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Japan’s formula for life satisfaction
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Ikigai
This is a way of life in Japan, where people work towards what they love doing, and do that with passion. Iki means life, and gai means ‘to be worthwhile’; loosely translated, Ikigai means the work, activity or hobby that gets an individual up in the morning.
It's something you live for: If you have a great time when you are working, it could be ikigai. If you have a family you love and you can do something for, it's also ikigai.
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Uniting Concepts With Reality
As the ikigai method of living one’s life has gained massive international attention in recent times, the concept itself is struggling to find a connection with reality in its homeland, where the downside of working 14-hour days is showing.
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Origins Of Ikigai
The term was initially mentioned in the 14th Century and was then seen in the novel Kokoro (The Heart Of Things) by Natsume Soseki in 1912. As Japan emerged from an era of isolation and started embracing the international, industrial world, the new way of life started to interest the population.
The devastation of World War II brought the era of growth, known as the ‘economic miracle’, where the people of the country were filled with new energy, and had the focus and drive to achieve the impossible.
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The "Ganbaru" Trait
Long hours and sacrificed leisure time were (and still are) seen as positive virtues, while the “ganbaru” trait (“trying hard”) is valued above all. These attributes soon became an embodiment of the working ideal.
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Ikigai And Freedom
The true meaning of ikigai is not just doing your job with complete dedication and losing your work-life balance, but the freedom to choose what you really love and move towards the same.
Ikigai without the freedom to choose would be just another story told to people to deceive and exploit them.
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Modern Japan
In the last 20 years, there has been a shift in Japan towards more awareness and freedom to seek one’s desired role. Job hopping, once considered Taboo, is gaining acceptance.
The young generation holds the key to untangle and repair the connections between true ikigai and the work they do so that the work-life balance is enhanced.
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Going all-in on remote work: benefits for businesses
Remote work can be costly or cost-saving, depending on how well-equipped you are to really support it.
- When done right, assessing the appropriateness of remote work for all your empl...
Defining roles for a remote work setting
Businesses can categorize employees:
- Location-independent. Knowledge workers are not dependent on location and don't need to be in an office.
- Location-frequent. These people spend half their time in an office and half remote. They need an in-person base to use for coordination and physical meetings. These are often salespeople, marketing people, back-office services (IT, HR, finance), and creative jobs.
- Mandatory in-office jobs. These involve specialized equipment that you can't put in an employee's home, such as manufacturing jobs.
Far more job functions can be done remotely if company leadership will accept it. But, remote work is not for everyone. Some jobs are tied to physical locations or equipment. Some people also do not want to work from home.
Equipping remote workers
In-office employees that transition to remote work need to be equipped. Spending recommendations are:
- A one-time stipend to purchase some office furniture and other miscellaneous work equipment.
- Basic ergonomic training.
- The same class of laptop or workstation they'd get in the office.
- A monthly stipend to offset some or all home broadband costs.
- IT support costs.
- Basic, yet complete tech loadout, such as laptop, secondary monitor, mouse, keyboard, wired earbuds, USB hub, chair that meets ergonomic needs.
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Recessions come and go
- A recession is "good" or "bad," depending on who it impacts and how badly it affects them.
- In the last thirty years, a recession has come and gone somewhere in ...
Recessions are far from equal
- Banks are better able to handle a financial crisis than a decade ago. The 2008 recession was about the housing market and shares, which affected higher income groups.
- The present crisis seems to be hitting the lower-income groups, the vulnerable workers, young, and less skilled. It is similar to the late 70s, early 80s recession, which affected young and unskilled workers.
- Another lesson from 2008 is that recessions don't always lead to significant numbers of job losses. Layoffs were concentrated among a small number of people, and they stayed unemployed for a long time.
- In this recession, far more workers will be at risk if social-distancing rules remain in place over a long period.
GDP during a crisis
- A drop in GDP was expected during the 2020 lockdown. Shops and businesses were closed, and the total value produced by goods and services decreased. In turn, this affected the staff of those businesses earning less money.
- Furloughs. At its peak, about nine million people in the UK were paid a furlough - the government paid 80% of their salaries, and the employer could choose to top up the rest. Other countries have similar state-backed furlough schemes. These schemes will be coming to an end, and employers will have to decide if they have to lay off employees permanently.
- The losses are not yet crystalising. People are taking mortgage and credit holidays. It means the losses are pushed further down the road. The financial sector bubble will burst, and we will see real turmoil again.
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Tsundoku
In the Japanese language, there is a term to design the behavior of a person who buys books only to leave them unread on a shelf at home. This term is ‘tsundoku’ and it implies the combin...
Bibliomania
... or the collection addiction, was first spotted in Thomas Frognall Dibdin’s novels and it describes the unstoppable act of collecting first editions and illustrated copies of literature.
Later on, the same term would describe a person who is more passionate about rather than obsessed with building up a collection of literature.
Tsundoku vs. Bibliomania
Though both terms are used in order to describe behaviours related to readers, Tsundoku implies the idea of having as goal to read books rather than to simply collect them, while Bibliomania refers to the will to collect books, rather than to read them.