personal life. They can tell clients that they are going on vacation or it’s already closing time etc while Japanese have a much lower level of acceptance.
- There are more different options in work styles these days. If you are an entrepreneur type worker or running your own business, your work and life may be inevitably more integrated. But if you are a contractor type worker, you may want to limit your time and energy spent on work and secure your own time as much as possible.
- We can follow the following questions.
Q1: Do you like to work? Yes/No
Q2: Do you like the work you do? Yes/No.
Q3: Do you like the company you work for? Yes/No. If your answer is yes to all three questions, you are ready for work/life integration. But there are also many people who say “I need to work to get money and whether I like it or not is irrelevant.”
- In the West, there is a trend called “quiet quitting” where workers are determined not to do anything above and beyond what is in the contract. They can not afford to quit jobs but they don’t like their jobs either. So they stay at work by doing absolute minimum. How to engage this kind of people is a big challenge for the management.
- Japan is actually spear-heading a new movement called Society 5.0 which is a new work style well integrated with technology such as big data/AI etc and aims at achieving a more human-centric and mindful way of working. (Ikigai-oriented)
- As the prerequisite of work/life integration, there must be work/passion integration. If your passion is not in your work, you probably do not find motivation to integrate your private life with your work.
- The Japanese people are often very good at working together for CSR activities and social events. They show tremendous passion for those societal causes. However, when it comes to the business, many of the same people show much less passion. It is probably because the “Why” and “What” of social events and CSR activities are clearer and easier for them to relate to than the purpose and benefits of their business activities.
- There seems to be a gap between the mental aspiration of the Japanese to make more noble and social contribution and their actual physical work conditions with low pay, hierarchical culture, increasing workload with constant labor shortage etc. It is understandable that some people get realistic about their work reality and get really cynical about it. More and more Japanese may also follow the trend of “quiet quitting” in the near future. Then there will be not so much work/integration in this country.
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