One of the perks of working at a foreign company is hearing colleagues who have worked elsewhere describe what offices feel like in other countries. Recently I listened to two colleagues: one spent years in Japan, the other worked in the UK. I like both countries, but the workplace atmospheres they described sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Japan: fitting in, staying loyal
I’ve long had a soft spot for Japan. Some of my favorite directors, films, and music come from there, and the travel content I see on social media only adds to the appeal. But the workplace was probably the part I understood least. I’d picked up fragments from books, films, and TV shows, yet it was only after hearing my colleague’s account that I felt I had a rough, more complete picture.
The first thing he described: Japanese companies tend not to want employees with too many personal ideas or too much individual style. In other words, they dislike people who stand out. That may be too broad a generalization—it seems more common in traditional Japanese firms. The ideal employee follows the rules, obeys superiors without question, communicates well with people above and below, and handles interpersonal relationships smoothly. Companies want someone who does their own job well; they don’t need wild, imaginative ideas. The point is to be a good screw in the machine. As a result, Japanese employees’ stress often comes less from KPIs and performance targets than from many other things that are hard to put into words.
The second trait is loyalty. This connects to the first point. My colleague interviewed with several Japanese companies. The early rounds usually went well, but the final rejection often came down to one reason: the interviewer didn’t see that he really wanted to join the company. When I heard that, I was baffled—people get rejected for that? He explained that almost every Japanese company asks in interviews: Why do you want to work here? What attracts you to us? The answer has to sound sincere and eager. My colleague isn’t Japanese and didn’t like that approach, so he didn’t perform much eagerness.
This trait may also be related to Japanese labor law. Contracts often seem to be based on lifetime employment; companies can’t simply let people go. So they want employees to be loyal in return.
I also heard about a service that is apparently common in Japan but would puzzle most Chinese people: agencies that specialize in helping employees resign. Yes—if a Japanese person wants to leave their company, many feel too embarrassed to bring it up, and quitting can be cumbersome. With bad luck, the company may even make things unpleasant. Hence the service. If I remember correctly, it costs around 1,500–2,000 RMB. Once you hire the agency, you don’t have to handle the initial conversation or the paperwork yourself; you just wait for the agency to report back. During that period, the company is not allowed to contact the person resigning directly—I heard that’s stipulated by law.
More recently I listened to a podcast about working in Japan. It mentioned that many senior managers in Japanese companies are people who endured from the Heisei era to now. They may have inherited some of the short-tempered leadership styles of their predecessors, which makes many young people reluctant to work in such companies.
After hearing all this, I can somewhat understand why Japan has produced fewer innovations and fewer emerging star companies in recent years.
The UK: boundaries and bluntness
The colleague who worked in the UK didn’t say as much, but what she described basically matched my stereotype of a typical Western office style.
Take overtime. Because of UK law, people can’t work overtime after hours—they can’t even reply to work messages. I was genuinely envious. I’m not sure whether this is a universal rule, but according to my colleague, if you’re still in the office after hours, even the cleaning lady will shoo you out.
She also gave an example. Once, a colleague’s work wasn’t very good. That person’s boss was an American white man who spoke quite directly, so he told her the work wasn’t acceptable. In a Chinese workplace, that would be fairly ordinary. But the colleague turned around and reported her boss—straight to a formal complaint. To me, that was almost unbelievable. It left me with the impression that workers in the UK are quite well protected.
She also mentioned some downsides and discrimination that foreigners face in the UK. Most people who reach leadership and executive levels are still white; people from other countries find it very hard to climb unless they are truly exceptionally capable. She put it brilliantly: in a Chinese workplace, you may only have to put up with patriarchy; in the UK, you have to put up with patriarchy and racism.
Of course, these are just subjective stories I’ve heard. I don’t have enough examples to understand the full picture—I’m only sharing the parts I found interesting.