Unless the above question was coupled with a mandatory relocation to No-Mans-Land, Idaho, I can’t think of a single one of my peers who would say no to a promotion. While I like to think I surround myself with a group of motivated and career-oriented friends, I truly believe that most Generation Y professionals bear little resemblance to the slackers in Office Space. Though we may have seen the movie a thousand times (and dreamed of carrying out our own DIY cubicle improvements), when given the opportunity to advance in the workplace, we relish it.
Although I largely disagree with the majority of criticisms the rest of the world levels against the United States, one I do agree with is our relative ignorance of current events in other cultures. In our writing, many Gen Y bloggers (myself included) often make sweeping generalizations about our entire generation. While many of these hold true, this article in the Wall Street Journal was a wake-up call to me. We are a global generation, more connected than ever before, yet how much do we really know about our fellow twenty-somethings in China? India? Japan?
The Japanese have built a reputation as being a nation of incredibly driven, high-achieving work-a-holics. We hear stories of “salarymen” who work 20 hour days and see their families only on weekends, but that legacy could stand to change with Generation Y. Salarymen, step aside: enter the hodo-hodo zoku, or “so-so folks.” The WSJ’s Hiroko Tabuchi proclaims that Japan’s newest phenomenon is “many young workers…shunning choice promotions – even forgoing raises – in favor of humdrum jobs with minimal responsibilities.”
Boku, Otaryman
Twenty-somethings have so embraced the hodo-hodo mentality that Boku, Otaryman, one of the most popular mangas in Japan, chronicles the unhappyday-to-day existence of its author. The title stems from a combination of “salaryman” and “otaku,” a word “often used to describe a socially inept young man obsessed with comics, computers, or anime.” Yoshitani, the manga’s author and a systems engineer salaryman, began the comic on his webpage. “There are more and more people who want to do things hodo-hodo,” he says. “I actually don’t know anyone who wants to be promoted.”
Thirty years ago, nearly 40% of the employees at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government took exams to advance to higher-level management positions. The prestigious employer now reports that only 14% of eligible employees take the exam. The lackadaisical work ethic of Japan’s 20 and 30-somethings has opened a window of opportunity for clerical workers – mostly women in their 40s – to step into management positions.
In conducting a global work force survey of 18 countries, consulting firm Towers Perrin found that only 3% of Japanese workers “were willing to do extra work to add value to their companies.” The global average? 21%. It’s estimated that 620,000 young men in Japan drift in and out of employment, and are often far more devoted to their personal interests and endeavors than those of their employer. They’ve been given their own own classification as NEETs: Not in Education, Employment, or Training.
Chiaki Arai points to Japan’s decade long economic slump as the source of the hodo-hodo, saying “young Japanese saw the dreams of the older generations vaporize amid job cuts and corporate reorganizations. They became skeptical about the value of hard work.”
Given our current economic climate, do you think America’s tweens will take a similar attitude when they enter the workforce in 10-15 years? Have you ever turned down a promotion?
Over the next month, I’ll be writing a series of posts about Generation Y around the globe. If you have any insights you’d like to share, I’ve love to hear from you!
