Tokyo commuters bound for Olympic crowd crush as Japan Inc rules out work from home
17/02/2020 23:00
* 83% of Japan firms don't let staff work from home -Reuters
poll
* 73% of firms not considering allowing 'telework' during
Olympics
* 'We don't have the know-how' - machinery firm manager
* Staff feel pressure to work long hours in offices, skip
vacation
* But coronavirus fears could be impetus for flexi-work
hours
By Chris Gallagher
TOKYO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - When Emi Tanimura failed to find a
daycare slot for her new-born daughter, she had to take a
radical step for Japan to avoid a long time away from her job at
communications firm Sunny Side Up 2180.T . She started working
from home.
Now a mother of two, she still works flexible hours,
including time at home, as director of the Sunny Side Up
president's office - with her boss's blessing - taking care of
both her family responsibilities and career.
Tanimura is a rare exception to the rule in hard-driving
corporate Japan, where employees often feel pressured to put in
long hours in the office.
In a Reuters poll, 83% of Japanese companies said they don't
currently allow employees to work from home. And 73% of firms
surveyed said they aren't considering allowing what Japan often
refers to as 'telework', or telecommuting, during this summer's
Tokyo Olympic Games, according to the survey conducted from Jan.
30 to Feb. 12.
"To be honest, at first I felt sorry because everyone was
working in the office and only I was at home," Tanimura said at
the company's headquarters, just over a five-minute walk from
the new Olympic stadium. "But I was being evaluated in terms of
whether I achieved results ... my performance didn't decline."
The aversion to allowing work from home is unwelcome news
for the government, which wants companies to let their employees
telecommute during the Olympics to make travel easier for Games
participants and spectators on Tokyo's notoriously packed trains
and roadways.
It also points to a potential headache amid growing concern
about the coronavirus epidemic that had killed nearly 1,800 in
mainland China as of Monday and has spread to a number of
countries in Asia including Japan. While companies elsewhere are
drawing up contingency plans with large portions of staff
working from home in a bid to contain the virus, most Japanese
firms would have to implement radical change to follow suit.
The push to encourage working from home chimes with a
broader campaign by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government
urging more flexible work hours to make it easier for women with
children to take up jobs as Japan battles a severe labour
shortage because of its fast-aging population.
Parissa Haghirian, a professor of international management
at Sophia University in Tokyo, said she wasn't surprised by the
survey results because of structural issues found in traditional
white-collar Japanese offices that favour hiring workers with
general skillsets, rather than specialists, who are moved
between divisions every few years.
Haghirian said the switching of roles leaves general workers
needing more collective support: Work processes are not as
clearly defined and documented as in Western companies, making
it harder to work independently. A culture accustomed to group
interaction also plays a part.
"You have this structure where people are always there (in
the workplace) and do everything together. That strongly affects
how people see work and do their work," Haghirian said. "It's
very difficult to change that."
NO KNOW-HOW
To be sure, some survey respondents said they were not
considering introducing telework during the Olympics because
their businesses required them to be in physical locations -
such as retail stores - or they were not based in Tokyo.
But others said they simply did not have a flexible-work
policy in place, or did not have the technological set-up to
allow people to work remotely.
"We don't have any telework know-how," one manager at a
machinery maker wrote in response to the survey.
Still, some early adopters are bucking the trend.
Staffing services firm Pasona 2168.T implemented its
flexible-work programme in 2017, offering telecommuting from
home or satellite offices to its roughly 10,000 group employees.
Employees receive a laptop that requires fingerprint
authentication and must take an online training course and pass
a test in order to be eligible, said Akiko Hosokawa, general
manager of Pasona's human resources division.
Pasona is still considering specifics for the Olympic
period, Hosokawa said. The company is currently urging employees
worried about the coronavirus to take advantage of off-peak
commuting rather than travel in rush hours, she said.
Elsewhere, companies including drinks giant Asahi Group
Holdings 2502.T and tech conglomerate Fujitsu 6702.T said
they would encourage employees to telecommute during the
Olympics to avoid travel to the office.
And Sunny Side Up said employees like Tanimura would be
telecommuting during the entire Olympic and Paralympic periods
because of its location close to the Olympic stadium.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TABLE-Japan firms wary of pay hikes; most have no plans to allow
'telework' urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2AC0U4
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
((chris.gallagher@thomsonreuters.com; 81-3-4563-2714;))