Just Wasting Time at Work: How a Faraway War Reduces Workplace Productivity
I told myself that I can do this. Yet, the Word document remains blank. “I need a sentence, just a simple idea to get this thing off the ground.” The mind was reaching a state of frenzied desperation, even as the fingers remained motionless on the keyboard. They say they do not accept “garbage” for output. But have they never heard of the saying that one man’s trash is another’s treasure? Maybe what I think is the mundane would be interpreted as extraordinary when read elsewhere.
So the fingers fly and words spew out. Here it is. Good luck to me. But when the output comes out, the mind starts to wonder. The sentences do not flow, or at least not nearly as well as just a few weeks before. It is as if my language proficiency has sharply declined, even though there are no obvious changes in day-to-day life that would lead to my suddenly not being able to express thoughts clearly in English, in a job that I have been doing for more than three years and counting.
Instead, the mind wanders to the other side of the world, where a major war between Russia and Ukraine has triggered too much passion, political changes, and economic damages. Open up any social media, and there will be plenty of comments condemning the Russian attack, with calls for more sanctions that can fundamentally neuter the Putin regime, a quicker resolution that prevents further bloodshed, and great international support, in money and arms, for the weaker side on the defensive.
At the first sight, the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022 should not affect the average resident of Asia. Neither country is a major trading partner for Japan, for instance, and the country is not home to a large immigrant population from either belligerent. Yet, amateur military watchers and political analysts in this part of the world has taken to the topic of war with gusto, updating their growing Twitter fanbase with both opinions and real-time update translated from English and other languages.
And the general public in Japan, a consistently apathetic bunch when it comes to politics, especially of the international sort, has been, as much as possible, glued to TVs and smartphone screens, scouring for the latest information on the war and how this war can affect Japan and its general neighborhood. Some are so affected by the war that they suffer mentally: after all, if war can break out between two nations at such short notice, what is the point of thinking long-term, and befriending those from potentially adversarial nations?
Never mind the fact that the Russo-Ukrainian War is not the only major war that happened in recent years. It has only been a mere few months since the Taliban obliterated the US-trained Afghan Army, subjecting the country to sharia rule. And one should not forget the fact that the war in Myanmar, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and the Sahel have all taken place in a matter of few years. Yet, none of these wars have mesmerized and galvanized global opinions nearly as much as the current one in eastern Europe.
Surely, a bit of racism is at play. Whereas the average Japanese sees the Middle East and Africa as poor and fundamentally conflict-ridden as a matter of fact, they do not expect the blue-eyed, blonde-haired residents of Europe to face similar sort of issues. The Western bias in what is considered “civilized” gives rise to a massive discrepancy between the amount of popular attention and media coverage given to the situation in Ukraine, in a depth and extensiveness incomparable with those reserved for wars involving darker-skinned people.
Either way, the continuing attention on social media and news outlets to the latest development in Ukraine does not bode well for workplace productivity. It is of course good that the average global citizen cares about the plight of innocent bystanders on the other side of the world. But in absence of real solutions that one can offer on a day-to-day basis for those suffering a Russian invasion, the excess attention can only detract from the everyday needs of getting work done and going along with daily lives.
So the fingers fly and words spew out. Here it is. Good luck to me. But when the output comes out, the mind starts to wonder. The sentences do not flow, or at least not nearly as well as just a few weeks before. It is as if my language proficiency has sharply declined, even though there are no obvious changes in day-to-day life that would lead to my suddenly not being able to express thoughts clearly in English, in a job that I have been doing for more than three years and counting.
Instead, the mind wanders to the other side of the world, where a major war between Russia and Ukraine has triggered too much passion, political changes, and economic damages. Open up any social media, and there will be plenty of comments condemning the Russian attack, with calls for more sanctions that can fundamentally neuter the Putin regime, a quicker resolution that prevents further bloodshed, and great international support, in money and arms, for the weaker side on the defensive.
At the first sight, the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022 should not affect the average resident of Asia. Neither country is a major trading partner for Japan, for instance, and the country is not home to a large immigrant population from either belligerent. Yet, amateur military watchers and political analysts in this part of the world has taken to the topic of war with gusto, updating their growing Twitter fanbase with both opinions and real-time update translated from English and other languages.
And the general public in Japan, a consistently apathetic bunch when it comes to politics, especially of the international sort, has been, as much as possible, glued to TVs and smartphone screens, scouring for the latest information on the war and how this war can affect Japan and its general neighborhood. Some are so affected by the war that they suffer mentally: after all, if war can break out between two nations at such short notice, what is the point of thinking long-term, and befriending those from potentially adversarial nations?
Never mind the fact that the Russo-Ukrainian War is not the only major war that happened in recent years. It has only been a mere few months since the Taliban obliterated the US-trained Afghan Army, subjecting the country to sharia rule. And one should not forget the fact that the war in Myanmar, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and the Sahel have all taken place in a matter of few years. Yet, none of these wars have mesmerized and galvanized global opinions nearly as much as the current one in eastern Europe.
Surely, a bit of racism is at play. Whereas the average Japanese sees the Middle East and Africa as poor and fundamentally conflict-ridden as a matter of fact, they do not expect the blue-eyed, blonde-haired residents of Europe to face similar sort of issues. The Western bias in what is considered “civilized” gives rise to a massive discrepancy between the amount of popular attention and media coverage given to the situation in Ukraine, in a depth and extensiveness incomparable with those reserved for wars involving darker-skinned people.
Either way, the continuing attention on social media and news outlets to the latest development in Ukraine does not bode well for workplace productivity. It is of course good that the average global citizen cares about the plight of innocent bystanders on the other side of the world. But in absence of real solutions that one can offer on a day-to-day basis for those suffering a Russian invasion, the excess attention can only detract from the everyday needs of getting work done and going along with daily lives.
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