Strangely it looks like this post was hacked and half of it is gone, I’m not quite sure what happened and I don’t have a back up at hand or time to go through it again until later, sorry about that.

I started writing this a couple of weeks ago after a bad day at work. It was such a bad day I didn’t have enough time to write it properly so jotted down some ideas to finish it later. Then I forgot. Coming back on it a few weeks later I’ve had time to look at it with a fresher outlook, but I realise that my opinion still remains pretty much the same.

Efficiency is a word often associated with Japan and its society. Whether it’s to do with the country’s energy policy, public systems etc… One thing with which it is also sometimes associated is work. From the outside looking in, it’s easy to get the impression that Japanese offices and workers are quite efficient, and I was a subscriber to this impression until I worked in a Japanese office.

Fact is Japanese offices are about as efficient as those elsewhere. The illusion of efficiency seems to come from the fact that Japanese office life is a lot more structured and a lot less flexible than in the west, with respect and seniority having a lot more hold than they do back home.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: efficiency, Japan, office life, politeness, seniority, structure