What Does 「自宅待機」 or 「自宅勤務」 Really Mean?
Yesterday, work abruptly ended before noon. In Sales Development, the original plan to deal with inbound calls from customers and shop owners (expected to be many as none of the goods are really be shipped) for the entire day was suddenly scrapped after the 部長 came in and informed us that were are going to be "waiting/working at home" (自宅待機/勤務) until further notice. When somebody actually gathered enough guts to ask what does it mean by 自宅待機/勤務, the awkward answer that came back was something along the lines of "think about how Rakuten can improve services"...
Right, to "think about things," as if Sales Development is paid to do that, when we have a whole floor of those people solely responsible for that on the 14th floor. But, surprisingly, we the Sales Development people actually received a request from our superiors in the morning to pick a "topic" related to improvement of Rakuten and write a "report" to be submitted at the end of the day.
The word "report" does really scare someone who works on the corporate side. The expectations are generally very high for every piece of writing I have completed at the CEO Office, involving much scrutinizing and revisions before final submissions. Obviously, after all those experiences, I felt the need to deal with this one with equal, if not more, seriousness, especially since I do not know the philosophies of Sales Development besides outright shaming of employees.
Off I go on the report regarding what Rakuten can do for CSR to improve her image after slow response to the Quake. Well, the material was not difficult to find as I simply reused some ideas I have for the Business Plan contest and discussed how it would be a golden opportunity to implement them now, right after the Quake and all the associated disasters. But the need to write everything in Japanese (for the non-English-nized Sales Development) proved to be quite time-consuming and frustrating.
The report was a full 5-page single-spaced proposal of three ideas, along with the necessary explanations, backgrounds, and concluding opinions. It was submitted about an hour before the 6pm deadline, the first of anyone in Sales Development (as far as I know). Here is an excerpt of the reply I received: 「レポートの 3大戦略 かなりぶっ飛んでいて、とても興味深かったです。やっぱり、すーさんは、賢いねー。笑っちゃいました！」
Wow, looks like I put in all that effort for a heart laugh from my superior...yeah, definitely worth the effort...and here is excerpt of another reply I received later: 「こんつめると、疲れるから、ほどほどにして、ゆっくりしておきましょう。」(i.e. do not try too hard or you will get tired. Just relax) Great, sounds like I have been taking this task a little bit too seriously, and the submissions of my colleagues seem to prove my point.
The average length of the "reports" were about three paragraphs (vs. the 4800 words, 27-paragraph monster I put in), with contents consisting little more than observations about what successful shops are doing on Ichiba and what Rakuten competitors like Yahoo are doing in web design. No personal opinions, no unique thoughts, just listing of pure facts in almost bullet-style format. Not surprisingly, I had to feel a "thats it?!" moment in my head if I were to consider these things as daily output of a minimum 7-hour "work day."
So, moral of the story (or, more accurately, my incessant bitching). What does 自宅待機/勤務 really mean? It means doing a little bit of work for minimum output in a mostly relaxing day of "fearing the consequences of the continuing disaster." No need to try anything with any effort if have something to show for it at the end. Well, I guess this would make total sense considering many employees are not even in Tokyo anymore at the moment...
Right, to "think about things," as if Sales Development is paid to do that, when we have a whole floor of those people solely responsible for that on the 14th floor. But, surprisingly, we the Sales Development people actually received a request from our superiors in the morning to pick a "topic" related to improvement of Rakuten and write a "report" to be submitted at the end of the day.
The word "report" does really scare someone who works on the corporate side. The expectations are generally very high for every piece of writing I have completed at the CEO Office, involving much scrutinizing and revisions before final submissions. Obviously, after all those experiences, I felt the need to deal with this one with equal, if not more, seriousness, especially since I do not know the philosophies of Sales Development besides outright shaming of employees.
Off I go on the report regarding what Rakuten can do for CSR to improve her image after slow response to the Quake. Well, the material was not difficult to find as I simply reused some ideas I have for the Business Plan contest and discussed how it would be a golden opportunity to implement them now, right after the Quake and all the associated disasters. But the need to write everything in Japanese (for the non-English-nized Sales Development) proved to be quite time-consuming and frustrating.
The report was a full 5-page single-spaced proposal of three ideas, along with the necessary explanations, backgrounds, and concluding opinions. It was submitted about an hour before the 6pm deadline, the first of anyone in Sales Development (as far as I know). Here is an excerpt of the reply I received: 「レポートの 3大戦略 かなりぶっ飛んでいて、とても興味深かったです。やっぱり、すーさんは、賢いねー。笑っちゃいました！」
Wow, looks like I put in all that effort for a heart laugh from my superior...yeah, definitely worth the effort...and here is excerpt of another reply I received later: 「こんつめると、疲れるから、ほどほどにして、ゆっくりしておきましょう。」(i.e. do not try too hard or you will get tired. Just relax) Great, sounds like I have been taking this task a little bit too seriously, and the submissions of my colleagues seem to prove my point.
The average length of the "reports" were about three paragraphs (vs. the 4800 words, 27-paragraph monster I put in), with contents consisting little more than observations about what successful shops are doing on Ichiba and what Rakuten competitors like Yahoo are doing in web design. No personal opinions, no unique thoughts, just listing of pure facts in almost bullet-style format. Not surprisingly, I had to feel a "thats it?!" moment in my head if I were to consider these things as daily output of a minimum 7-hour "work day."
So, moral of the story (or, more accurately, my incessant bitching). What does 自宅待機/勤務 really mean? It means doing a little bit of work for minimum output in a mostly relaxing day of "fearing the consequences of the continuing disaster." No need to try anything with any effort if have something to show for it at the end. Well, I guess this would make total sense considering many employees are not even in Tokyo anymore at the moment...
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