Students’ work (F.7C 2009-2010)
Poon Kam Wa, Kammy F.7C No. 23
Work-life Balance
In this 21st century and fiercely competitive society, labour over the world are inclined to be in the same harmony---working relatively long hours and not asking for holidays and wishfully want to barter one-day holiday for one-day salary, especially the developing countries like Japan, where new contraption shows up frequently. In contrast, workers in Hong Kong, in which performance appraisal is adapted, are tempted to go on holidays, no matter whether it is long as one month or short like a half day-off, if they have a long-hour work. Despite the differences in both places, working and relaxing should be well-balanced to strike for a healthy and long-lasting lifestyle. Neither one of them is going to step over each scope. To check out these different phenomena, we should have a bird’s-eye view of workers’ lives in Japan and Hong Kong.
‘I sit in front of the monitor for hours and hours, but I seldom feel tired.’ said an office boy in Japan. ‘No one’s going to boost me to turn in the work.’ he added. Generally, foreigners like us, perceive Japanese are extraordinarily diligent. Disappointedly, we are cheated by rumours and we prove our nescience. A portion of Japanese officers is truly working at a relatively low rate to finish one task but the product coming out is reproachable. Scornfully, in the sight of boss, there is always a good boy concentrating at his desk, and thus the weak-willed boss usually put off the deadline, and most of the time, require overtime bringing the task off. In brief, the cunning office boy is seemingly covering up his identity---a slacker and an actor. Logically, officers in Japan are not keen on any holiday as excitedly as Hongkongers because the workplace has already been a money-withdrawing resort! Perhaps a sweet dream at night is more than enough for these Japanese to wind down.
On the contrary, attitudes can be a completely different story in Hong Kong where collar-workers always want to wean off the job from the time they have just gone to work until the time they are ready to go back home. They are somewhat resemble schoolchildren in desire. Being forced to stay in the workstation is a way of bondage for free Hong Kong people. People lived in Hong Kong fear boredom so tightfisted in work but lavish on leisure may be their aspiration. Devotion to amusement, in terms of time and effort, is far more than that to work. They regard working as a burden to a certain extent and should be cut down in proportion in their life. To achieve that, they appeal to get buffers, namely, holidays to unwind the pressure put on them. Examples of practices of recreation are shopping, playing sports, playing laptop or gadgets, singing karaoke, and gathering in café or pub to have a chat with their friends over numerous topics. Similarly, our friends insist on going on a holiday once a ‘long official holiday’ (e.g. Chinese New Year, Easter, and Christmas) to visit various countries or provinces in their motherland. These offer them instant contentment; new funniness and solution to how to kill time other than working.
If we shift to look into the case at a more positive angle, Japanese are quite long-sighted---they opt for earning more than they need by consummating the work rationed. In that sense, they tend to stay up in the workplace and follow a rational line, they earn a little more than their basal expenditure.
A hundred-dollar note is actually assembled by one hundred one-dollar coins. The surplus will be added to their savings to pave the way for their lives in the future, i.e. a better retirement. Not only can this give impetus to workers themselves, but this surplus can also loosen the tension of public purse of the government. This is a wake-up call in helping the whole country.
Hong Kong working-class who is fond of enjoying instantaneous, concrete stuff usually considers too much about now. Excitement, delicacies, and fashion accessories take over the role played by future capital reserve. Happiness is not equal to joy, which is momentary, but joy is perpetual. Shortsighted mindset could be threatening to us owing to unexpected results produced from the formula that we have constructed. We may be desperate at the end when we find things we pursue for so long have just gone.
In practice, everyone enjoys relaxing lifestyle. Japanese dig out their own way to ‘have a holiday’ during working or fight for the future, well-planned ‘holiday’. On the other hand, Hong Kong people are fed up with waiting and they opt for tasting fruits borne as fast as possible. Going on a holiday is not an excuse to ease our strained living, yet really a buffer to it.
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