Tag Archives: working condition

New Era, Old Issue: Should 24-7 Stop?

by Danlu Ding

On May 1, 2019, Japan turned into a new era from Heisei to Reiwa when the new emperor Naruhito was enthroned. Many proper in Japan were really excited about the beginning of the new era. 

But not everyone was happy. Hachioji Yorozucho, A worker of the convenience store 7-11, had been worked as this job in midnights for 12 years. This is a busy work. Yorozucho could never leave work on time which was 9 a.m. He and the store owner Toshiro Masuda were not excited of the coming of the new era. Masuda thought the excitement was the wish of the government. Even though they made good progress on the sales, they still faced problems since the lack of customers made them paying for the unsold goods. And the nightly revenue even couldn’t afford a worker’s salary. Even though they trade to stop the mode of 24 hours which was tiring and not really efficient, the public and the company rejected. Luckily, “Takanori Sakai, chairman of a union of convenience store operators in Japan”(Mainichi Japan,2019), and some managers of 7-11 realized the problem and decided to cancel the operation mode of 24 hours. Since the profit couldn’t catch up inflation, the condition of convenience store was ill tough. 

Convenience stores, such as 7-11, operate in the mode of 24-7 intend make the store really convenient, but this also causes some problem. the cost for operation at nights is almost the same as in daytimes. The company still need to pay for the electricity, water, salaries, etc. Can the revenue provided by the few customers cover the high cost? Moreover, it is really tiring and unsafe. It becomes hard to control the working environment. If something happens, there will be extra cost.  

On the other hand, convenience stores seem to be necessary especially in cities. Even there are less customers, there always exists people in need of the stores. For example, someone need felt really hungry after leaving work in the late night; someone is hurt and needs a bandage. Opening the stores at night really helps people and can gain good impressions form the public. But is it worth being so responsible to the society consider the unbalance of the gain and loss?

Maybe there is a small tip: the government can make statistics of the convenient stores at nights and even evaluate the quality and the income situation and give some allowance to decrease the losses. 

original news: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190504/p2a/00m/0na/008000c

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Overworked in 2018

by Danlu Ding

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, seemed to spend a hard year in 2018 that made him really overworked. He described himself “felt like aging five years in one.”

In 2018, Tesla faced “production hell” of Model 3, with issues of making batteries, producing parts,  and developing assembly lines. And the production was far behind his expectation. To escape the hell, Musk worked almost 120 hours, staying in Gigafactory for 3 to 4 days a week. However, it doesn’t mean Musk was at leisure during previous years. He continuously had sleeping problems and didn’t even celebrate his own birthday. Theexperts pointed that his busy life might lead to cardio disease, suicide, and even cancer. 

“Tesla super charger spot, non-Tesla cars don’t park here↓” This is one of the five parking spots with Tesla chargers among several hundred spots in a shopping mall in Shanghai, China. And they are all empty. Photoed on Dec 24, 2018

Beginning in 2003, Tesla now becomes one of 2018’s 500 Most Influential Brands, after experiencing the “production hell.” The products based onthe concept of IT is till innovative among motor industry. The company has involved into several events and experienced ups and downs. Mucks, undertaking such pressures, went through most of the difficulties and made great progress. 

Running a company with innovative products is risky. So maintaining success needed not only intelligence, but also the input of large amount of time and effort. This is also what Musk exactly has done during these years since he was in office to maintain competitive in the automobile industry. Since cars based on electricity is not convenience enough to be widely used, Musk needs to work harder to make innovation and development on the products and services that can satisfy the consumers. So it seems reasonable and not at all surprising about the overworking of Musk. 

The last paragraph of the passage also talked about the Karoshi(means working to die) in Japan, with the case of the death of a 31-year-old Japanese woman in 2017. It seems sad but is not totally avoidable, at least in recent years. Extra effort is necessary in most countries due to the competitive market. The conclusion stated in the passage is that “Working too much…is dangerous to your health.” But people have no choice. If they relax, as the author wishes, they will fall behind. So they can either work hard or leave the job. This is the trend of the world and is it really what we want after putting ourselves into hard education? 

Original news: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-dangers-of-overwork-2018-8