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INTEREST: Japanese Government's Part-Time Worker Anime Video Draws Criticism


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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 11:20 am Reply with quote
Sakagami Tomoyo wrote:
In theory it can work, but it kind of needs to be an economy-wide effort that also involves raising wages for part-timers, discouraging full-time work, and reducing executive and CEO salaries from massive to merely much larger than the common workers'. Unfortunately that last detail ensures it won't happen.


Part of it was also due to how most companies were losing money (or seeing diminished profits), they were taking fewer risks. To that end, when I was job-hunting during then, I saw a lot of entry-level positions with unrealistically high qualifications for minimum wage or slightly above it. I suspect a lot of that were employers looking to hire someone specific (who won't necessarily meet those qualifications) or to steal employees from their competitors. In other words, they're not really interested in increasing the size of the workforce. It's a lot of nepotism and poaching for professionals from rival companies disguised as the effort.
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 1:00 pm Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
To that end, when I was job-hunting during then, I saw a lot of entry-level positions with unrealistically high qualifications for minimum wage or slightly above it. I suspect a lot of that were employers looking to hire someone specific (who won't necessarily meet those qualifications) or to steal employees from their competitors.

In some instances, they also make those listings because they're required to list domestically before showing that they're unable to find US workers and then hiring foreign workers. (this isn't a "dey took er jerbs" comment, I've actually heard this explanation from a manager that was TRYING to hire US (college grad) workers who heard from HR that certain job listings were getting "too many US applications")

Regarding FT v. PT, why is the "work day" still 40 hrs? We're really at a point technologically and all that the work day should be like 20 hrs and more people should be working to ensure full day coverage. White Collar jobs for sure shouldn't need 40+ hrs each week. But as far as PT workers getting "stuck" in that role, I believe it could happen in Japan (and other countries), since the "class system" is still VERY real there (and in most of Europe). In that sense, I fully believe that once you fall into the "PT labor class", it's much tougher to get out.
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Sakagami Tomoyo



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 940
Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 6:27 pm Reply with quote
HeeroTX wrote:
(this isn't a "dey took er jerbs" comment, I've actually heard this explanation from a manager that was TRYING to hire US (college grad) workers who heard from HR that certain job listings were getting "too many US applications")

This is why "they took our jobs" is blaming entirely the wrong people; foreigners are not at fault for wanting/getting the job, companies are at fault for giving the jobs to foreigners before locals.
HeeroTX wrote:
Regarding FT v. PT, why is the "work day" still 40 hrs? We're really at a point technologically and all that the work day should be like 20 hrs and more people should be working to ensure full day coverage. White Collar jobs for sure shouldn't need 40+ hrs each week.

Short answer: inertia. Resistance to change. That's the way it's always been done, so that's the way it continues to be done. Historically there's generally been more work that needs doing than there are people to do it, so most needed to be full-time. And the economics of pay rates vs costs of necessities reinforces a "must work full time" mindset.
HeeroTX wrote:
the "class system" is still VERY real there (and in most of Europe). In that sense, I fully believe that once you fall into the "PT labor class", it's much tougher to get out.

It's very real in the US too, it's just that most people don't realise it because it takes a slightly different form.
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Mune



Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 374
Location: Minnesota
PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 7:45 pm Reply with quote
To be honest this sort of reminds me of my life. I've been told pretty much my entire life that a full-time position is important because part-time positions just don't pay the bills. So, I put myself out there and have worked several part-time and full-time positions without any college. What I found was that most full-time positions that do not need further education, tend to still pay low and over work employees, with little to no respect to who they are as individuals. It's all about money and power.
On the flip side, I did get a college degree and took a professional job, which is salaried. The pay is okay, but I barely come ahead after student debt payments and the sheer amount of hours I put into my work. I mean, I usually put in 50-60 hour weeks (10-13 hour days).
I'm not sure if I'm really happy though. Part-time work was okay, if it was regular part-time work. "Flexible" part-time work was a pain. To me, they are pretty much the same. I just like full-time employment because of the regular pay and work hours. I also think this is what many people want, but not with all of the stuff to get there. Full-time positions that require no post-secondary education are hard to come by because they are in a large demand. Even college graduates want them if they can't find something in their field.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:58 am Reply with quote
If only reality were like what this video seemed to have suggested...which, of course, is anything but. Yes, most would want to aim for higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs after spending a good number of years working part-time, but that doesn't make part-time jobs any less important. Without part-time jobs, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants would have no reason to exist.
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Chrno2



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 6171
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 1:49 pm Reply with quote
It almost seems like a person could work at a convenience store and live freely doing the job without the stress of a corporate job. I mean looking at things here doing those types of jobs make barely a minimum wage here and you want to go where you can make more. Because you have costs. But sometimes working for a company can burn you out. There are plenty of videos out there coming from Japanese men and women who work for a company. And from their own lips it's not always peaches and cream. Even if the money is there. But yet someone who is self employed owning their own business with all the challenges feels they are doing a better job than working like a "slave cog". And we can see numerous examples of this from HS graduates who entered some college level in art and are now major animation producers at age 40. Meanwhile the man who is getting ulcers from being a "slave cog", used to be the guy saying that guy before he became a producer wouldn't amount to anything.

Sooner or later here in the US colleges won't mean much to people, because some are leaving that behind in search of their own freedom to become successful starting from "0". And the "system" doesn't like it when those individuals rebel. People have to take control of their own destiny.

This is why they say, if you're going to slave away doing something you do it for something you love.
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