Japanese employees pay docked for starting lunch early

Japanese employees pay docked for starting lunch earlyJapanese employees pay docked for starting lunch earlyHow long is too long of a lunch break? For one company in Japan, it only takes starting your break three minutes early to get punished for being a habitually late worker.An unnamed 64-year-old employee, who works at the public waterworks bureau in the southwestern Japan city of Kobe, was punished after it was discovered that he had started his scheduled lunch break three minutes early on 26 occasions over a seven-month period. What was he doing with those extra 180 seconds of freedom? He was slipping away to buy a takeaway bento box.The employee reportedly said he left to go buy lunch because he needed a change of pace.Eating 3 minutes early can get your pay dockedFor the crime of leid being punctual, this employee was docked a half days pay. The civil servant had violated a public service law requiring city officials to concentrate on their jobs,according to the bureau.But tha t was not enough of a punishment. Bureau officials were so embarrassed by this civil servants actions that they gave a televised press conference last week to apologize for it. Its deeply regrettable that this misconduct took place. Were sorry, a bureau official told reporters, bowing deeply on camera.Local backlash to the news found this punishment to be an overblown reaction. One Japanese user wrote on Twitter, Its tough life nowadays. No tea break, no cigarette break, no chatting.This incident follows a troubling trend of overwork in Japan. Many Japanese employers expect their employees to work punishingly long hours to show their dedication to the job at the expense of employees mental health.Theres even a name for it in Japanese, karoshi, which translates to death by overwork. In April 2015, labor officials ruled 24-year-oldMatsuri Takahashis suicide the result of stress caused by her advertising agency, which had her working more than 100 hours overtime. To address karoshi, Ja pans lower house passed a bill that caps overtime at 100 hours last month.Workplaces reliant on the culture of long hours no longer fulfill the need of employees and dont boost productivity,Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shigeyuki Goto said about the bill.

5 Steps to Effective Alumni Networking in a Job Search

5 Steps to Effective Alumni Networking in a Job Search5 Steps to Effective Alumni Networking in a Job SearchAlumni can be some of your most valuable job search networking contacts, but only if you utilize them effectively.Unfortunately, most candidates have the goal of an introduction and its usually the wrong goal. When you pick an alumni networking goal thats achievable (one that is in the contacts power to deliver) and that delivers maximum impact to your job search, alumni can be a huge help to your efforts.The strategy of alumni networking wasnt always so important. When there were candidate shortages prior to 2007, most companies had written or unwritten policies to give a guaranteed interview to anyone who came through a company employee from anywhere within the organization. Pre-2007, when so many employers had guaranteed interview policies, it didnt matter how you networked because volume of networking was more important - it was literally just a random numbers game.Fast fo rward to todays job market, where spray and pray doesnt work. Todays effective alumni networking techniques are far more focused, with specific targets, goals and actions. When you learn how to leverage them in the right way, alumni networking contacts can represent tremendous inroads into employers.5 Best Practices to Use When Networking With AlumniFind the right alumni Use alumni networks to gain information or access to hiring managers in departments of your target companies to give you the widest reach. Too often, job seekers use their alumni networks to try to directly reach hiring managers and HR managers. Contacting HR managers is leid the best use of networking efforts, since their job is to keep candidates away from the hiring manager - theyre gatekeepers who may not have good information about the hiring managers real problems. If youre looking for hiring managers in your alumni directory, youll limit the reach of your networking. Alumni directories only list limited numb ers of hiring managers in your area, representing a small number of companies, even in huge schools with large alumni networks. By combining your alumni directory and Linkedin into your networking research, you can find exponentially more alumni who can lead you to the right person.Ask for information Reach alumni who can provide company/department/hiring manager inside information. Why would you ask these valuable contacts about what jobs are open when you can find that on the companys Web site? Instead of asking for something your fellow alum probably cant provide (a job), ask for something they can provide thats far more valuable to you - information. fruchtwein candidates dont have a clear idea what you really need in order to be ready to meet a hiring manager (besides just a positive attitude). To make your best first impression, you need to be ready by already knowing whats on the hiring managers mind, and what the biggest problems, most difficult obstacles, greatest opportun ities and priorities are.Build bridges The right alumni to reach are often ones who arent easy to contact because theyre busy people. Find alumni (often outside your target company) who know and can lead you to someone else within the company that can provide inside information. Of course this information isnt listed in your alumni directory - this will take some digging and groundwork using Linkedin and (gasp) your phone.Have an alum vouch for you Vouching can be one of the most valuable ways a fellow alum can assist your job search. When youre trying to reach a contact within your target hiring organization, its tough to build trust because youre a stranger. Weve been taught not to trust strangers from when we were young children, so why would you expect adults to suddenly act differently? Vouching changes this because when a common acquaintance tells your company contact that youre OK, that youre trustworthy, the walls come down and, usually, quick trust is built.Get an introduc tion to hiring managers While most job seekers make this the most immediate alumni networking goal, it should be one of the last. At this point, most of you are asking why? Most candidates rush to set up sessions with hiring managers prematurely, before they are ready. You only get one chance to make a first impression why would you want to put yourself in that situation before you have the necessary information to wow the hiring manager (see 2 above). Only after you understand the hiring managers most pressing issues are you ready for an introduction. Once youve prepared in this way, youll give the hiring manager two main impressions That youve already solved his/her most important problems, and that youre somehow a mind reader.Alumni networking can be one of your best networking opportunities - its important to know how to maximize the effectiveness of these opportunities. You may be tempted to go in for the quick kill, immediately asking for a job or to be introduced to the hiri ng manager. Its not your fault - job search used to be easy. When there were candidate shortages, you could make all sorts of mistakes and still land a good job in a reasonable timeframe. Businesses from the 1940s until 2007 faced slow growth unless they could find reasonably qualified candidates the businesses who could find candidates would grow, while those who were too picky would stagnate. A market with job shortages changes what works and what doesnt.So be careful in how you network with alumni, so you make the most of this valuable resource and create the maximum help for your job search.

Take a break You can have fun first and work later, study finds

Take a break You can have fun first and work later, study findsTake a break You can have fun first and work later, study findsToo many Americans think that they never have time for a break. Workers in the United States take the lowest amount of vacationtimein the industrial world, afraid and guilty about what would happen to their jobs if they relaxed for too many seconds in a row.American workers keep putting off fun and leisure, because work has to come first. This is why our workdays keep getting longer, why we answer emails at home, and why we dont go out unless we have to. If we let ourselves be less vigilant over work, even for a little while, it all falls apart.Right?Wrong, saysa new study in Psychological Science, which found that activity order doesnt matter when it comes to taking a break.Participants in the researchers experiments assumed that their fun would be spoiled if they had to get back to work right afterwards- but they ended up reporting just as much enjoyment as the group who had fun after work.In other words, even if youre in the middle of a project, you can take your break, have your fun, and still finish your work.Taking breaks helps us succeedTo test their theory on time off, the researchers used potato chips and spa days. (Can we sign up for this study next time?)The participants who got to eat chips before taking a test still thought the chips were tasty - stress did not make them less delicious or enjoyable.Similarly, the student participants who got a krpermassage before exams underestimated their enjoyment and overestimated how much they would be thinking about exams during their spa day. In reality, students thought about their looming midterms less than 20% of the time they were at the spa.This runs counter to the managerial belief of assigning harder tasks in the beginning of a time period and working nonstop until theyre completely done- the eating frogs method.Researchers believed that this mindset actually hurts employees in the long run because waiting too long likely builds pressure to savor it, which is disruptive. Working 15 hours for a potato chip break, in other words, puts a lot of pressure on that potato chip.Instead, they believed that doing enjoyable tasks can boost working Positive emotions at the outset make some work tasks easier to endure. Indeed, breaks and recovery from work benefit workers in many ways, from increasing job satisfaction to increasing productivity.Our working lives are a balancing act between work and play. What this study shows is that you dont need to get all the hard stuff out of the way before you can enjoy yourself. You can reward yourself before youve finished your work. Youre not being lazy youre actually being productive.People who take frequent breaks are the ones who ultimately succeed in the office. Rest helps our bodies and mind repair and prepare for the long haul. So, walk outside the office, take that weeklong trip, and eat your salty chips.