“Why I Quit the Company” by Tomoyuki Iwashita was a passage about the author telling the many reasons that pushed him to quit a secure job in a prestigious company. Although there were many benefits of working for such a company, the author was driven away by the many harmful side effects the job presented. The company provided many luxuries for their employees; however, the effort put into their hard work was exhausting and overwhelmed the workers’ happiness. Although all cultures highly value wealth and success, it may not necessarily bring happiness in life. First, the benefits of working at a prestigious company seemed to outweigh the negative effects in the beginning. The most rewarding feature of this level of work was the promise of a wealthy and successful future to the young people. The benefits provided includes a nice dormitory, 24-hour hot bath service, and free meals every day. In addition to the free services, Iwashita states that “the company building contained …show more content…
They hardly ever work their promised eight-hour shift and normally work overtime. For example, their typical shift starts from nine in the morning and ends at eight or nine at night and they sometimes find themselves leaving their offices close to midnight! Working overtime often goes unpaid and heavily reduces their energy levels. After much time, employees seem to care more about the company’s profits than their own well-being. This is because the company makes their employees feel like they are not productive enough to remain employed; consequently, the feeling of uselessness to the company causes them to work even harder. Karoshi is often the subject of discussion in Japan. Working too hard has caused death in these types of companies before. In fact, the author passed out during one of his shifts and the boss’ response was that he should be more careful with his health
In “The Real Truth about Money” (2005), Gregg Easterbrook discusses the effects of money on the people’s happiness. He presents his article with statistics of the generation immediately after the World War II and the current generation. He has experienced both generations as he has lived in both and is very familiar with the difference of people’s lives now and back then. Easterbrook is a highly reputed journalist, he is an authorized writer, editor, and professor. He worked with many professional magazines and newspapers; accordingly, he has enough knowledge to write about the people’s happiness in terms of money. Easterbrook has well convinced the readers with psychological facts from university researches and credible
...ourse, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”
A large parcel of the population has as their ultimate goal in life achieving well-being. Unfortunately many try to achieve it through the wrong means. For instance, in The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut, Malachi Constant thinks he is truly happy, but what he really does is fulfill his hedonism, satisfy his shallow needs, without truly searching for a higher form of well-being. Not only does a life focused on hedonic satisfaction not achieve true happiness, it also leads, along with the urge to accumulate, egocentrism, and greed, to an unethical life. The Sirens of Titans depicts this kind of life, which is also represented throughout The Edukators, directed by Hans Weingartner. Both Malachi Constant and Hardenberg believe that money is the solution to all of their problems while ignoring the problems their own lifestyle is causing to other people and society as a whole. Happiness, our own and other people’s, is achieved by focusing our lives in the right things.
When workers work overtime, they display a high degree of commitment to the task at hand and are thus usually compensated for the extra hours they put in. However, this is only possible when there is mutual respect between the employees and employers. An employer who is negligent of the effort a worker puts in his/her work creates job dissatisfaction and distance in the workplace. Beth Shulman in her work The Betrayal of Work, introduces the pharmacy technical assistant, Judy Smithfield. Her job requires accuracy and scrutiny, which is often very time consuming. Without sufficient help, she finds herself working six days a week. Logically, considering the difficulty of her task, reasonable compensation, respect and appreciation should follow. However, her customers are ignorant and can be angry and impatient despite the effort she makes. How can one be satisfied working in such conditions? Commitment means nothing to her employers. Thus she is not a source of profit for the upper classes; her duties are simply essential but don’t deserve monetary merit in their
Over the last decades social protection programs have been developed to mitigate damaging impacts from economic crises and individual setbacks. The role of social health protection has been particularly highlighted as a human right that safeguards the economic productivity of a healthy work force and serves as a social and economic stabilizer in times of crises (Adlung, X. & Sander, L., 2010). Kelly accepted her first job after graduating from her management program and relocated to Japan. Mr. Higashi was her immediate supervisor and mentored several of The Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) candidates. He definitely liked Kelly right away because she spoke fluent Japanese which set her apart from many of the current and past graduates. Each newly assigned JET employer signed an employment contract which set them apart from the Japanese workers in the office including key differences in work hours, Saturdays off and acknowledgement of the Japanese holidays. Many of the Japanese workers resented the recent graduates because they had these special considerations in their contract and did not have the same w...
The salaryman was a product’ of modern Japanese capitalist system, where power, authority and possession were the signify of a ‘real man’, a sort of corporate soldier who had a primary influence in Japanese society. The salaryman came to substitute the soldier’s hegemonic influence, in fact he exhibits militaristic connotations, mainly because the salaryman has an essential role in the state’s objective of economic growth. Hence the salaryman is overloaded with work, he almost put corporate interests before family, as he barely engages with his family, in fact the salaryman is reluctant to go home as he feels a bit estranged at home. As Dasgupta continues to explain, the salaryman was not only the ideal man but the ‘ideal citizen’, he has to deal with every-day problems such as jam-packed transports, work-related illness, competition, frequent job transfers and long hours shifts, on the other hand there are benefits such as long weekends (spent playing golf), business trips and economic stability (Dasgupta, 2013). The sarariiman is a heterosexual male, monotonous, office worker and family provider, with one or two children (Roberson & Suzuki, 2003) . Commonly the salaryman possesses these characteristics: middle class graduate, loyal, diligent, fully dedicated to the paternalist corporation (referring to the permanent relation between the corporate and the worker), well-groomed
People may wonder how this relates to transformational leadership. A leader that follows this theory is compassionate and caring towards the staff. An employee can’t love their job if they are fearful of their employer, or if they don’t agree with them. Here is where that quote comes into play. A person might love their career path, but that doesn’t mean they love their job. To be enjoyable, a job must have a happy work environment, and that includes a great and encouraging leader. Transformational leaders have high moral standards and values, and provide a vision and mission to their followers, thus followers have respect and admiration for their leader (Mittal & Dhar, 2015). If an employee feels that their leader cares about them, and wants the best for them, then that employee will enjoy going to work. If they enjoy going to work, then it won’t feel like their working, but instead will feel like they are doing what they love to do. This will allow the employee to go far beyond the normal expectations required of
...f money could bring happiness, then more money could bring him more happiness. Again, when money is the highest value used in determining happiness at work, other values become over shadowed or ignored. Unsatisfied values eventually reveal themselves when the money value is met. Without being content in all values, happiness at work cannot be attained. Richard Cory probably did not know how to satisfy those once hidden values and found his life very unhappy. Thinking that hard work will lead to financial success and happiness is not wrong as a value, but as Richard Cory finds out, happiness based on only money is not possible unless that value is your only value.
But the process of getting these employees were satisfying to the managers but cruel to the employees themselves. In order for the managers, of the factories, to get their employees, the managers had to give to the head to the employee's family in what they called a earnest money, in which is an large amount of advanced money for the employee to work at their factories. To prove the loyalty of the employee by the family, the head of the family had to sign a contract saying that they accepted the earnest money and if there were any infringement the employee’s family had to pay more than the amount of the earnest money (Document E). In daily work life of a worker, the workers were roused from their bed at 4:05 A.M and sent to work at 6:15 A.M. during the workday the workers received 15 minutes for breakfast and lunch and a ten minute break during 3 P.M. Containing this life style was sometimes very tiring for the workers but also convenient for the working for it was a very healthy lifestyle for some (Document B). Some benefit of working at a factory were that whenever the workers wanted to be released it had to be in some excuse to be release such as getting married and family reasons. A 24 to 29 percentage of the workers getting release from their jobs were mostly due to illness or family reason and some were just release from their jobs in which is a benefit from working at these factories (Document D). Some other benefits of working in a factory was the experience according to a survey made in Japan in 1982, 90 percent of the women had said that their overall experience at working at a factory was very positive the other 10 percent said it was
Happiness is a feeling adults experience when they receive a gift, win something, and various other reasons, but does money buy this happiness everyone experiences? Don Peck and Ross Douthat claim money does buy happiness, but only to a point in their article which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (252). Throughout their article, reasons on why money can sometimes buy happiness are explained. While some of the reasons given are effective, not all are satisfying answers for adults working diligently to make a living. Money is a part of everyone’s life, yet it is not always the cause of happiness.
We find that the more cultivated reason devotes itself to the aim of enjoying life and happiness, the further does man get away from true contentment. . . . because after calculating all the advantages they derive, ... they yet find that they have in fact only brought more trouble on their heads than they have gained in
Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).
Over time, this dull pain can erode the self-confidence and passion of even the strongest people, which in turn, affects their spouses and children and friends in subtle but profound ways… Though it may be difficult to quantify, the dissatisfaction of employees has a direct impact on productivity, turnover, and morale, all of which eventually hit a company’s bottom line hard,” (p. ix –
The problem we have in today’s society is that people work to acquire as much money and possessions as they can and they think this will achieve happiness. Unfortunately, nobody told these people that happiness cannot be purchased and our possessions will fade no longer keep our interest. As we engulf ourselves in our daily busy work, our relationships are becoming strained and we are distancing ourselves from real happiness. We are seeking the means of work and money as an end, and we are chasing the wrong things in life. We hide from our unhappiness by watching television or partake in activities to distract ourselves from our problems. We need to find true happiness and this is found in becoming virtuous, creating good friendships,
Most people think that wealth and success equate happiness, but the wealthy and successful do not know what they should be happy for. Tomoyuki Iwashita was a middle-class man in Japan and wrote: “Why I Quit the Company” to explain why he was insatiable with the job he had. Iwashita knew he had a desirable job that provided him with many luxuries on top of all the necessities; however, he did not appreciate the many benefits of working at such a prestigious company. On the other hand, those who are stricken with poverty are much more appreciative of everything they have. Jo Goodwin Parker wrote “What is Poverty?” and she explained the reality of poverty to her readers and wanted those who were wealthier than her to understand. The deprivations that accompany poverty seem to be unimaginable, but those in poverty live the unimaginable life every day. Poor people do not have much to be thankful for, but they still appreciate the little things even if they are angered by their disadvantages. People of a privileged lifestyle do not appreciate the necessities as much as those below the poverty line because