Wind of Change

Working in a Japanese company makes me familiar with its style and culture. Take as example: the employers and the employees, all placed in a huge room without any partitions. The surrounding is very quiet. Only the sound of the computer keypads heard. Once in a while, the telephone rings. Speaking about discipline, they are awesome. They usually go home late in the evening and arrive at the office very early on the next morning. They dedicate their life thoroughly to their jobs. They're really strict to their employees. No tolerance for lateness. This situation makes unfriendly and stressful atmosphere.

Lately, a new atmosphere spread all over the office. The wind of change was blown by a new director, Mr. Oshima. He started his breakthrough by interviewing all employees, including office boys and drivers. These interviews were not talking about our jobs but mainly about ourselves. Yes, he started by telling us his childhood, his career, his marriage and his only daughter. He said that he was willing to know his employees completely, he's sure that a person characters mostly determined by his surrounding. Therefore, he told us his life, in return he asked us to tell him ours. In his opinion, which I absolutely agree, the surrounding will affect someone's personality a lot.

He' s really serious with this project, he went to our branch offices in Bandung and Surabaya and did the interviews to the whole employees there. Wow...it's truly breathtaking. After 7 years working in this company, such things never happened before, finally I met an amazing person. All this time, we're always directed by a very Japanese boss (quiet, serious, distant).

Couple days a go, this Pioneer came up with his new idea to have a company library. Every employee is free to submit minimal 3 title of books and the company will purchase them afterwards. Some crazy thoughts crossed my mind, if only I could be the librarian, sitting among thousands of books, accompanied by a cup of Thai tea (my favorite) and browsing internet all days (just like Kafka Tamura in "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami). Yeah....in case it's real, what a beautiful life.

All in all, I still keep an eye in this wind of change, waiting for the next major changes. Wishing all the best for this company.