Three, no, four things I don’t understand - I’m concerned about the inexplicable things employees say and do

Employees, whether full-time or part-time, are like family. In fact, looking back over the past 30 years, there have been many times when I have prioritized following up with employees over my own children. This is perhaps natural, since I spend more time working with my staff than I do with my children. I have never suffered from this. I believe that children grow up stronger if their parents don’t give them too much attention.

Ideally, employees are like family, so it should be natural that they not only spend time together at the company, but also sometimes eat together, travel together, and share many experiences together. Also, as a chairman at the top of the company, I should be able to do what only I can do. For example, it would be great if I could teach employees about various work-related topics or even the global economy, based on my experience and learning over the years. However, no matter how much I want to teach them, if they don’t want to learn, all of this is like one big pie in the sky. I sometimes wonder if today’s employees are willing to learn from their bosses or from the chairman of the company.

It is said that a parent’s heart is not easily conveyed to their children, but these days I am keenly aware of the reality that the opportunities to maintain contact with employees and spend meaningful time with them have dwindled, and it’s not just limited to teaching. To compound this situation, there are more and more things that are difficult for me to understand, especially with regard to the new employees who have recently joined the company. I wondered what the problem was. Then I realized that there are three, no, four things that I don’t understand.

The first thing I don’t understand is that more and more people don’t or can’t greet people. What does this mean? Is it a social phenomenon? Is it a parental education issue? Or does it have to do with mild mental illness? In the morning, it is quite normal to say “Good morning!” so that everyone can hear you. Instead of saying it, they either remain silent or mumble in a muffled voice so that no one can hear them. That is not a greeting. In the past, those who could not greet us would be made to stand in front of the guard room early in the morning and say “Good morning” in a loud voice to everyone who came to the office, as part of their greeting training. They were even trained to enter the reception area of Yamato no Yu and greet customers with a smile and say “Welcome!” repeatedly. However, in this day and age, such training could be considered to be power harassment. So then, how am I supposed to teach someone how to properly greet people?

The second thing I don’t understand is that as the owner and chairman of a company with annual sales of over 20 billion yen, when I have something I want to discuss with my employees who I think has potential to grow, I sometimes invite them to join me and talk about it over dinner. Invitations to small groups are rare. However, recently, 70-80% of the employees decline my invitations. The reasons for this vary from having to run errands, already having plans with a friend, or going to visit their parents. But is this common practice nowadays? If you are approached by a representative of a company and you don’t want to go, do you just spontaneously decline with a quick e-mail? If the President Son of Softbank approached an employee in his 20’s, would anyone really refuse? If the president of Chiba Bank asked the staff of the Narita branch to talk to him tonight, would any of them refuse? It seems unlikely by any stretch of the imagination. This means that this is a problem only for this company, and I wonder if I am being disrespected, but I don’t care anymore. These people, even if they were approached by the Emperor, would probably decline, saying, “I don’t want to go, I have something to do, so I’m sorry.” I’m just not sure if this is the current trend or not.

There are still some things I don’t understand. Employees these days are physically weak. They tend to catch colds easily at the slightest chill in the wind. Some people have caught Covid-19 repeatedly. Many of them are mentally weak and seem to be mildly depressed, perhaps because they are used to staying up at all hours of the night. But, they also don’t exercise. Just 30 minutes of daily exercise is all it takes to make your body healthier. If you eat nutritious food, your immune system will be strengthened and you will be able to prevent any minor illnesses. Exercise and some exposure to sunlight can also help prevent depression. You will not only feel better from eating better, but you will also be able to sleep better at night and feel rested. With all of these benefits, why is it that people don’t want to exercise? Do they want to die early, or are they looking to spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair? Is it just ignorance or just bad education at home? Is it bad schooling? Or, is this the culture of Japan today? I don’t have the slightest clue about this either.

There is one more thing I didn’t understand. For some reason, I don’t feel that employees have much desire to absorb and learn new things. The world is changing rapidly. Globalization is advancing rapidly, and the world is looking smaller and smaller. Now, AI is beginning to show off its power, and the world is about to change drastically. In such an ever changing society, if you want to live a meaningful life, do your job well, and contribute to society, you must absorb new knowledge and technology.

However, for some reason many people do not want to study. For example, they do not want to study English. Whether it’s a preoccupation with being bad at English, a simple prejudice, or a learning disability, I do not know the reason. In any case, if they are going to be active in society in the future, and if they are going to be able to do anything in their company’s business development, am I just too old in thinking that they at least need to learn English? It’s not just about learning English, but also considering the rapidly changing world today, if you do not listen to the news every day as a working adult, subscribe to the Nikkei Digital Edition to grasp the global economic situation, and acquire various information from various magazines, social media, and web content, you will never be able to keep up with the rest of the world. Yet, most employees are not listening to the chorus chanting. Why is this? Are they satisfied with the status quo, just not ambitious, or not concerned about the future? I don’t know this either.

Three, no, four things I don’t understand came to mind, and I tried to write them down. But this, too, was futile. Because no matter how much I write, the reality will never change. It would be a waste to let my efforts fizzle out. Even so, I took up the pen to at least leave a record of my thoughts. Even if no one listens to my words, perhaps people might take heed to the words from God. I wonder, including myself, if all of us will ever be smarter than ants, hyraxes, locusts, and lizards. I can only hope so.

“Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
Ants are creatures of little strength yet they store up their food in the summer;
hyraxes are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in crags;
locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks;
a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.” (Proverbs 30)