As more and more companies adjust to cater to the needs of their female workers, they see working women as key to lessening overtime work. Hiring women to reduce overtime work is gaining support from female workers as they find this move fruitful. In a Tokyo-based cosmetics company where the employee pool is dominated by women, workers start to prepare for home at 5PM. This is despite the fact that their work hours officially end at 5:30PM. One of the said company’s employees said that this is very advantageous for her as gets to spend more time with her 3-year-old son and more time for herself.
Japan exceeds Europe and the United States in records of overtime work by 10%. This working condition has triggered a lot of social problems to employees, and companies want to protect their employees from further harm. The government has been very active and vocal against overtime work. Reducing overtime work can dramatically help employees grow. Some additional steps that may be taken to drastically reduce the need for overtime work are the following: shorten meeting duration, lessen meetings, keep e-mails direct to the point, prioritize important tasks, and set reasonable deadlines.
Vocabulary:
cater – provide with what is needed or required
pool – a number of people or a quantity of a particular thing
despite – without taking any notice of or being influenced by; not prevented by
exceed – to be greater than a number or amount
trigger – cause; occur as a consequence of something
vocal – expressing opinions or feelings freely
drastically – extremely; very
True or False:
- More and more companies still don’t see the benefits of hiring female workers.
- Hiring women to reduce overtime work is not getting a lot of support from female workers.
- A Tokyo-based cosmetics company has more women workers.
- The government hasn’t expressed any opinion regarding overtime work.
- More overtime work can help employees grow.
Express your opinion:
- Overtime work is inevitable.
- It is not good for children if both parents work.
- If companies are starting to adjust to better cater to the needs of their female workers, they should do the same to better cater to the needs of their male workers.
Defend your argument:
- “We have to feed our loved ones, but at what cost. A dead man or woman can’t feed the living.” ― James Jean-Pierre
- “There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” ― Alain de Botton
- “You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.” ― Heather Schuck
- “Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.” ―Hillary Clinton
- ”Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” – Stephen R Covey