My name is Souta, and I am in the fifth grade of elementary school. I’m in the fifth grade of elementary school, and now that I’m 10 years old, I’ve started to think about my future, and it seems that there are a lot of things in this world that I don’t understand. The other day, my younger sister Rico asked me a question that I couldn’t answer properly.
Onii-chan! Can’t you take a day off from work for the school arts festival?
You can’t rest that easily, I bet.
I wonder if my arts and crafts are not important to my dad.
I don’t think that’s true, but I think the job is hora, we all do it together, so one person can’t be selfish.
Even arts and crafts are done by everyone! I’m not convinced!
Rico’s anger is getting louder and louder… Anyway, I don’t know what’s going on, so I’m wondering if there’s anyone who knows more about it…. While researching on the tablet the school gave me, I found the president of a company who knows a lot about how to work! Let’s ask him! Mr. Yoshihisa Aono, President of Cybozu, Inc!
My sister is going to play the leading role in the upcoming school arts festival.
Oh! That’s great! I have kids of my own, so I know how much your dad would have loved this.
Well…but I can’t take time off from work, so it looks like I can’t go see the show.
Oh well, that’s too bad.
After all, can’t a company take time off for a child’s school arts and crafts festival?
I’m not sure if I can ever take a break.
Eh! You can rest?
Not quite… Let’s replace the company for Dad with a school for Souta-kun.
Company to school?
Yes. For example, your dad says to you, ‘Okay! Let’s go on a family vacation tomorrow!” can you tell your school that you are taking the day off because you are going on a family trip?
I’m not sure I can say that.
Why?
Because school shouldn’t be that easy to miss, and I’m sure the teacher will say, ‘You’re going to miss school over something like that?’ I feel like the teacher will say, ‘You’re going to miss school for that?
Isn’t it so fun and wonderful to travel together as a family?
Yes, it would definitely be fun! If I could, I would love to go, too. But I would feel a little uncomfortable taking a day off to go on a trip when everyone else in the class is studying.
I wonder if Dad is the same way.
What?
Don’t you think it’s hard to tell the people you work with all the time that you’re going to an arts and crafts event when they’re working?
Ah, I see!
It could also be the case that the company has an atmosphere that makes it difficult to take time off in the first place.
What do you mean?
Not so long ago in Japan, people who worked long hours for the company, from early in the morning to late at night, were highly praised. Nowadays, people are advised not to work those long hours because it is not good for their health and it affects their families, but there are still people who say, “You should work a lot! Some companies make it difficult for workers to ask for time off.
Well….
I don’t know about your dad’s company, but some companies have an atmosphere where it’s hard to say you want to take a day off, or that it’s hard to say you just want to take a day off while everyone around you is working.
Is it okay to say that you will be absent from the school arts and crafts festival at your company, Mr. Aono?
Of course. At our company, we value “100 people, 100 different ways of working,” and each person can choose “the time they want to work,” “the place they want to work,” and “the job they want to do. “I can choose the time I want to work, the place I want to work, and the job I want to work. For example, a father or mother raising a child can choose a work schedule that allows them to return home early to pick up their child from daycare, a person whose hobby is watching baseball games can finish work early to catch the game, or a person whose hobby is fishing can choose a work schedule near the ocean.
I think it would be easier to understand if we replace work with study. Right now, Souta-kun is studying according to the timetable set by the school and doing homework assigned by the teacher, right?
Yes.
Then, what if there was a set amount of work that had to be done from Monday through Friday, and as long as it was all done, it could be done anytime, anywhere, and in any order? Some students would only have to do math on Mondays, while others would have to finish everything by Wednesday. Even homework is not assigned by the teacher, but students are allowed to think about what they need to do and submit it on their own.
Oh well, if I’m done by Wednesday, that means I can take Thursday and Friday off too.
I know it’s hard to actually do that in today’s schools, but some companies can, because they can make their own rules as long as they stay within the law.
If my dad had been in Mr. Aono’s company, he would have been able to come to the arts and crafts.
I don’t think you have to be in our company to have a chance of going.
What do you mean?
There is a law called the Labor Standards Law that basically prohibits a company from refusing a worker’s request for time off unless it would be a real problem if the worker were to miss work.
If it was an arts and crafts event, the day I wanted to take off could be decided some time in advance, and I think it would have been easier to adjust if I had properly discussed it with the great people and my colleagues around me. So, if I had decided long in advance that I would take that day off from work because of the arts and crafts event, and had discussed it with the people around me, I might have been able to take the day off.
Eh! Really? But Dad had given up on going when the arts and crafts show was on a weekday. Why didn’t he tell me? I guess it’s just hard to tell him.
Maybe Dad himself has a belief that he is not allowed to take time off from work.
Assumptions!
Yes, the assumption that “you shouldn’t say you want to take time off for the arts and crafts.” However, I don’t think it is strange at all in this day and age to take time off from work for your child’s school arts and crafts festival.
Yes…I’m sorry to hear that, but I could kind of imagine why Dad couldn’t take a break.
I found out that if I could work the way Aono-san’s company does, I could take a day off for the school arts without any worries. My dad’s company doesn’t seem to work 100 different ways for 100 different people at the moment, but my dad wanted to see Rico’s school arts festival, and next year, I will tell my dad about today so that he can say “I will take off work for the school arts festival” for Rico.
That night, I told Riko what Mr. Aono had told me. Riko had a subtle expression on her face, but I think she somehow got the message.
I wish you could have seen it. It’s really funny, The Wizard of Oz.
I see. Well, it can’t be helped this time.
Yes, Dorothy joins forces with the lions to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West! After all, it’s important for everyone to work together, isn’t it?
Yeah, that’s right. If everyone did their part, you got stronger.
…I see!
What’s wrong?
Perhaps if we all shared more of the household chores and joined forces, it would be a little easier?
I see. That may be so.
How can mom and dad be motivated to share household chores?
Hmmm, I don’t know.
Onii-chan! Is it difficult for mom and dad to share household chores?
Indeed it is. OK! Now let’s look into it!
<Person who cooperated Yoshihisa Aono, President and Representative Director, Cybozu, Inc.
Born in 1971. Born in Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture.
After graduating from the Department of Information Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, he worked for Matsushita Electric Works (now Panasonic Corporation) before founding Cybozu in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture in August 1997 and becoming President in April 2005.
He has promoted work style reform within the company, reducing the turnover rate to one-tenth, and as a father of three himself, he has taken childcare leave on three occasions. He has served as an external advisor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Cabinet Office, and the Cabinet Secretariat on work style reform projects.
He is the author of “I Only Thought About My Team” (Diamond Inc.) and “The Company Monster Might Be Making Us Unhappy. (Diamond Inc.), “The Company Monster May Be Making Us Unhappy” (PHP Research Institute), and supervising author of “Selfishness Makes the Team Stronger. (PHP Research Institute), and “Selfishness Makes the Team Stronger” (Asahi Shinbun Publishing Co., Ltd.) as a supervisor. (Asahi Shimbun Publications).
(Continued next time)
