Today, when I got off Shinkansen at Kyoto, couples who sat next to me spoke to me. I talked with them about various topics.
When I took them to the first floor of Kyoto Station, where many restaurants stand in line, the man of the couple said "Why people in Japan are so kind!?"
I: I think it depends on individuals.
He: No, overall people are very kind to us.
I: It is similar to Singaporeans.
He: No, Singaporeans are kind only when giving them money.
He and I: HAHAHA!
After that, I said good-bye to them, and took Kintetsu Line to go to the firm where I work.
As soon as I met my boss, she seemed to be angry. She was angry with or was concerned about decreasing customers. Then, she began to say what irritated me.
"You seem to spend 30 mins before begining your work meaninglessly. As far as I noticed, some of you spend the time chattering or eating food. So, I want you to take care of customers for 30 mins."
By the way, we employees are required to come to the firm 30 mins before working. That time is not included in calculating salary.
In addition to it, a meeting led us to plan shcedules for 'taking care of customers without salary'
I can accept the 30 mins are needed for preparing job. But, I think that the time includes preparatory time to deal with emergency, and that we don't have to work in the case that nothing to do is left before begining to work with salary. If the preparatory time is to be replaced by the time for taking care of customers, we can't deal with emergency or irregular happenings.
As the Singaporean couple said, Japanese take it for granted that they provide other people with service without money. It results in the fact that Japanese citizens are too kind to protest illegal working time.
What is needed to Japan would be a compromise.
