A Rolling Stone
The Japanese have a tendency to stay in one career, one profession for their entire lives. People here are loyal, they are company men and, now, women. This is quite unlike employees back in the States, what is the average number of career changes these days….5, 10??
Well, one day I had a chance to talk with some of my co-workers about this phenomenon, and it ended up being a pretty interesting conversation. They were able to explain it with a single, simple statement, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
Huh?
Most Japanese gardens are beautifully landscaped and manicured. With all the rain and humidity, many of the surfaces are covered in the most brilliant green moss. They even had some of the mosses on display and labeled when we visited Ginkaku-ji. As a result, the Japanese people have become quite fond of the moss. They think it is precious, beautiful, and something to be strived for.
Hence the idiom. If a stone is rolling around a garden, it won’t gather any of this precious moss. In the working world, if you spend too much time moving from place to place, job to job, you won’t achieve your full potential that you would have had you stayed in one job, with one company.
An interesting philosophy, not one that I entirely agree with, but interesting just the same.
I must be getting “mossy”. What a positive way of looking at my job. I am realizing my full potential.
Maybe that should be your new mantra…. I am gathering moss. Whenever you are frustrated at work, bored, etc, just repeat to yourself….I am gathering moss. I am gathering moss. I am gathering moss. I am becoming greener and more beautiful with each passing day.
I think it might help. 🙂
Last night we had a group of two Americans, a New Zealander, a Canadian, and a Japanese person together talking. The other American and myself were complaining about all of the things that were wrong with America right now, and eventually the Canadian and New Zealander spoke up with some remarks also.
When the conversation started to die I asked the Japanese woman, who is in her mid-20s, what about Japan just pisses her off. At first she couldn’t think of anything, but later on in the night she finally brought up that she hates the Japanese lifetime employment mantra and the salaryman phenom in general.
The combination of being expected to stay at the office for exceedingly long hours, the general practice of ignoring families, the fact that advancement is based upon tenure rather than merit, and many other reasons brought about this assertion.
Furthermore, it was brought up that this is a belief that is spreading among the younger Japanese population.
So then to get to my point: what were the ages of these people you were talking to? Are they of the slightly older generation that views this system as a positive, or were they of the newer, younger generation who, even though they may not be as willing to express their opinions against the norm, views this as a blight on Japanese society?
Adam, what a wonderful, long, thought-provoking comment. Thank you!
You are right, it was an older woman that I was talking to. I have also had similar experiences to you where younger people are not as thrilled with the system as the former generation. Interesting how times have changed.
However, even the young man I spoke with who was not thrilled with his current position, but also knew that it would be unwise to leave it, was not excited about the alternatives. He didn’t like being stuck in the same position, but he also wasn’t interested in a system that lacked stability. He talked about how he is glad that he does not have to fear for his job. It is almost like the America that was in existence some 20 or 30 years ago.
I wonder, if the dissatisfaction among the younger generation will lead to a gradual change in the system, as happened in America? It will be interesting to watch and find out.
Like so many things I see here and remember from the States, I think the ideal would be a happy medium between the two.
I grew up moving every two or so years because my dad got laid off and was forced to change jobs relatively often, so I can definitely see the benefits of having the job security.
On the other hand, literally being locked into one position, and if you ever change jobs you start out at the bottom, just really sucks.
Give people relative job security with promotions based on merit and the acceptance of it being OK to change jobs every once in awhile, and I’d say you’d have a pretty good system.