Yesterday, I and my English teacher talked about work hours.
In Japan, work hours are decreasing, but that's sometimes not true.
For example, my work hours are about 13-14 h a day on the average.
Some companies force employees to work on Saturdays without additional payment. They are called "black companies".
Next, we talked about psychological aspects. When the work is too hard, we tend to feel bad about our work. And that cause phenomenons called "Blue Monday" and "TGIF".
We afraid Monday and become happy on Friday.
Such thinking is inevitable if we dislike our work.
Several decades ago, Japan was in the era of prosperity and thinking of people was relatively positive ( of course, I can't experience that, but I heard it from elder people).
Now, Japan is in a negative atmosphere.
Objectively, the state of life in Japan is better than that in other countries. But subjectively, people see their life as worse.
They no longer believe that tomorrow is better than today. So, that is difficult for them to make positive attitude to their work.
However, I think, the situation surrounding us is only "changing", not "deteriorating".
There are many good changes. For example, now, we can exchange our thinking globally. That is clearly shown when we receive message to Japan from all over the world after the terrible earthquake.
Receiving change takes long time and that involves pains. But I believe we can overcome it.
