Survey Result

11 Japanese people who were 19~20 years old answerd for my survey.
Thank you for responding.


Then, let me show you some of the survey results.


Q4. If you have to work from early morning or until late at night, which would you choose?

To this question, 5 people answerd that they prefer to work from early morning, and the rest 6
people said they prefer to work until night.
This result was not as same as what I expected. I had thought that most of them would have chosen to work  from early morning, because some of my seniors work in early morning.


 Q5. Have you ever worked over time?

To this question, 4 people answered they have ever worked over time. 3 of them were paid for it but 1 was not paid. I think he should charge the salary to his boss.


 Q6. Would you mind working overtime if you were paid for it?

To this question, 4 people answered they would not mind working overtime if they were paid for it, and the same number of people said that they mind working overtime even if  they were paid for it.
I think that if those who think like latter  increased, problems about overtime work will be solved.


If you want to see more results, please click on the link! ↓
https://jp.surveymonkey.com/analyze/5zmXcWX_2FOOt3L59wmld_2FDLhQhF2OLg2birroZ_2FCRcVWeqfg_2Fo_2BCJ8avwpcOkLR3X

Answers to my 15 questions （５～９）

5.Are there laws about overtime work?
Yes, there are laws about overtime work in Japan! Company is expected to pay for overtime to employees in Japan. The limits of overtime working in Japan is 5 hours per day, 45 hours per month, and 360 hours per year.

source
・Japan Payroll & Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://japan-payroll.com/overtime-pay-of-employees/
・(n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://tokyo-foreigner.jsite.mhlw.go.jp/english/seekers_1/spec/spec_1c.html

6.What kind of job less likely to have overtime work?

・money matters

・early education

・school bus driver

Work that needs to be done safely or work that is related to little kids tend to have less overtime work comparing to others.

source

・What Are Some Jobs Without a Lot of Overtime? (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://work.chron.com/jobs-lot-overtime-30714.html

・Wage and Hour Division (WHD). (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/index.htm

7.How much in average is paid for overtime work?

For example, California requires double time pay based on hours worked. The rate of payment to employees cannot be less than one and one-half times  an employee's regular rate of pay.

source

・(n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://tokyo-foreigner.jsite.mhlw.go.jp/english/seekers_1/spec/spec_1c.html

・Doyle, A. (n.d.). How Much Do I Get Paid for Overtime? Retrieved July 27, 2017, from https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-do-i-get-paid-for-overtime-2060059

8＆9.Which country has the most overtime work?/Which country has the least overtime work?

In the post of the site"Telegraph", it is said that about 5 million people in Britain regularly work overtime even though they are unpaid for it. British workers tend to stay longer in the office.

Netherlands is known for low level of unemployment and high incomes!The Dutch government is supporting well-balanced professional and personal development. Also, part time working is encouraged and it is protected by law.

source

・Smith, O. (2017, February 24). Which nationalities work the longest hours? Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/nationalities-that-work-the-longest-hours/

・Snyder, B., & Jones, S. (2015, November 11). Americans Work Hard, But People In These 15 Countries Work Longer Hours. Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2015/11/11/chart-work-week-oecd/
・11 Countries Where People Work the Least. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/11-countries-where-people-work-the-least-356459/?singlepage=1

Answers to my 15 questions （１～４）

I would like to answer the questions I came up earlier!!

1.What can the company do to reduce overtime work?
Here are some of the ways I found⇓
・ Set an annual cap.
・Match staffing levels to work demand.
・Insist employees to take scheduled rest breaks.

sources
・10 Keys to a Sensible Overtime Policy – Workforce Magazine. (2017, May 23). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://www.workforce.com/2010/01/27/10-keys-to-a-sensible-overtime-policy/
・How to Decrease Overtime Work. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/decrease-overtime-work-18130.html

2.What is good about overtime work?
・It can be a chance to show that you Are willing to work harder

・It is a common way to get promoted

・The longer you work, more you learn.

sources

・Why Working Overtime Is Good For Your Career. (2016, October 31). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from https://www.databasestar.com/working-overtime/

・Benefits of Working Overtime. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from https://careers.knoji.com/benefits-of-working-overtime/

3.What is bad about overtime work?

・Not enough sleep

・Low quality of life

・Health Consequences

・It can lead to late marriage

I think that all of the reasons listed above is bad! But especially the 4th reason is a big problem for Japan because the birthrate is decreasing year by year!

source

・The Disadvantages of Overtime. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://work.chron.com/disadvantages-overtime-5388.html

・Vulcan, N. (2015, September 25). 7 Reasons Why Working Overtime Is Not a Good Idea. Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://www.careeraddict.com/7-reasons-why-working-overtime-is-not-a-good-idea

4.Does overtime work effect the employee health?

Overtime working effects many of the employees health in many ways!

These are some of the examples↓

• Lower-back injury

• Higher blood pressure

• mental health issues

• Lower birth weight (women)

• Higher suicide rates

Nothing can be more important than our lives! We need to protect our own health

source

・C. (n.d.). 5 Negative Effects of High Overtime Levels. Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://www.circadian.com/blog/item/22-5-negative-effects-of-high-overtime-levels.html?tmpl=component&print=1

・How Does Overtime Affect Employee Performance? (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/overtime-affect-employee-performance-48496.html

~Survey result~

Thank you for people who answered my survey!!
I would like to show some of the results👀

If you want to view all the survey questions, you can check out from here!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7MWKLTG



If you are interested in looking at the data graph of my survey result, click the URL below👇
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-PVWNTKR6/

Seven people answered my survey and all people were Japanese, age between 19 to 22!

To the question, "Do you think overtime working is a good thing or bad thing", everybody answered that they think it is BAD. And these are some of the reasons⇣

・It destroys people's life. Overtime work doesn't make achievement good.
・There is no time for yourself
・Working pace will get slow
・It is a important ability to finish your job on time
・leading to late marriage or not get married
・It is not efficient.

To the question, "How do you usually release stress?", 3 people answered that they listen to music and other 3 people answered they sleep and 1 person answered that she watches TV.



I also found out that most people want to get home from work by 19:00⏰

Less Work More Success (NGO)

We made a NGO called "Less Work More Success"! And this is the logo we made for our company↓

Let me introduce about our NGO! Our main goal is to reduce overtime work at companies in Japan. And to achieve this goal we hold lectures to managers twice a month and suggest solutions for companies! We can think together how your company might be able to reduce overtime work!

The participate fee for this lecture is only 1000 YEN, so feel free to participate❤

In our lecture we give out solutions and advice! There are some examles....

1. Is your working area clean?

Clean working space lets you find document easily.

2. Do you have good relationship with your employees?

Making working conditions where employees can show and express their feeling is important.

3. Lets make a TO DO List

By making a list of what you need to get done, you can keep track where you are at.

If you want to know more solutions, come to our lectures and we can tell you more!!✌

If you send us request, we can go to your company to check your company's working environment!

We also send out informations about our lectures from SNS!

Please check if you are interested in joining us too!!

You can mail or call us for further information!

COMMENTS from our classmates

Many students in our class liked our logo we made! I was happy to hear that some student understood the current situation of overtime working in Japan.

DoD

Survey 2

Please answer the survey below 😌


⇓⇓ Click here ⇓⇓


https://jp.surveymonkey.com/r/5FWQ35C

SURVEY!! PLEASE ANSWER.

To study more about overtime work we would like to here voices from other people too!! It only takes about 5 minutes to answer, so it would be helpful if you participate in this survey and answer some questions☺We would like to use the results to learn how people thinks and how much they know about the situation of overtime working.


~SURVEY CLICK HERE~
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7MWKLTG


Please click the link written above to answer the survey💕

word cloud - from a perspective that think overtime work is GOOD

I made a word cloud from words picked up from websites that introduces perspectives from people that thinks overtime work is GOOD!!

This is how the word cloud look like⇩

From looking at this word cloud I found some words like "need","position","normal", and "development". I think these words describes how some people thinks about overtime work. Some people might be thinking that overtime working is needed and it is a normal thing to do for development. Also, maybe some people are forced to work due to their position.

word cloud - from a perspective that think overtime work is BAD

By looking at this word cloud which is based on a perspective that think overtime work is bad, you'll notice that overtime work causes many problems like that people including workers's family members are stressed, workers are likely to have health risks, and expenses for overtime work cost.

The sourse of this word cloud:





Ogura, K. (n.d.). Overtime Work in Japan. Retrieved July 13, 2017, from http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/wol/dy/opinion/society_120206.html



Introduction of good websites and the reasons

Here are the good websites about overtime work which I mentioned in my English class last week.




めざせ、“５時まで管理職”？！　～脱・長時間労働の実践～. (2013, May 14). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from http://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/articles/3346/index.html






熊谷, %. (Ed.). (2016, October 11). 働き方改革、ドイツに学ぶべき点はここだ. Retrieved June 29, 2017, from http://sp.yomiuri.co.jp/fukayomi/ichiran/20161006-OYT8T50042.html




The reasons why I think those sites to be good are these:

Opinions are backed up by sources and facts

The tone is neutral: Offers a variety of viewpoints (a BBC site was given as an example)

The supporters (or creators) of the Web site are willing to show their faces or give identifying information about themselves.

The content is professionally edited or curated.

Introducing bad example of website.

In our class we discussed about websites that can be useful for our research and some websites that are not useful. I would like to introduce one of the website which I thought is not useful for searching information about our topic.




This is the website I found!!
Why do Japanese work such long hours? (2013, May 01). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from https://japantoday.com/category/have-your-say/why-do-japanese-work-such-long-hours


The first time I looked at this website, I thought it can be useful for our research ! And, on the top it says "voices in Japan". So I thought I can look at comments writen by people who lives in Japan. But when I looked at it carefully, not all comments were writen by people living in Japan. There were lots of  comments posted from countries all over the world and some had bias in it.


From this, I learned that we need to look at who is making that websites and if it is informations which we can trust.

15 questions ②

I would like to introduce 15 questions I came up  related to overtime work.

1.What can the company do to reduce overtime work?

2.What is good about overtime work?
3.What is bad about overtime work?
4.Does overtime work effect the employee health?
5.Are there laws about overtime work?
6.What kind of job mostly have overtime work?
7.How much in average is paid for overtime work?
8.Which country has the most overtime work?
9.Which country has the least overtime work?
10.What kind of job least have overtime work?
11.How many people in Japan committed suicide because of overtime work?
12.How does bosses think about working for long hours?
13.How does the employee family think about overtime work?
14.Are there things employees lost because of overtime working?
15.What can you gain from overtime work?








I would like to research about these questions throughout the semester.

15 questions

1. How many companies follow the campaign called "Premium Friday,” in which the government is urging companies to let employees leave at 3:00 pm on the last Friday of every month?
2. What is the aim of "Premium Friday"?
3. What kind of jobs benefit from"Premium Friday"?
4. What do workers ordinary do after work?
5. What do workers do after work on the day of "Premium Friday"?
6. What kind of services are there for the workers who left companies earlier than usual because of "Premium Friday"?
7. How workers manage to finish jobs on the day of "Premium Friday"?
8. Does "Premium Friday" take a toll on the workers at a later date?
9. Is there any policies like "Premium Friday" in other countries?
10. If workers had children, how do they take care of them while overtime work?
11. Is there any company who try reducing overtime work? And if there is, how?
12. How do workers feel about overtime work?
13. When the workers who work overtime have supper?
14. How often do workers work overtime?
15. What do workers who have given up a habit of overtime work become able to do instead of working until late?

Perspective 1&2 : Man&Employee

I would like to introduce a perspective from a man employee who is about 30 years old.
I don`t know his name and backgrounds because he had it anonymity.
This is how he is thinking about overtime working! I would like to introduce in his voice.


👷man/employe
I think that overtime working reduces productivity and it becomes inefficient when overtime working continues. I have seen some people becoming lazy too.  Most people would avoid overtime working unless you are enjoying the work, or if you feel like learning a lot. I think bosses have problem too. Just thinking about the companys profit, bosses sometimes take on too many orders from other companys not thinking about his subordinates work.














resource: What do you think of working overtime? (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-of-working-overtime

Perspective 3&4: Women&Managers

Perspective 3: Women 👱

 Compared to men, women have to do household, conception and birth, and take care of children. Also, women are inferior to men in physical strength so they tend to fall into a menstrual disorder. Because of these facts, Japan is an aging society. In order to solve this serious social problem, it’s needed to reduce overtime work, regulate daily rhythm, and men, especially married men, should cooperate with women including wives.

 

Perspective 4: Managers 👴

 According to a documentary program broadcasted by NHK, managers tend to say to their staff that each worker has to manage work time. However, to improve workers' environment, managers must change work time systems first. Otherwise, workers cannot go home early because they worry about what their bosses will think of them.




resource:


%. (Ed.). (2006). 女性労働者をめぐる現状 . Retrieved June 22, 2017, from http://www.zenroren.gr.jp/jp/jyosei/2007/070720-05.html

めざせ、“５時まで管理職”？！　～脱・長時間労働の実践～. (2013, May 14). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from http://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/articles/3346/index.html

Opinions of some college students

In my college's  English class, some students who are around 20 years old described their opinion about overtime work.








Here are the opinions:

 - There is a overtime work culture and also there becomes a problem of not being able to finish work. (H.N)

 - Different attitudes of various generations may be one of the factors making the issue more complicated. (M.K)

 -  I think companys should provide longer break time if the employees has to do overtime work. (M.O)

 -  I read some news about suicide caused by overtime work. There would be more cases like this if we keep doing this. (S.S)

 - I think companies in Japan should work more efficiently. Overtime work diminishes the morale of workers.I think we need to find ways to do a good job without overtime work. (H.M)

 - Workers should see what is priority for them in life. working and getting money is not everything. Maybe it's time to change this culture. (N.T.M)

 - People still get depressed and have suicide attempts. This only proves that we have to do something otherwise, the situation will only get worse. (M.M)

I think we can work more effeciently if workers change the way of working and attitude about working situation. And suicide rate will be decreased as work time become shorter.




How about your opinion?

Introduction

Hello!




  We would like to discuss about "Overtime Work" in this blog.
How do you feel about overtime work? Do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing?
Overtime work is a controversial issue in Japan and opinions differs greatly between generations and genders.




  Overtime work can be stressful to employees and takes up time they could of spend with their family and friends. This can lead to less comunication with the surroundings. There was a case in a famous company where a employee committed suicide due to stress of overtime working and became a big problem.




On the other hand, there is a old way of thinking in Japan that working long hours is virtue. Not all people in Japan is thinking that overtime working is a bad thing.


Throughout this semester we would like to look at this issue from different perspectives.