O-saki ni shitsurei shimasu...

                                                        

Its 8:30pm, and I'm just home from work.

I shook off my suits and slipped into something better.

Finally, I can once again sit down and continue what I've started (and secretly vowed to continue on doing!) last night.

Blogging. 

Most of my japanese colleagues were still at the office when I bid 'sayonara' for the day.

Seems like they'll be staying up late again, as usual, in the office.

They sure seemed to like being cooked up in that office. 

'Osaki ni shiturei shimasu', is the normal greeting when you take leave.

Loosely translated, it means; 'I am going (home earlier than you) now, so please may I be excused?'

To whom did I address this greetings to?

Well, to all of my colleagues, seniors and also the head(s)/manager(s) of my department.

Its as if you're sorry to leave the office so early, that I can't bear myself to think that I would be enjoying some 'private' time while my colleagues are still 'toiling' hard in the office.

So in order to be polite, you ask for permission to be allowed to go back earlier than your superiors.

Some of you might think that its normal, since Japanese people are known to be hardworking, diligent, etc. Thats what we normally hear, read and see on tv, right?

Yes. Before I start working, I once believed in that image too.

But now that I'm part of it, I can now attest that not all of that image is right.

But Japanese people work long hours, don't they?

Yes, they do. Clocking 10 hours/day are my average working hours. 

My japanese colleagues usually clocks an average of 12 to 15 hours/day.

Also, some of them even go to the extent of coming to the office on weekends, because they claimed that they can concentrate better when there are less people moving around, less phone calls to attend to, less meetings to prepare, less paperwork to finish, etc.

Japanese people work long hours, but have anyone talk about the amount of work that the japanese accomplished within those long hours?

You'd be surprised to know that the amount of work that they managed to finish aren't that much. Well, at least thats the image that I had from my colleagues at work.

In plain words, I just don't think that they're productive. (enough)