{"id":22837,"date":"2008-05-05T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/blog\/?p=515"},"modified":"2008-05-05T16:28:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T16:28:00","slug":"la-fiesta-del-trabajo-o-cuando-el-trabajo-es-algo-festivo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/la-fiesta-del-trabajo-o-cuando-el-trabajo-es-algo-festivo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feast of Work. Or when work is something festive."},"content":{"rendered":"
Before I can be branded as unsympathetic to the working class, exploitative or other clich\u00e9s concerning the detriment of workers' rights, I want to clarify a few points:<\/div>\n
I believe that trade unions historically played a crucial and necessary role in 19th and 20th century society. Both the first<\/a> as the second International<\/a> They achieved major gains for workers' rights, including the basic right to strike.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Undoubtedly unionism has shaped the nature of the fiercest and most purist capitalism. Indeed many economists consider today's globalised capitalism a hybrid between the failed socialism\/communism of the second half of the 20th century and the ultra-capitalism promulgated at the beginning of the last century. The capitalism of our grandparents would have been shocked by the state interventionism in modern Western economies; and also by the social agreements that are achieved year after year by the modern trade unions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But the workers' spirit and the workers' struggle for rights against the bosses, despite being a phenomenon that occurs in a very similar way almost everywhere in the world, has very significant exceptions. Among them is the behaviour of the worker-management relationship in countries where totalitarian or pseudo-totalitarian regimes are still in place, which are the aftermath of the failed communism of the last century. These phenomena are also evolving rapidly with the adoption of voracious capitalism, this time state capitalism, by countries such as China or Russia, among others. However, in these scenarios of socialised capitalism there are also some tics and conflicts between workers and business, albeit state-owned.<\/p>\n

After the failure of communism in the second half of the 20th century, we came to the conclusion that capitalism, whether wildly liberal or socialised, is the second best system the world can run on... Now we only need to find out which is the first. But that would be another subject worthy of countless articles...<\/p>\n

Returning to the employment relationship at hand, another major exception worthy of careful analysis in this worker-employer relationship, which we all accept as normal in the first world, is Japan<\/span>. Such a relationship in that country is absolutely exceptional and admirably sustained over time. A worker's respect for his or her employer and company is something that is difficult to \"\"<\/a>understand for our trade union mentality, in which the interests of the employer must inevitably clash head-on with those of the worker. by definition<\/span>. But what if that were not the case in the West either?<\/p>\n

Many of you will think that if the interests of the worker were to be brought closer to those of the employer, the social situation of the working class would deteriorate dangerously over time, and the disproportion of wealth between the two would increase. With this in mind, let us look at the situation of the workers in Japan. Their weekly working hours and productivity are far above what we are used to seeing around us, no doubt. But we can by no means say that the Japanese working class is exploited or that their standard of living is less than decent. Japanese companies take care paternally<\/span> of its workers to extremes unthinkable in the West. So much so that to speak of exploitation and lack of labour dignity, we should turn our gaze to the third world, but in no case to the paradigm of capitalism and modern production that is Japan.<\/p>\n

As you already know, I have a special passion and weakness for Japan. Perhaps that is why I admire so many of its peculiarities that never cease to surprise me after a few trips. Here are a couple of anecdotes from my friend Hector Garcia<\/a> You can find more information in what is undoubtedly the best and most complete website in Spanish to get to know Japan and its peculiarities: Kirai. A Geek in Japan:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00abA friend who works in Kodansha<\/a> (Japan's largest publisher) told me about the process they went through to eliminate a magazine that was not making enough money. To get rid of the employees, what they did was to \u201csuggest\u201d to them that were looking for another job<\/em> several months before the elimination of the department. As the date on which they planned to end publication of the magazine drew closer, Kodansha switched to suggesting to the department's employees to leave the company voluntarily<\/em>. In the end they achieved their goal, all employees in the department left voluntarily, they did not have to fire anyone (saving all the costs of firing employees). \"\"<\/a>This is an example of how employees \u201csympathised\u201d with the problems of the company, took responsibility for the failure of the department and felt compelled to leave<\/a> Don't you think this way of acting is incredible? If this were to happen in a European company I can imagine strikes, unions complaining etc. This is an example of how the Japanese avoid conflict at all costs and the role played by a sense of obligation. giri<\/a> when making decisions\u00bb.\u00bb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>To our mentality, it seems like science fiction or the fruit of an oppressive bosses' mindset in which the working class is enslaved and severely threatened, doesn't it? Hard to believe in an environment of first world freedom. But e pur si muove<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The problems that the Japanese economy has been experiencing for more than twenty years are well known. Nevertheless, its standard of living remains enviable (even now, in times of recession or stagflation, we envy its lack of inflation) for the vast majority of the world, including a large part of the first world. Personally, I would say that I also find this workers' sense of responsibility for the running of the company enviable, as well as the respect of companies for their employees. In this \"\"<\/a>In Japan, jobs have traditionally been retained for life, with wage increases as the worker's age and family obligations increase.<\/span>. Interestingly, this form of remuneration is a far cry from the productivity or competitiveness incentive that we are so wildly accustomed to here. You may ask yourselves: How can a mediocre employee of advanced age be rewarded more than a young person who stands out for his or her special competence? It is difficult to understand for our mentality and a priori detrimental to maintain a high level of competitiveness. However, for any Western trade union, the precariousness of older workers and their difficulty in finding work is a workhorse that is difficult to resolve. Despite this traditional commitment of Japanese employers to workers throughout their lives, the Japanese economy has been a world benchmark for productivity, competitiveness, technology, innovation and many other recognised virtues for almost half a century.<\/p>\n

It is disconcerting, like so many facets of a country of contrasts from which the rest of the world should learn a lot. The worker-entrepreneur relationship in Japan perfectly defines the concept of the win-win<\/a> to which we so often refer. And that relationship contrasts particularly sharply with the trade union-employer relationship in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Below you can read another personal anecdote by Kirai<\/a> in which you will be surprised by the very curious formal relationship between employer and employee:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00abA few days ago I was in a cafeteria with two colleagues, at another table there were two other colleagues and at a third table there were two other colleagues. the chairman of our holding company<\/a>. The president was the first to finish, he came by my table to say hello, but he didn't bow at all, he is way above us, it was me and my colleagues who bowed and made a couple of comments. When he passed by the other table the president didn't know his own employees (there are more than a thousand of us right now), so he didn't even say hello. But it turned out that the president dropped his wallet on the floor next to the table of the employees he didn't know, one of them picked up the wallet and carried it to the president to the door of the cafeteria. The president, seeing that a \u201cstranger\u201d (actually an employee of his) had helped him retrieve his wallet, began to bow 90 degrees (maximum respect). It was the first time I had ever seen the president bow 90 degrees! If the president had known that the person returning his wallet was an employee of his, he would not have bowed at all (You should not bow to an employee of a lower rank), he would have simply made a surprised face and said thank you. This is a situation where the role played by the uchi and soto<\/a> in Japanese daily life and an example of how the level\/rank you occupy in society\/company\/group is very important in Japan\u00bb.\u00bb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n