Surfing the Web on Company Time

[Pierrot le Fou]

I used to do it all the time in the US. When I had no work to do, or had finished my work for the day, or was waiting for something else to finish, or on a break, I would browse the net and otherwise putz around on the company dime. I obviously do that at my current job as well. Anyone know how well this is received in actual Japanese companies?

[RoxFontaine]

Isn't received at all. I worked for a company that squeezed every second of every day they could out of me. If you have a job where a computer is available, you could certainly sneak a little time in but not much. Somebody would be hanging over your shoulder asking for something.

[erbiumfiber]

Obviously I'm doing it at my job and so is everyone else here. People do a lot of shopping on-line and people also have legitimate uses of the Internet (e.g., doing a translation and seeing if a particular word actually exists and is being used properly- for technical words, no dictionary is good enough). We get occasional complaints that our Internet usage is too high but as long as you are doing your "quota" of work, no one minds. However, they did cut off e-mail so everyone began using his/her work e-mail for shopping and now we are spam central. They restored the American attorneys' e-mail ability as we complained and are spoiled brats (not really, but that is the perception in view of our salary and the fact that we have real offices).

[mikem]

I'm not going to claim that there is anything typical about our office, but its a well-known fact that I browse Mixi at work. On the other hand all of our projects are coming in early these days so there isn't much to complain about.

I also do my Japanese homework while at work, but that is actually part of our agreement. Things are just more results oriented than time oriented here though.

[Pierrot le Fou]

That's a chuckle. I recall my last job being far more result oriented than anything I've done here. Here it seems like you need to get your tasks done in the amount of time allotted to work in the day. If you finish quickly, you don't get to leave early (which was something I did get to do often in my last job).

[RoxFontaine]

The Japanese are huge fans of busy work. These English teachers kill me. They're here until 8 p.m. or later "preparing lessons", yet everytime I come in it's, "I didn't prepare anything. Can you do some game or something?"

[hanacker]

My girlfriend chats with me on MSN all the time at her job.

[Hira-Kata to Sawa]

The Japanese are huge fans of busy work. These English teachers kill me. They're here until 8 p.m. or later "preparing lessons", yet everytime I come in it's, "I didn't prepare anything. Can you do some game or something?"

Truer words were never spoken, my friend.

I teach an English elective class: one hour of it covered by the JTE and one hour done by me. One day I came in and one hour before class my JTE is like, "Hey, can you do both hours? I didn't make a plan". I was like, no, fuck off, I made my plan and I don't have to figure out how to extend it. I don't have to cover your ass....then he got all whiny and pissy and went off in a huff like a college-age J-girl denied a night in bed with you.

I covered for him anyways, because I didn't want to have to deal with a whiny bitch. I don't know how Japan is praised for its work ethic, when the teachers obviously don't have any.

[Pierrot le Fou]

You're an ALT. Assistant. Tell your JTE that your lesson plan involves him doing his fucking job.

Don't take shit from him. Be polite at first, and state that you are busy yourself and proceed to browse the net. If he continues to fail to do it, bring it up with the head JTE (unless he is the head JTE). If it continues to be a problem, ask your BOE for support (state that you are trying to do team teaching, but the teachers don't have time to plan lessons with you, or have meetings about what you'll teach beforehand). If it still doesn't resolve, just state to the teacher that if he does not make a lesson plan and present it to you before the lesson, then you simply won't go and he can teach himself.

Alternatively you could take the last step first. Your free time will increase, which is a mixed blessing.

[kilreli]

Don't take shit from him. Be polite at first, and state that you are busy yourself and proceed to browse the net.
:rofl: i like that

[Lisa M]

My work right now consists of being available when people need me for anything.

Nothing major yet today, hooray!

[Lisa M]

I should also add that I'm travelling for work, and brought both the work laptop and my own laptop so that I can do things like visit OP9 without it being on my work laptop.

I am sneaky like that.

[RoxFontaine]

You're an ALT. Assistant. Tell your JTE that your lesson plan involves him doing his fucking job.

Don't take shit from him. Be polite at first, and state that you are busy yourself and proceed to browse the net. If he continues to fail to do it, bring it up with the head JTE (unless he is the head JTE). If it continues to be a problem, ask your BOE for support (state that you are trying to do team teaching, but the teachers don't have time to plan lessons with you, or have meetings about what you'll teach beforehand). If it still doesn't resolve, just state to the teacher that if he does not make a lesson plan and present it to you before the lesson, then you simply won't go and he can teach himself.

Alternatively you could take the last step first. Your free time will increase, which is a mixed blessing.

:clap: 3 cheers for PLF.

I look at them like their crazy when they do that. I'll make up some shit like, "I have to write a report. I don't have time to do it."

What irks me even more is that this shit is not new. They do the same kindergarten lessons every year. It should be automatic now.

[erbiumfiber]

...state that you are trying to do team teaching, but the teachers don't have time to plan lessons with you, or have meetings about what you'll teach beforehand...

Ha, ha, ha...I am "team teaching" a course to patent professionals about the translation of Japanese applications into U.S. applications and the Japanese attorney refuses to discuss anything with me. So, the first day, I went first and said to write the Summary of the Invention a certain way (standard American way) while he told them to merely translate the Japanese "objects of the invention" section (which marks the application as a lame translation and can cause a lot of problems later on in patent enforcement).

My attitude at this point is basically "fuck you, I've been in U.S. patent law as an attorney or Examiner for twenty freakin' years and I'll teach the way a real U.S. patent application should be written- you can teach blind translation of the Japanese." And this guy worked for Corning for about 30 years, speaks flawless English but, in meetings with me and others, will only speak Japanese. So, yeah, the class might get a little confused but they can decide from whom they wish to take advice: the American patent attorney or the Japanese patent attorney. I figure it's the same with teaching English- do you want to believe the native speaker, or the guy who can barely get out "It's a nice day today, isn't it."

Screw people who won't work with their assigned counterparts. Yeah, team players my ass.

[Pierrot le Fou]

:clap: 3 cheers for PLF.

I look at them like their crazy when they do that. I'll make up some shit like, "I have to write a report. I don't have time to do it."

What irks me even more is that this shit is not new. They do the same kindergarten lessons every year. It should be automatic now.
I don't make up excuses, or mask what I'm doing. If they don't have the common decency to treat me with respect, I will do the same. I had a teacher tell me to make a lesson for her class. I just said 'chotto muzukashii, dou shiou kana...' (hrm, that's difficult, what should we do...) and sat there until she told me what she wanted done. And then we did it. One of the two classes did more of the activities she 'planned' than the other, and had the gall to ask me if I'd be willing to teach the extra stuff in an additional non-scheduled period. I simply told her, "no."

It ain't my job to do the work of other teachers. If asked nicely and professionally, I will consider it. If told to do something on short notice that they should have done beforehand, I tell them where to shove it in a Japanese way. I have told teachers when they wanted a lesson plan from me that the lesson plan was for me to sit in the teacher's office while they taught the class. They chuckled, said, "No, really" and I repeated it. I got to sit in the teacher's room and browse the net for those two classes and they apologized for not having a lesson plan they could utilize me with.

It's my third year. I have no shame. I have no tolerance for incompetence. This job will not get you a raise or anything else. Don't worry about it, and don't over extend yourself.

[RoxFontaine]

^ I hear what you're saying and I've done that before. In most cases though, I think about the kids. I take the opportunity to give them a REAL English lesson.

[Pierrot le Fou]

I think about the kids too. I'm only there once or twice a month to teach them. The teacher is there every day. If the teacher is half-assing when I'm there, they're going to be half-assing when I'm not. If you can get them to acknowledge that there is more they can do, and get them to do more for those students, then the students will benefit more. They do not benefit more from having you act as a human tape recorder than they would if the teacher had them repeat things.

If you have that much motivation, then you'd be better off finding a job in a private school which would actually value it and make use of it, as well as paying you more for that effort.

[kitsunepixie]

And this guy worked for Corning for about 30 years, speaks flawless English but, in meetings with me and others, will only speak Japanese.

Yeah, that's a definite power play there. :gangster:

People in my office use the Net and chat all the time while they're waiting for projects to come in. We also have library counter duty, and if you have to be at counter when there are no patrons to serve, you can either stare off into space or tinker on the Net while you wait for someone who needs assistance to come to you. I generally choose the latter.