an old fashioned working style This morning, I saw two persons talking while waiting a train. They looked a boss and a subordinate and were talking about training systems of new employees. Boss said

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Rika

an old fashioned working style This morning, I saw two persons talking while waiting a train. They looked a boss and a subordinate and were talking about training systems of new employees. Boss said to the subordinate, maybe he was also a new employee, "I think they don't need to have their own computer during their training phase." Subordinate was very much surprised. "Really? Why do you think so?" Then, Boss said "Because we have only one word-prosessor a group when we entered the company. It became too much convenient for new employees recently." "But....now, if we want to know something, we can search on the internet quickly....", said Subordinate. Boss prevented him from continuing and said strongly "That is! That makes you bad, definitely! Whenever you want to know something, you can find a lot of helpful books!" I, was next to them, felt really awful. Word-prosessor??? What century are you talking about??? Time has changed obviously. Because of this kind of quite old fashioned bosses, working styles in Japan can't progress rapidly. Unless every managers may change, Japan will not being better. I really sorry about that subordinate. What do you think or how about your country?

Corrections · 9

an old fashioned working style

This morning, I saw two persons people* talking while waiting a train. They looked like** a boss and a subordinate and were talking about training systems of for new employees. The Boss said to the subordinate, maybe he was also a new employee, "I don't think they don't need to have their own computers during their training phase." The Subordinate was very much surprised. "Really? Why do you think so?" Then, the Boss said "Because we've have only had one word-prosessor processor a group*** when since we entered**** started the company. It's became become too much too convenient for new employees recently." "But....now, if we want to know something, we can search on the internet quickly....", said Subordinate. Boss prevented him from continuing and said strongly sharply,***** "That's is! That makes you bad, definitely! Whenever you want to know something, you can find a lot of helpful books!"

I, was sitting next to them, felt really awful. Word-proscessor??? What century are you talking about was this guy in??? Time has changed obviously. Because of this kind of quite old fashioned bosses leadership, working styles in Japan can't progress rapidly. Unless every managers may allow change, Japan will not being better improve. I really felt sorry about that subordinate. What do you think or how about your country?

Good story!

* "People" - The plural for "person" is "people." The history of these words is long and confusing. There are rare times when "persons" is used, and we also use "peoples" when talking about nationalities or ethnic groups. But 99.9% of the time, think "one person, two people."

** "They looked like" - you can also say "they appeared to be . . ."

*** I don't understand this phrase. Do you mean, "we have only had one word-processor for the entire team?"

**** Entered or started. "Enter" usually means to physically walk into a building. But for starting a new company, we say "since we founded" or "since we started" or "since we established . . ." To talk about when a person begins working at a company, we say "since I started at" or "since I began working at . . ."

***** "sharply" means that the boss spoke in a sudden, angry tone.

An old fashioned working style

This morning I saw two persons talking while waiting on/for a train. They looked like a boss and a subordinate and they were talking about training systems for new employees. The boss said to the subordinate, possibly a new employee, "I think they don't need to have their own computer during their training phase." The subordinate was very much surprised. "Really? Why do you think so?" Then, the boss said "Because we had only one word-processor per group when we joined the company. It became much too convenient for new employees recently." "But....now, if we want to know something, we can search on the internet quickly....", said the subordinate. The boss prevented him from continuing and said strongly "That is enough! That makes you bad, definitely! Whenever you want to know something, you can find a lot of helpful books!"

I was next to them and felt really awful. 'Word-processor'??? What century are you talking about??? Time has changed obviously. Because of this kind of quite old fashioned boss, working styles in Japan cannot progress rapidly. Unless every manager can change, Japan will not improve. I was really sorry for that subordinate. What do you think or how about your country?

Very well written! I like italki's word-processor but I never use its highlights for my corrections.

Year, I really think so. I think it is a little bit old days when Japanese technology was admired from all over the world. Actually, a lot of foreign makers developed their technology recently. But so many Japanese, especially bosses are still believe in our strength of developing new technology. Thank you for telling about your country's working style. I like to know foreign culture!

I personally think that Japan is quite a unique country in the way that it is highly innovative, but at the same time quite traditional. I can put myself in both the boss' and subordinate's shoes. If it took a person only 20 seconds to find an answer, instead of 2 hours, surely that's a good thing! However, I think many Japanese bosses are quite rigid and reluctant to see change. Many decisions have to be made after several stages of deliberation and after finding consensus. Correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems that workers aren't expected to use their initiative. Which means progress can be quite slow. This seems paradoxical because Japan is world-renowned for developing new technology and for innovation! In the UK, I feel that I can make suggestions or even constructively criticise my superiors without being reprimanded. Companies sometimes promote the creation of new strategies and suggestions by staff for many reasons - improved efficiency, keeping up with times or even just to get a different perspective.

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