Spring break is drawing to a close, which means that for most of us here in Ishikawa with the JET Program, we’re headed back to a regular working schedule. Back to teaching, back to English club, and of course back to the staff room.
Ah, thar she is. ‘Tis a thing of beauty.
In light of that last reality, I recently found a great survey from the website What Japan Thinks, a site dedicated to translating Japanese public opinion polls into English. If you have time, it’s a great way to gain insight and understanding into some really intriguing subjects of Japanese culture that are rarely discussed openly, much less with people from other countries.
The survey I want to discuss, however, is one that all of us can learn from and use in our daily JET lives: Office Annoyances That You Just Can’t Talk About.
The survey asked over 1,000 Japanese office workers what kind of behaviors they can’t stand in their co-workers, yet do stand, presumably because it’d disrupt the social harmony of the office if they burst out screaming at their neighbor. Reading through the list, I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty at my own office habits.
Especially since I (and may I be so bold as to suggest that a majority of the readers) don’t speak Japanese at a fluent level, I’m sure there are little cues or tones of voice or connotations that I miss during interactions with my co-workers that would offer some clue as to how I could better my office behavior. As such, I loved reading this survey. Hopefully we can all learn a thing or two about how to become better co-workers while we’re in the staff room. You can tell that the questions are geared more for your traditional office setting and not necessarily a school staff room, but overall I think they’re very applicable.
So then. Are you ready to start being a better co-worker? How many of these annoyances do you do on a daily basis? You can find the full survey results here.
Topping the list is the co-worker “who has terrible coughs or sneezes and doesn’t wear a mask.” Yeah, that seems a little rude I suppose, though I’d still advocate for “cover your nose/mouth and wash your hands frequently” over “wear a mask and let ’em rip,” as seems to be the approach in my own staff room.
Interestingly, the next two in line have to do with smell – co-workers who wear too much perfume, or co-workers who smell like an ashtray. Take note! Your fellow teachers have sensitive noses! (Included in the ‘smell’ category is number twenty, “co-worker who eats smelly food like curry or ramen at their desk,” which I am most certainly guilty of.)
Pictured: Something way more adorable than me eating curry at their desk.
Many more of the annoyances had me vigorously nodding my head in agreement, such as “Co-worker who has an unnecessarily loud telephone voice” (HAI! HAI! ARIGATOUGOZAIMASU! HAI!) and “Co-worker who batters their keyboard keys” (I once had someone in a completely silent staff room delete an entire paragraph of text by repeatedly slamming the backspace key, instead of holding the dang thing down or just highlight-deleting it.)
Yet just as often, I caught myself thinking, Oh, crap! I didn’t know people found that annoying! When I read things like “Co-worker who frequently cracks their knuckles, neck, etc.”
Sheesh! Next thing I know, I’ll learn that the “co-worker who stares menacingly at others” makes the list, too!
I hope the survey enables you to be a more hospitable office-mate to your fellow teachers this year, and that you can remember to avoid the things that secretly drive your co-workers crazy.
Daniel is a second-year JET living in Kanazawa. He teaches at a junior high school and enjoys coffee, riding his bike around the city, and hanging out with his wife.
Ishikawa JET 