March 20, 2024: Corporate Culture （会社の文化）

My wife has been working for various types of companies for a long time. Sometimes, she has worked as a regular worker, but sometimes, as a part-time one. She is now in her sixties, but she still works for a company as a part-time worker.
When she begins to work for a new company, she needs time to get used to the way of the company. Each has its own culture. In other words, each has its own character, just as each person has their own. In many of the companies she has worked for, one day, she found that the two companies had completely opposite characters. One was a company with its head office in the North Kanto area in Japan. She was working for the company's branch, most of which the workers come from the region around the head office. They spoke in their dialect, so she needed time to get used to it. She also found that they were not straightforward with each other. Even when one of them had a gripe about something a colleague had done, he or she did not tell it to the colleague directly. Instead, behind the colleague's back, he or she complained about it to other colleagues. The way they did looked unfair in the eyes of my wife.
But she found the opposite character in another company with the head office in Osaka. She was surprised to see that the workers were straightforward and direct with each other. Whenever they had something that did not satisfy them, they told it to the other person directly and asked him or her to correct it. And that, they communicated in the Kansai dialect. When she saw the scene for the first time, it was a big surprise for her because she had never seen such a straight communication before. But as she got used to such straight communication, she learned how to communicate with them and felt comfortable in the way to communicate.
The company in Osaka seemed to fit her personality, and she enjoyed her working life at the company very much.

　妻は長い間、いろいろな会社で働いてきました。時には正社員として、時にはパートとして働いてきました。60歳を過ぎた今も、パートタイマーとして働いています。
　妻が新しい会社で働き始めると、その会社のやり方に慣れるのに時間がかかります。どの会社も独自の文化があるからです。人に個性があるように、各社も独自の個性を持っていました。その中で、ある日、２社の文化が正反対だったことに気付きました。ひとつは本社が北関東にある会社です。妻はその会社の支店で働いていました。支店の大半は、本社がある地域の出身で、会話がその地域の方言だったため、それに慣れるのに時間がかかりました。また、支店内のコミュニケーションは率直ではありませんでした。同僚がしたことに不満があっても、そのことを直接、その同僚には言わず、同僚に隠れて他の同僚に文句を言っていたそうです。妻にはそれがとても不公平に見えたようです。
　一方、大阪に本社がある会社の文化は正反対でした。妻は、職場の人がとても率直だったのに驚いていました。納得できないことがあれば、それを直接相手に伝え、直してもらっていたのです。しかも、関西弁でコミュニケーションをしていたのです。東京近郊出身の妻がそのシーンを初めて見た時は、驚いたようです。そんなストレートなコミュニケーションのやり方を見たことがなかったからです。でも、そんなコミュニケーションに慣れていくうちに、やり方を学び、これが心地よく感じられるようになったそうです。　
　大阪の会社は妻の性格に合っていたようで、その会社での生活をとても楽しんでいました。