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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

I haven't worked a 5-day week in decades. It was always 5 days (9-12 hours per day. 8 hours? HAH!), and then my "nights and weekends" work.

Since leaving my last job, I've been working seven days a week, but at my pace. Lots of breaks and downtime (naps, even), and I don't mind taking full days, every now and then.

Amazingly, I get more done, in less time, than I ever did before.

In Japan, the traditional salaryman workweek is 6 days, with Saturday being "casual," and sometimes, a "half day" (only 6-8 hours).

We'll have to see how this works out. Lots of cultural hysteresis.

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> In Japan, the traditional salaryman workweek is 6 days, with Saturday being "casual," and sometimes, a "half day" (only 6-8 hours).

The traditional office layout is also totally open-plan with no sound deadening and your manager staring at you from the side. Of course, I'm not sure there's much expectation to get any work done, but I always wondered if people too picky for cubicles knew what other countries were like.

No sound-deadening, but the offices can be dead quiet. You're in a room with 200 people, and can hear someone fart, across the room.

I do not consider Japanese business to be very productive. An engineer I worked with explained his extreme hours to me, by saying that during the "workday," he was in meetings the whole day, and needed the "after hours" to get tech work done.

Sounds about right.

> In Japan, the traditional salaryman workweek is 6 days

It seems it's starting to change. Currently I'm leaving the company which indeed has 6 days work week (with the 6 hr Saturday) and literally every opening I'm seeing right now is 5d.

Maybe I'm biased though as I'm looking for jobs in IT companies or departments.

The killer, for me, was the meetings. Oh. My. God. Japanese corporations run on meetings as fuel.

I don’t miss those cramped conference rooms, one tiny bit.

Did one’s ability to run meetings effectively (or at least perceived as effectively run meetings) factor significantly in promotion opportunities?

Probably. I was a Yank, and not in the main food chain.

But they run their meetings in a very organized fashion. Everyone has their marching orders, when the meeting is done.

Japanese corporations tend to use a consensus-based system, where meetings are confirmation of consensus. Being at a meeting, meant that you were part of the stakeholders, and also part of the accountable parties.

Many times, people sleep in meetings. Their presence is all that is required.

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