So, all good for Asia*, right? Well, maybe not. My observations of, and conversations about, the Asian work ethic have been unexpected...
2015-17 was a fairly momentous time for the marketing industry in Japan. Tragically, a young Tokyo employee at ad agency Dentsu died of overwork. In fact the occurrence is not uncommon in Japan: there were apparently 84 deaths in 2016 linked to overwork. There is even a word for it: 過労死 (karoshi - overwork death). The marketing industry worldwide also has a deservedly bad rep regarding employee work and pay. Long hours for free are regularly expected - even factored into agency business models. It used to be bad enough in Europe; you can only up the ante in Asia. But what was different about the Dentsu tragedy, was public outcry, and an open trial of company executives. Which actually highlighted working hours as a problem. And Dentsu was found guilty of breaching employment legislation. Whether the company's resulting (microscopic) fine, or alleged changes to working hours, really affect things going forward, though, who knows. It seems the death was perhaps more the result of company culture and tacit expectations. Which might not be unique to Dentsu. Or Japan.
In many parts of Asia, 'hard work' in the office does not mean the same thing it does in Europe. It means long hours. Sometimes very long hours. But not necessarily productive ones.
There are reasons for this. For example, in many East Asian countries (and countries with East Asian influence) it has traditionally been seen as bad form - or a loss of face - to leave the office before your boss does. And your boss (who might be on a humungous salary to justify such long hours) could stay very late. So the tacit ruling is that everyone has to stay very late. It's not about productivity, or results, but a show of 'honour'.
Japanese friends have told me that they would regularly (deliberately) spend hours during the day 'filling' time (on Facebook, having tea etc) because they knew they would be honourably in the office until 9pm anyway. Even if they had no work to do!
My experiences in Singapore were not dissimilar. People would complain of the long hours they worked (and they often did!) but I'd note that during the day there was a lot of sitting around, chatting, smoking and doing nothing work-related. This quite shocked me, when I first arrived from London. I'd imagined the pace would be the same, but just for longer - hence 'the industrious East'! In fact the pace was a lot more laid back overall, and 'stretched out' - probably due to decades of this long-hours/late-night expectation. Even in the trendier workplaces, where more reasonable hours were apparently operated, there was an expectation of 24/7 instant availability via phone or email, which was regularly used (so no time is your own!) I know from experience that out-of-hours contact is rarely necessary in my profession (once? twice? across my entire career!) But in Asia there was still a vibe that it had to be done regularly to 'appear industrious'.
Chats with colleagues also revealed that although a practice might be 'traditional' or 'honourable' it can still be - and was! - resented.
Yep, an inevitable negative of the long-hours thing, is that people lose out on their own lives. Time with friends, family, to pursue hobbies, sports, romantic time, down time, cultural time, inspiration time, adventures, and all sorts of other things get scuppered for the long-hours office culture. Sometimes even without the compensation of extra pay. And many Asian people loathe it. It seems that regardless of region or culture, people worldwide have similar basic needs. And being able to own your own time - or at least a decent proportion of it - is one of them. (To lose this time while actually doing nothing important at the office seems like a double whammy to me!)
In the UK (in my industry, at the same relatively senior level) the working style was different. I'm not saying that it was the perfect solution, or that it was stress-free - in fact in many was there was higher stress. But we worked pretty intensely during the day. It means that we could get the business results, and still leave on time to enjoy our evenings and weekends. And there is increasingly a culture where nobody is quietly frowned-upon for doing so.
For example, I'd get in at 9am, make a coffee, then be at my desk constantly, 100% occupied with work tasks, until lunchtime. And the same in the afternoon. Meetings were ideally kept short, direct, to minimise 'lost time'. No lolling around, chatting or social media (except during lunch hour if I wanted to). Business school was a further refining of this work-style - with most teams working to Pareto to maximise returns on (very) limited time. That was part of the training.
Misconception: so the Asian view that Europeans 'have it easy' is not quite correct. We work very hard, but we try to work smart, so that we can also enjoy 'life outside'. Plus many companies now encourage this, and judge us on our results, not time at our desks, or on our phones.
For most EU countries, the maximum legal employee working hours per five-day week is 40 (48 for a six-day week). It's averaged out, and there are exemptions for some professions. But eight hours per day is the standard rule. And economies do not seem to have suffered for it. In fact some of Europe's most work-life-balance aware countries (Germany, France, The Netherlands, Sweden) are also its most prosperous.
Management experts (albeit probably Western ones!) agree that happy, enriched people, with a handle on their own time, actually have higher productivity and buy-in during their shorter work hours, and benefit businesses more. (Resentful ones, obviously, far less!) And for the creative industries especially, I always wonder how great ideas can flourish if experiences / inspirations are limited to the workplace.
I'm not doing a whole 'West is Best' thing here (most of you already know that I'm fairly aware of that bias!) And one can't argue with the success of the Asian tigers. People do things differently. And achieve goals differently. But when described to my Asian colleagues, they nearly all thought the more intense Euro-style sounded pretty good, especially if it allowed evenings and weekends on their own terms. In fact, some of the younger people already had exit dreams and plans: to step out of the rat-race once they were solvent, and opt for more work-life-balance.
I've noted East and South East Asian countries are often places of contradictions. In many ways they can be socially ultra-conservative, staunchly unwilling to alter tradition. But this alongside (or perhaps because of?) fast economic growth, agility, innovation and change.
The work-life aspect is one social tradition which might change soon for this region. And we can probably thank the Millennials for this! There are some things I admire greatly about the new Millennial generations over here. While they're labelled as faddy and entitled (which is sometimes true) they're also questioning a few daft traditions, and turning them on their heads.
Low-conception (an aside!)
I also have a theory about the declining birth-rates in countries like Japan and Singapore. A drop governments and economists have worried about for a while. Of course it is a problem with some complex socio-economic roots. But if you're in the office until 9 or 10pm daily, this seriously limits your social time (finding a partner), time for getting to know him/her, or romance WITH an existing partner. AND probably the energy to feel generally happy, relaxed and romantic in the first place. Does this help bring on healthy new generations of bouncing babies? In my view, Asia's long-hours office culture seems to be at odds with a lot of the region's traditions of children and family, as well as modern economic considerations. Increased work-life-balance could be a serious win-win for Asia!
* I'm using 'Asia' to apply to the East and South East Asian countries mentioned in this post. For ease. I do realise that it's a huge continent full of diversity. Just as Europe is. (And I've also referred to Europe in the general sense, to make broad comparisons with East and South East Asia).
** The Pareto Principle suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of your tasks. So that 20% should be identified, and strongly prioritised.
Also on this blog:
No comments:
Post a Comment