When summer was about to end, I decided to do something that might lend me a job in Japan. Unfortunately, it did not end well because my string is too short for the year-long training.  When I visited Japan, what I noticed was that they do really have a fast-pace way of life. They walk fast, they act fast, they follow the schedule and others including foreigners are expected to do the same or they will be left behind. Among our group, our Japanese coordinator who was more than 50 years old walked really fast and always end up waiting at the train station.

Just today, I read an article from Telegraph.co.uk that says

Japan is least healthy place in the world to work

The workaholic nation of Japan has been crowned the most unhealthy country in the world to be an employee.

A survey conducted from 115,000 participants in 33 countries ranked Japan as the highest in terms of workers with the most work-related health problems. Canada ranked second. Both countries have only ten (10) days leave annually. Karoshi (death from overworking) is one of the problems that Japan is currently experiencing. Japan also has a high rate of work-related fatalities.

If Japan and Canada ranked as the least healthy place to work, New Zealand, India and Australia emerged the healthiest place to work having the fewest complaints of work-related ill health.

Sometimes, even when not in Japan or in Canada, people without realizing tend to sacrifice health when it comes to work. I do sometimes (but mostly home-based projects ).

Am I still hoping to work in Japan? Maybe, but I will always prefer to work at home than anywhere else given the same financial benefits.  But I would really like to go back there in the future especially during winter. I like to watch the colorful leaves and the trees covered with snow.

What will you do if the promotion you’ve been waiting for was so close yet it was snatched away from you? Worse, you are even accused of manipulating the ratings. Worst, you are not aware what you’ve been accused of and nobody have told you or nobody planned to tell you.

I know someone should be promoted ahead of me and as a form of respect, I submitted my bid for promotion only to fulfill my responsibility to myself, to take every opportunity and act on it.  The bid was submitted 6 months ago and the results have already been released also months ago.

Some rumors always come out. It’s been a hell for two days. I have known I should have been the one promoted based on the official promotion criteria. My opponent’s ratings were changed (an old practice I have known being carried out long ago) so I will not get the position. But I am not angry over. I feel worst because I have been accused unknowingly of manipulating my own ratings.

To have an idea of how performance ratings are done, these are done twice a year. When a promotion process is at hand, previous two ratings are used to evaluate the employee’s chance of being promoted. Take note that promotions are not being done regularly. It is not also advised ahead of time. It can take years before another promotion process is advertised. This is true for our division.

The issue is I was accused of manipulating the ratings since I got a higher rating. Such a child’s play. Have I foreseen or known a year ago that there will be a promotion this year? The papers are signed by superiors. Didn’t they read what they are putting their signatures at? If my superiors have known I have done such thing, why have they not confronted me? Is that a quality of a good superior or manager?

I still have few days before my next tour of duty and I am not sure how will I act infront of them. Should I be ashamed for an act I have not done, go after the promotion, request for transfer to another facility or just act as if nothing happened?

I was browsing through my Google Reader when this comic strips caught my attention. It has been previously published at DNKitchen.com

Enjoy your day

I love the lights at night
That brightens the street
Where lovers enjoy a leisurely walk
Like there’s nobody else

I love the malls
Because there are so many stalls
Where displays big and small
Entice the shoppers to spend more and more

But I also love the ricefields in the country

Where I can wake up to the sound of the birds singing
Smell and breathe the fresh air
Instead of vehicles’ honking horns

I like to plant flowers
And watch the trees grow
Bear fruits to pick up as they ripen
And enjoy the setting sun

The lively city where silence is elusive?
Or the countryside’s fresh life?
Which one will it be?
For someone like me.

©2008 phexchanger

I woke up this morning and found some new emails…

• I got an infraction for inappropriate language. Why? Not reading and understanding post clearly… well, I thought it is for using foul language, glad it is not.
• paid to read email worth $0.01… well
• 2 friend requests from another program.
• Paypal email saying I got payment. Just in time for paying another service I badly needed
• subscribed expired domain list
• expired domain profits newsletter
• learning Japanese podcast for the day
• some spam emails that got deleted right away

That’s what my inbox has collected since I logged off 6 hours ago.