samurai spirit

Only two days left at my current office! But, I’ve found myself still working just as normal.

I’ve remembered about when I left the company in Tokyo in March 2005, for which I worked for thirteen years. I’ve actually quit the job by a golden handshake. There were about ten people who retired with that offer. I remember that I was disappointed with the fact that most of them took holidays for two weeks or so at the end of their employment.

In principle you have the right to do it, but I thought it was too practical. I thought they should’ve thought about why the company had to reduce the employees – of course it was because of the company’s seriously bad economy. If you felt like thanking the company or your colleagues for your experience even for a bit, wouldn’t you feel like contributing to them to some extent? How much did you get paid for extra?

For a cost saving purpose, the office has in fact moved to a new place just before we quit. However, most of the leaving persons didn’t even help it. I just couldn’t believe it.

In the UK, when you quit a job, the condition is a bit different. You will normally get paid for the rest of your holidays, so you don’t really need to think about taking holidays at the end of your employment. However, some people seem to lose their motivation towards the end. Even so, I’m still trying to deliver the same quality of work until the very last minute, thought I think it’s just normal.

This kind of attitude may be an old Japanese way of thinking. But the thing is, if a Japanese behaves just as she or he is, most of the European people won’t blame it or make fun of it but they would rather appreciate it. You just need to try to speak more but don’t have to pretend as you were a European. This might be one of the most important things I’ve learnt in London so far.

I am the only Japanese in the office, so how everyone thinks about Japanese is really depending on my attitude. So, I will just continue as normal until this Friday 6 pm!