A couple of stories that caught my eye:
-- Almost two-thirds of schoolchildren would not mind if social media had never been invented, a survey has indicated.And
The study provides evidence of a growing backlash among young people disillusioned with the negative aspects of the technology, such as online abuse and fake news.
-- Japan has again been forced to confront its work culture after labour inspectors ruled that the death of a 31-year-old employee of the country’s public broadcaster, NHK, had been caused by overwork.Of course the kids surveyed were 9, 10, and 11 and the company whose employee died waited three years to announce the death out of ... uhhh ... respect for the family. How suave the Japanese can be ... not much different from Americans in their reworking of camouflage, but it always seems so picture perfect when the Japanese do it. And if you don't believe me, just ask them.
Miwa Sado, who worked at the broadcaster’s headquarters in Tokyo, logged 159 hours of overtime and took only two days off in the month leading up to her death from heart failure in July 2013.
Typical poorly constructed social science survey?
ReplyDeleteWe really need to know the survey was worded and how it was spoken if it were administered orally.
In this world, “Rock bash my head. Rock bad, wish there be no be rocks.” Instead of “Urrg threw rock at me. Rock hit me in the head. Let’s punish Urrg.”
Knowing that there are Japanese who don’t buy into corporate-speak, and who don’t buy into “traditional values,” I wouldn’t hammer the Japanese people as much, but I would hammer corporations and corporate-speak a whole lot more.
The overtime numbers need clarification. How many hours is the regular week? Assuming it’s 40 and 159 averages out to almost 40 overtime hours a week, that’s 80 hours. There are plenty of people who work 80 hour weeks and who don’t die.
I though a significant economic problem for the Japanese people was unemployment. Unemployment could be allievated if employers stuck to 40 hour weeks, and hired unemployed folks for a second shift.
There may be something else afoot with the overtime and dying announcement.