Re: work times & accommodation @tokyo, WAS: Re: [tlug] Embedded linux dev wanting to find work in Tokyo.. Seeking advice.

[Karen Pauley <karen-linux@example.com>]

On Sun Jul 27 12:25:46 2008, Attila Kinali wrote:

> The company i worked for as an intern in Japan was also
> an American company, so it had pretty much relaxed work
> conditions, so i have been told. But i've also been told
> that when some very important project was at stake, the
> whole team slept at work for weeks to be able to work more
> than 12 hours a day to get things done.

I have never worked for a Japanese company but have worked in the I.T.
sector in the U.K.  It is rare for programmers there to be paid for any
overtime but it is not unusual for them to be expected to work overtime
if there is an important deadline to be met or it there are problems
with any systems.

I have personally worked 14 hour days and have worked 7 day weeks.  And
I can think of many other people who have done the same.  This cannot be
sustained for long periods of time but does sometimes happen during a
project.

I have never slept at the office - but then I have been able to continue
my work at home.  But I do know programmers who have and can think of
one who practically ended up living in an office at London when trying
to get a critical project finished.
 
> I doubt that there are many gaijin that would do the same
> for more than a few days, if at all.

Some of my experiences have been with start-ups where a lot of extra
work may be required at the beginning.  My husband Marty, however, has
worked at a established company and the whole team was expected to work
more than 10 hours a day, 7 days a week to finish a critical project.
Marty was lucky, in that he was a contractor, so when he put in an 80
hour week he got paid for it.  But the other programmers were still
being paid at their normal rate even though they were expected to do
twice the work.

Gaijin will do all sorts of things if they have mortgages to pay and
families to support and if the industry isn't doing that well.

One of the reasons we moved to Japan was so that Marty could work less
than he had to in the past!

All the best,

Karen