On friday, myself and some friends from the dorm and Japanese friends visited a restaurant for some food and drink. On the table next to us were a group of people who appeared to have come straight from their job at an office to this restaurant where they drank lots of beer and downed shots, all encouraged by their boss.
To me, this seems bizare. In England, drinking vast amounts of alcohol in this manner would more thank likely be frowned upon rather than encouraged. Also, it is very rare that people would socialise in this way with people they work with.Don't get me wrong, people do go out if they work together and there are office functions, but it seems to be in a different manner.
One of the Japanese friends who was with me commented on how they don't like this part of Japanese culture and that they would prefer to work in England where socialising and work is more separate. In Japan, it seems that working hours run till late at night, and even if you are drinking, I would have thought you would have to be in a 'professional' state of mind as you are with your boss, or maybe I am wrong?
From seeing this it made me curious as to how businesses function in Japan, and what is classed as 'office etiquette'. Personally, I wouldn't like to get drunk in front of my boss, but if I had this attitude when working for a Japanese company I wonder whether this would hinder my job prospects and relationships with colleagues and my employers.
Thanks for this interesting post. I think what you saw is fairly typical. Here the idea seems to be that drinking together improves relations. Perhaps we can talk in class about how other members of the class would feel about getting drunk with the boss.
返信削除