Canon Employees Are Forbidden to Sit Down, Walk Slowly

To us it is; to the Japanese it isn't. They're still not recognizing how counterproductive their entire culture is. They had their heyday and it's been downhill from there. Deflation, shrinking of the economy, suicides.

windsurfer2• 17 years ago

And yet their cellphones are at least 10 years ahead of North America :(

ibsulon• 17 years ago

Europeans say the same thing about Americans. :)

old-gregg• 17 years ago

how counterproductive their entire culture is

What a sentence! Instead of arguing and pointing out obvious, I highly recommend you read something about Japan, other than "internet news".

Putting a label on someone's culture at least calls for a few years of actually living there. After 10 years in US I still wouldn't dare giving a grade to American culture, it would take a tome (and I'd still be wrong), let alone labeling it with a single word.

Disclaimer: I'm not Japanese

P.S. Canon&Nikon, despite their "counterproductive" cultures, pretty much destroyed American and German photo equipment industries. These days it feels awkward to say "Kodak moment", most kids will probably ask "who is Kodak?"

utku_karatas• 17 years ago

I hardly think so. Walking at a normal pace ought to be forbidden in military bases, at least here in Turkish military bases. Thinking of Japan's militaristic culture I can't say I'm suprised much.

Also, it might be that the current president of Canon is an ex-soldier. To my experience, ex-soldiers at top positions like this are inclined to invent such weird rules and impose on others without hesitation.

tdavis4• 17 years ago

In the U.S. military, soldiers are encouraged to "move with a purpose". However, this mostly just leads to the predominant situation referred to as "hurry up and wait"; everything must be done super quickly, even though completing it so quickly just means spending a few hours dicking around waiting for the next thing.

Despite our constant fervor to rush, nearly everything involving the military is ridiculously and irreparably inefficient in ways that outsiders probably wouldn't even believe. Although, I am mostly cognizant of the fact that it takes a hell of a bureaucracy to keep the wheels turning, even if it makes those wheels rusty in the process.

jrockway3• 17 years ago

I think it's for the blue-collar employees, rather than the creative ones. It also is probably effective. My first job ever was as a janitor, and the preferred way of killing time (to avoid work) was walking slowly from where you were working to the storage closet (etc.). It really wasted a lot of time unnecessarily.

I am also a big fan of not using chairs at meetings -- everyone gets too comfortable, and people start reading blogs or whatever instead of focusing on the meeting. The end result is spending 8 hours on something that should have taken 20 minutes.

With that in mind, though, if I were Canon, I'd make sure that the employees subject to these rules got above-market pay and benefits -- otherwise, they'd just leave for less-strict competitors. (Maybe that's not an option with Japan's societal rules right now -- but I'm sure in a generation or so that won't be a problem at all.)

They could also meet the employees half-way and install a moving walkway that moves 5 meters in 3.6 seconds. Then the employees could just stand there and be equally productive.

mynameishere• 17 years ago

Next step: Habanero on the toilet seats.

cmars232• 17 years ago

Nah, they probably don't even have toilet seats.

WalkingDead• 17 years ago

From the article:

> The big boss, as a reward for thinking up all this stuff, gets to lounge in a nice, relaxing chair

jrockway3• 17 years ago

People in power use the power for their own benefit? That's something society has never experienced before...

smanek• 17 years ago

Apparently the president of Canon Electronics (Hisashi Sakamaki) wrote this book: http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4396612486/mitsu-10... whose title translates to "A company will do well if you get rid of the chairs and computers"

(Caveat: I don't read Japanese - I'd appreciate confirmation of that translation from someone. I read about it at http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/19639/Canon+El...)

It seems weird that anyone would bother with the 5M/3.6sec rule ... that's only 3.1 mph - I doubt many people walk much slower than that. Do they really think the morale hit is really worth the seconds someone would save walking 3.1 mph instead of a ultra-leisurely 2mph?

miles2• 17 years ago

"I'd appreciate confirmation of that translation from someone."

It is correct. Here is the original in Japanese:

椅子とパソコンをなくせば会社は伸びる!

in Roman letters (romaji):

isu to pasukon wo nakuseba kaisha wa nobiru!

a literal translation:

chairs and computers (object) if do away with company as for improve

and finally a rather free-handed translation:

Get rid of chairs and computers to improve your company!

zouhair3• 17 years ago

Feels like hearing some 16th century enslaver.

rjurney• 17 years ago

Sir, you just dropped the knowledge bomb on us all.

diego• 17 years ago

3.1 mph is not slow. Look at people walking in the streets, most walk slower than that. Have you been on a treadmill lately? 4 mph is about as fast as I can walk without starting to jog.

People have to walk faster than 3.1 to avoid the alarm, which means that the intent is to have them rushing down the hallways. If true, this is one of the most ridiculous and counterproductive corporate rules I've heard of.

devicenull• 17 years ago

What exactly is counterproductive about it? It would seem to get people to not move slowly.. what's the downside?

Dilpil• 17 years ago

The trick is to convince yourself that moral is a made up concept. Once you do that, a plethora of efficiency increasing tactics become possible.

rw• 17 years ago

Is this inhumane?

radu_floricica• 17 years ago

Too little info, but it could be an ok idea in some situations. Not for every department, obviously, and it sounds a lot less inhumane if you imagine it properly spaced with breaks.

Might be a bit healthy too. There are few things that eat your soul as much as being in front of a computer with nothing important to do for a few hours every day.

Flankk2• 17 years ago

I think it's excessive to have a machine set off alarms when it thinks your staff aren't working.

Employees are a company's most valuable asset. Of course it is management's job to keep staff productive but that is second to keeping them happy.

randallsquared• 17 years ago

Of course it is management's job to keep staff productive but that is second to keeping them happy.

Uh, no. Keeping them happy is just a likely way to keep them productive, not a higher goal. Sending them home with pay would keep them happier on average. :)

lesbianmonad• 17 years ago

No. The management's 'job' is to maximize return on capital. Corporations keep staff happy only insofar as an employee's competitive worth dictates. If a survey were taken, what percentage do you think would agree their boss's job is to keep them happy?

baddox• 17 years ago

For some reason this reminds me of elementary school. In the cafeteria, we had this big traffic light that supposedly turned from green to yellow then red if there was excessive noise. If it went red there was some sort of artificial consequence, most likely some teachers yelling at everyone to quiet down.

mhb• 17 years ago

How are they measuring people's walking speed?

1gor• 17 years ago

I remember time when City of London bankers and brokers used to have two hour lunch with a few pints of beer. Then their banks were bought up by soulless Americans and the enslavement began.

In a few years everybody was forced to eat their lunch at their desk.

That's why I don't see this Japanese example as excessively cruel.

endtime2• 17 years ago

You don't see the difference between not taking a two hour lunch and getting drunk, and not being allowed to sit down at your desk?

There is a happy medium somewhere between anarchy and militarism...I'm inclined to say it involves being allowed to sit down, and doesn't involve a few pints at lunch.

brown9-2• 17 years ago

So this President of Canon is using employees that he has some sort of supervision over to help prove a personal point of his that will net him a personal monetary gain?

That doesn't sound like conflict of interest at all...

Canon Employees Are Forbidden to Sit Down, Walk Slowly

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