Category: Hard Work

The compelling force behind my Air Force journey is just one out of the many narratives that discusses one’s humble beginnings, assignment and positions held, brief discussion of notable accomplishments, and values learned. My path to serving the Air Force began as a child who dreamt of becoming a military pilot. Growing up, my parents have always emphasized the importance of education as a ticket to a better life. So when I was a student, I was so determined to finish my studies; however, in 2007, an incident happened that sorely tested my faith and weakened my determination to finish my studies. The situation had urged me to join the profession of arms but my parents did not approve of my hasty decision; instead, they used the undesirable situation to motivate me to pursue my desire of entering the military service either as an enlisted personnel or an officer right after college graduation.

Driven on becoming an Air Force officer, I embarked on a year and three months enduring academic pressure, physical demands, and social isolation. Luckily, my hard work and faith had paid off when I was commissioned into the regular force as a member of PAFROPP Mabalasik Class of 2011. However, my dream of joining the military pilot corps took a nose dive due to medical reasons. Fast forward, I started my military service as a naïve lieutenant holding sensitive posts in the different squadrons of the then 300th AISG. As the Executive Officer of the 301st AISS and 302nd AISS, I take pride in my accomplishments where I was part of the intelligence team that performed intelligence missions focusing on the apprehension of wanted criminals in Batangas area and conducted large scale Marijuana eradication. In 2014, as the Operations Officer of 304th AISS, I was also part of the group that seized bombing paraphernalia and identified Abu Sayyaf supporters in Basilan. In the same year, I took a more challenging task as the Officer-in-Charge of 305th AISS where my team was involved in releasing a kidnapped victim in Marawi and in conducting several case build-up on CPP-NPA Terrorist personalities. My career went to new heights when I was transferred to 520th Air Base Wing. During my stint as Chief, WOC, I managed and supervised the Wing’s daily operations as well as all Command activities in CJVAB. As Training Officer, I took part in programming and conducting appropriate training needed by the personnel in accomplishing the Wing’s mission. In order to maintain discipline, law and order within 520th ABW, I investigated erring personnel as the Wing’s Provost Marshal. And as the Doctrines Officer, I was tasked to formulate and update the doctrines to ensure that they remain relevant to the present set up and needs of the Unit. Little did I know that these experiences have prepared me so well as I take on a new role at the Tactical Operations Group 2 (TOG 2). As the Group’s Deputy Commander, I make immediate decisions on various matters in the absence of my Commander. As the Director for Operations, I plan, manage, and supervise the daily air and ground operations of the TOG 2. Also, as the Director for Intelligence, I provide threat situation to organic and OPCON personnel of the Unit. All of these efforts and accomplishments have been critical in supporting military operations and civilian decision-making.

Having shared the highlights of my Air Force journey, there’s nothing more rewarding than knowing that the values of professionalism has played a huge part in growing maturely in the service. In a nutshell, my journey can be best attributed to my faith and hard work.

Dr. Tetsunojyo Uehara first used the term of ‘過労死 (karoshi)’, and it is defined as ‘death from overwork and stress’. Since the latter half of the 1980s, karojisatsu has also become a social issue in Japan. The occurrence of overwork death is closely related to a country’s unique economic and social conditions, and even the value orientation of the entire society. In the 20th century, the rapid development of Japan’s economy coupled with the general appreciation of the values of loyalty and collective identity, such as Japan’s respect for the spirit of Bushido led to the desperate attitude of corporate workers, which promoted the spread of overwork in Japan. The employee’s sense of self-worth and his position in society as a whole are closely related to the hard work of the company. As a result, frequent voluntary overtime work is commonplace.

After many successful legislation cases and progressively improved legislative proposals, anti-karoshi movement made a notable success in Japanese civil society. On one hand, karoshi has caused people to question the cost of economic growth, the work culture of society, and the balance between work and life. On the other hand, the advancement of karoshi compensation reflects the successful pursuit of worker rights. However, at the same time, it is unclear how much hope that the legislation could guarantee and approaches to solve this problem rely heavily on the pressure from the public. Due to Japan’s unique cultural awareness and values, there is still a long way to go before the overwork problem can be completely dealt with.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the political economy, social culture and employment conditions related to karoshi in Japan, as well as to examine the working culture of Japanese workers and its relation to ‘karoshi’. It is argued that origins of karoshi in Japan are closely linked to the country’s political economic background and work culture in the society; solving this issue requires re-conceptualization in legislation and human rights of workers by enterprises and the entire society; studying overwork problems has international significance as well as the research value of the future trends.

The Origin and Definition of Karoshi

The term karoshi, or death from overwork, dates to the latter half of the 1970s and has been expanded to include severe mental and/or physical deterioration due to overwork. The first case of karoshi was reported in 1969 with the stroke-related death of a 29-year-old male worker in the shipping department of Japan’s largest newspaper company. Awareness of the phenomenon gradually increased and by the late 1980s it was broadly recognized as a serious social issue. The parameters of the government’s definition of karoshi include working 100-plus hours of overtime in the month before their death, or 80 hours of overtime at least two consecutive months during the previous six months.

Dr. Tetsunojo Uehata, who coined the word Karoshi, has defined it as “a permanent disability or death brought on by worsening high blood pressure or arteriosclerosis resulting in diseases of the blood vessels in the brain, such as cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage and cerebral infarction, and acute heart failure and myocardial infarction induced by conditions such as ischemic heart disease (IHD)”. Also, it is a social medical term that applies specifically to workers’ compensation and includes cases of both death and permanent disability. Now the Japanese government tries to stop the phenomenon of overwork death from the formulation of the legal system, the social mechanism, and the education and guidance of people’s ideas and concepts.

The Political and Economic Background of Karoshi

With the continuous economic development process in Japan, ‘karoshi’ problems occur frequently in the public perspectives and social medias and its roots have been traced. After the sudden yen appreciation caused by the 1971 Nixon Shock, the 1973 Oil Crisis, economic growth slowed and production costs rose. Companies continue to prioritize market share, but because of their already small margins of squeeze, they are forced to reduce costs by increasing labor intensity and restructuring. This prompted the largest post-war strike in Japan from 1974 to 1975. In the early 1990s when the economy’s bubble collapsed, overwork culture got worse. During the ‘lost decade’, karoshi reached epidemic proportions; a long recession and an unprecedented number of bankruptcies and layoffs happened as well as deaths in management and professional soared and never recovered. Although most Asian countries were affected by the economic recession of the 1990s, Japan had the largest increase in the suicide rate and continued to have a high rate even following economic recovery. Moreover, the shrinking and aging population in Japan followed means a shortage of labor. Due to the inefficient working culture and the low use of technology, Japan becomes one of the least productive economies. Since the law has not kept up with the rapid expansion of the economy, workers are facing tremendous pressure from companies seeking to maximize profits. Soon after, a series of karoshi cases caused worldwide debate and also forced Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to address the issue.

Basically, Japan’s management system is protected by government policies that allow employers to decide overtime for employees. So, protecting laborers health and maintaining every family’s completion has increasingly become a social problem to be solved.

The Social and Cultural Background of Karoshi

Japan’s culture evolved around loyalty and servitude to the country, and later this culture has translated into the workplace. The Japan Times stated that for centuries, people in Japan have been taught that loyalty is the supreme virtue. In numerous cases, companies that are built upon traditional Japanese values are very concerned with order, structure and power. In addition, companies paid a range of family benefits that cemented the paternal character of employment relations. Nowadays, this loyalty to the organization is often measured by the time spent on work. Aside from loyalty, Takoku McCrann, Ph.D. said in his essay that honor in Japanese culture has been put on a step; so, if a person lost honor, the only one way to preserve it is by killing yourself”. In addition, Japanese attitude toward suicide has always been an obstacle to suicide prevention. For example, suicide has been romanticized in media and literature, in the literary classic ‘Kokoro’ by Soseki Natsume, which is still a staple of school curricula, and that these kinds of portrayals contribute to permissive attitudes towards suicide. The unique cultural outlook makes suicide a glorious and romantic place in Japanese history.

Another cultural factor is that, Japanese people are very self-conscious; they know extremely well what other people think. This perception leads to overwork and stress but moreover, they feel it is their responsibility to satisfy and fit in expectations. The word of Karoshi has come to symbolize Japan’s workaholic society. When facing with excessive overtime, this kind of mentality makes it hard for workers to say “no” or confronts their bosses, or takes the overtime off. In a word, whether from the perspective of corporate culture or the employees themselves, workers are powerless to negotiate their working hours or proper payments in such working culture.

Social Movement Promotes Legislation

After karoshi was identified in the 1970s, medical explanations were elaborated and national compensation for deaths grew. In the late 1970s, veterans of student protests entered this era and institutionalized as the vehicle for a variety of social movements that provide support for individuals and groups. They were fighting extended legal war under the enormous pressures of Japan’s conformist cultural system. And, participating in movement activities, including attendance at court trials, study groups, public protests give us insight into the overall tenor of the movement. So, several well-publicized karoshi cases help to reform the standard of compensation awarded to workers and raise the awareness of widespread overwork. Such as the female Japanese employee Takahashi Matsuri who committed suicide of work-related accident was widely reported by the global media, and her death caused an extreme shock in entire Japanese society. Therefore, it is imperative to call for the strengthening of public intervention for death from overwork. Recognition of karoshi claims by Japanese courts, including the Supreme Court, has gradually expanded the conception of employer’s responsibility to care for workers’ health. Those decisions laid the foundation for subsequent legislative activism. Therefore, these positive changes are made to ensure that workers work for their legal working rights and be able to combat overtime.

According to economist Morioka Koji, Professor at Kansai University and an authority on Japanese working hours and Karoshi, “To create a social problem in Japan, it is necessary to have a death and a trial with lawyers.” In its first white paper on karoshi, the government said one in five employees were at risk of death from overwork. In the year to March 2016, according to the government’s data, more than 2,000 Japanese killed themselves due to work-related stress while dozens of other people died from heart attacks, strokes and other diseases brought on by overtime work. In late March 2017, the government’s ‘Realization of Work Style Reform’ action plan was finalized, and it states that overtime work should be kept under 100 hours in a particular busy month. In other words, the annual overtime limit was is 720 hours, but this does not include work on days off. So, this result is unsatisfactory for the policy allows 960 hours of overtime work per year.

On the one hand, the legislation defines ‘overwork death’ and makes provisions to confirm and measure the labor intensity more comprehensively and accurately. On the other hand, the legislation clearly incorporates ‘overwork death’ into the catalogue of occupational diseases, and solves the problems of the low cost of illegal business. Although all these efforts to legislation reform can bring hope, locate and support afflicted populations, but the current law is weak and remediation only addresses the worst cases, and social intervention strategies against karoshi need to address the more fundamental areas.

Solutions and Suggestions

Unlike their elders, many young Japanese workers want to spend less time working and more time pursuing leisure activities. And many of the victims blamed work stress and decisions made by the management of the company all over the world. To change the current situation, we need a legal system, corporate norms, as well as the government and international support as a joint force. Here are some solutions and suggestions from different perspectives in different areas.

At the enterprise level, it is necessary to focus on business ethics and corporate governance, or seek clues about how to spend less time in the office to increase productivity in countries such as Germany, France and Sweden. Such as working hour’s consultation mechanism, labor quotas and collectively negotiate with worker’s organizations to adapt to the actual conditions of enterprises, and reflect the willing of employees.

From the perspective of the Japanese government and workers’ organizations, all of them should have a consistent approach and work together to make improvements on this issue. The government should pay more attention to and guide more resources, including the revision of labor laws, the strengthening of supervision, inspection of the implementation of working hours and other regulations, and increase the punishment for violations. Industrial trade unions, industry associations, and workers’ organizations shall strengthen the research and formulation of industry and labor standards, and provide basis and guidelines for enterprises to formulate reasonable and regular working hours. Also, cooperate with international organizations and support worker rights and interests at any time.

Global institutions such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) created measures to prevent Karoshi and Karojisatsu; from reducing working hours and excessive work; providing significant medical support and treatment for employees, and to promote dialogue between employees and their employers. This is from the perspective of international and corporate’s management systems. EU nations have policies for ameliorating work-life conflict, but such policies are comparatively lacking in Japan.

Lastly, the public must be involved in changing the work culture, such as recognize their responsibilities through changing consumption habits. In all, it will be the Japanese who have to finally decide to either continue this practice or join the rest of the modern world where we ‘work to live’, not ‘live to work’.

Studying Overwork Has International Significance

Overwork is a common problem in the entire region for a long time, but it will not increase the productivity of countries. And Japan’s experience and countermeasures have given us great inspiration. In the period 1990 and 2012, Peru and the Republic of Korea had the largest average working hours per person engaged, while Greece, Hungary, Japan, and the USA all have large average working hours.16 A study by the labor organization ILO from 2015 talks about 2,3 million people that lost their lives directly in work accidents. Most of them occurred in the global South.17 So, as we can see not only Japan, but also many international cases of overwork, karoshi are racking up. In 2010, 18 Foxconn workers in China attempted suicide; in 2013, an intern at Bank of America in London died after working for 72 hours non-stop; The Strait Times recorded that in 2008-2009, no less than 35 employees of France Telecom or Orange, committed suicide; in 2015, an employee at top Chinese Internet portal Tencent Holdings died suddenly while taking a walk.

Nowadays, karoshi is becoming a global social issue, with more and more serious and grim situation. It needs urgent regulations all over the world while many countries have not been incorporated into the scope of the legal adjustment, due to the lack of legislation. It is significant for us to learn from the experience of Japan, and to include death from overwork into the scope of industrial injury insurance or other protection regulations. For example, Japan drew up the ‘Labor Standards Act’; in 1988, lawyers, doctors, and other experts came together to establish the aid group karoshi Hotline; in 2002, there are two regulations to prevent overwork were enacted; in 2005, the National Institute of Health proposed the establishment of a comprehensive industrial health service program to reduce karoshi and other disease caused by work-related stress in its annual report; in 2016, the Labor Ministry released the first white paper on the risks of death from overwork and preventative guidelines. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare even set up a ‘Labor Standards Supervisor’ to patrol and report on Japanese companies that violate regulations. In contrast to relevant legal protections, China currently has the ‘Work Injury Insurance’, and the pace of follow-up is urgent. With regard to the problem of overworked death in Japan, some international scholars have also conducted research on Japan with a developed employment system in order to consider how to change under the current institutional system in the future. Worth noting that, Japan has provided experience in this regard, whether workers are overworked before death is regarded as an important basis for investigation. So as to make the function of the industrial injury insurance system effectively prevent and contain the phenomenon of death from overwork，and finally achieve the purpose of better protection of the legitimate rights and interests of laborers.

Conclusion

The word ‘karoshi’ originated in Japan, as the first country to experience the phenomenon and the country with more serious dangers; it is also a country with relatively perfect theoretical research and construction. Due to the background of Japanese political economy, social culture and work culture, Japan’s current priority is global competitiveness, which will possibly slow down the improvement of employment practices and professional ethics. Although a series of measures were introduced politically and legally, these measures do not seem to work well in Japan. Approaches applied by the government to solve this problem are rather weak or rely heavily on the pressure from the public and the international community.

However, it is undeniable that there is great significance to study this field, not only for the development of Japanese society but also a plan for the other countries in the future. In particular, Japan’s efforts in legislation over overwork are ahead of schedule when comparing with other Asian countries. With the definition of overwork death is continually clear, the standard of identification is gradually refined, and even the frequency of travel and the working environment are included. The protection of workers by law stays both at the economic level and the height of life. This is meaningful for many countries that are still insufficient in labor legislation.

To properly handle ‘overwork death’ means to find the ways of the measures for preventive ways beforehand and the after-the-fact relief methods when it occurs. It is important to give workers perfect social security through companies, industrial trade unions, government and international community work together to achieve the purpose of ‘work to live’, and to get better protection of the legitimate rights and interests of laborers.

References

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2. T. Uehata, A Medical Study of Karoshi, in, National Defense Counsel for Victims of Karoshi, KAROSHI, Madosha, Tokyo 1990, p. 98.
3. Iwasaki, K., Takahashi, M. and Nakata, A. 2006 Health problems due to long working hours in Japan: Working hours, workers’ compensation (karoshi), and preventive measures, Industrial Health, 44(4), pp. 537–540.
4. Morioka, Koji. 2013. Karōshi wa nani o kokuhatsu shite iru ka. Gendai Nihon no kigyō to rōdō [Karoshi as an indictment of corporations and work in Japan today]. Tokyo: Iwanami Gendai Bunkō.
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9. McCrann, Tokaku. Shame, Honor and Duty. Most Honorable Son. Pbs.org. 2017.
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11. Kato, Tetsuro, 1994. The Political Economy of Japanese Karoshi (Death from Overwork), Hitotsubashi journal of social studies, 26(1994): 41-54.
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Constituted as an ideal, favorable way of living, the American Dream is achieved through hard work and dedication. Yet, some take diligence and dedication to hard work to an extreme causing them an unhealthy relationship between themselves and their occupation. As Clausen claims, dedication to one’s work proves disadvantageous and creates conflict with other aspects of life, causing one to devalue the treasures that lie within.

The working lifestyle of Americans has dramatically changed over the years, causing conflict with personal lives. While technology has progressed the lives of Americans taking work that was originally inside the home to outside of the home, industrialization, Americans currently work longer hours than in any other time period in history and they work longer hours than workers in other developed nations. The International Labour Organization stated that Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers and 499 more hours per year than French workers (Miller). As this has proven advantageous for the country seeing that the average productivity per American worker has increased 400% since 1950, this has proven negative for American workers and their families by challenging their work-life balance (Miller). Working longer hours causes Americans to spend less time with their families. Parents who work, generally overwork themselves, spend less time with their children in comparison to previous years: “In 1960, only 20% of mothers worked and currently (as of 2018) 70% of children live in households where all the adults are employed” (Miller). There is nothing wrong with women working outside of the home, it is just that now children have less interaction with their parents, especially their mothers and as society has designed it, children generally spend more time with their mothers. The decrease, or rather, lack of familial interaction opens doors for children to find other ways of interaction and entertainment some of which may be harmful or inappropriate. This search for interaction also decreases the filial bond. As a result of a weakened familial relationship, children will lose not only an appreciation for the idea of family and but also an appreciation for their own personal family. Parents who have now primarily become workaholics will lose an appreciation for their families as well. Therefore, American workers who are parents must now work towards rebuilding the filial bond and familial relationships turning family back into something that should be cherished and loved.

Other nations, especially those in the industrialized world, have taken the effort to develop legislation that will reduce work hours in an attempt to decrease intrusion on a worker’s personal life. For example, France has mandated that all employers give employees 30 working days of paid vacation and 1 day of paid holiday (Smurthwaite). The United States government has no mandated legislation requiring employers to give employees a specific amount of paid vacation days (Miller). Instead, workers take on heavy workloads because they think that it means that they are dedicated to their work in which they will only be left feeling stressed and overwhelmed. In addition to this, companies demand an extenuating amount labor from employees which doesn’t lessen their burdens. For some employees, especially those who are parents or the main caretaker of family members who require special attention, this culminates their stress making them less productive and leaving them irritable which could be transferred to those around them, damaging their personal relationships. This displays that American workers are well-deserving of a vacation. Yet, American workers don’t ask for vacation (paid or not) or those who are blessed with generous employers don’t utilized their paid vacation because they feel that they have too many assignments/deadlines to complete or that if they do take a vacation then there will be loads of work waiting for them when they return. In a survey conducted in 2017 with 7,331 full-time employees, these employees had 662 million vacation days unused (Smurthwaite). Moreover, when Americans employees do take vacations, they find it hard to disconnect themselves from work, turning a relaxing vacation into a time of answering work-related phone calls and emails and removes vacation from the category of treasures. This transforms their relaxing vacation meant to reduce stress levels into a work environment (work away from work) that increases stress levels, depriving employees the opportunity to enjoy their vacation. In addition, stress weakens the immune system making workers susceptible to illness in which they will eventually fall sick and land in the hospital where they will be forced to a vacation.

Contemporary American society calls for one to work as it has now become man’s natural tendency. By doing so, one obtains and sustains a livelihood and chooses a job that they cherish becoming devoted to the occupation. Yet, the devotion may turn them into a workaholic damaging other aspects of their life. Therefore, dedication to one’s work can be misconstrued into overworking oneself which is detrimental to themselves, their families, and eventually their community and limits them from happily experiencing the joys of life.

If a man shrinks then the nation will be known for its weakness, but if he strives then the nation will be known for its glory. Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States and in 1899, he gave his famous speech ‘The Strenuous Life’. This speech was a collection of Roosevelt’s works and experiences. It talks about how he thinks that for America to overcome any difficulty and compete against any other country; the citizens must work hard and give their full potential. He believed that for people to have success, then they must work hard for it. In those times, Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico were colonies of the United States. For that reason, he wanted to make America look stronger by implying more work on the navy. According to Mr. Roosevelt, civic duty is to show that people are strong and want to work to improve themselves and the nation; through the work of intense hours, people get success and the nation will be strong enough to compete against any challenging task.

Thanks to the hard work of someone’s father or grandfather, they will be benefited and life will be much easier for them. They can be freed of any type of work because of the extra time his ancestors put in; it’s accumulative. For example, since the ancestors have worked so much, they are more than wealthy enough to stop working for some time. To take full advantage of this ‘freedom’, someone must work a bit so that they don’t waste it. “The freedom thus purchased is used aright and the man still does work; then he shows he deserves his good fortune”, admitted Mr. Roosevelt. If he doesn’t take care of this freedom and doesn’t use it correctly; such as using it as a time for not training, and more for a time to have fun. Then that person is showing he doesn’t deserve all the hard work his ancestors did, and he is wasting it; like Roosevelt said; “Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there have been stored up effort in the past”. The fellow ancestors of a person did their civic duty, and work a lot to get that person to where he is right now. Thanks to them, he doesn’t need to worry about being economically good; but that doesn’t give him the freedom of not doing anything. Nothing worth having come easily.

United States must complete one of the greatest task modern civilization has ever seen, the Panama Canal that will connect the oceans of the East, and the West. This will help the nation’s growth. If they step in to do the work, then they must; otherwise, it will bring infamy to the country. It will be completed by a manlier and considered ‘greater’ country; while the USA will be known as weaklings. “The work must be done…glad of the chance to show ourselves equal to one of the great tasks set modern civilization”. Giving up is synonym of failure, but to always continue trying is synonym of perseverance; a quality only the most admired nations have. They will be remembered for doing one of the most impressive men’s work.

People must do whatever they can to fulfill their nations full potential. It depends on them how they want people to see their nations. If they are lazy, non-working civilians, then their country won’t be able to continue growing; but if they work for a better future, work for a better nation, then they can hope that their country and life will prosper. Theodore Roosevelt shows it with an example of the past; “if twenty years ago, we had gone to war, we should have found the navy as absolutely unprepared as the army…the navy was gradually built up….and, it leaped its proper place as one of the most formidable navies in the entire world”. Lazy people tend to live a life that has no value at all; since at the end, they have no achievements. That’s why working hard makes you feel satisfaction; since you had felt like you had a purpose, and you got to fulfill it and help the nation be where it stands right now.

Nothing in this life is insured. Everything is achieved through hard work. The motivation of any individual is success, and to earn that success they must work for it. The work of any individual will also affect the success of any nation. A nation with good, hardworking people, most of the time, strive and get to be considered as one of the most important countries. Big nations, such as the United States, are considered important because of their history of men working hard. They got to rebuild their poor and ineffective navy and transformed it into one of the most powerful ones. A peaceful and ease history only shows that the country is a weakling and can’t fight any war; but because of all the wars and life lost by the US, they are considered as, how Theodore Roosevelt rightfully said, a “helmeted queen among nations”.

Over the pass of time, many people were whining about their work and benefit. They said they could work 8 hours long but they could never really succeed remaining stuck in the same position during years or maybe during a lifetime. Well, I will argue that the key to success does not only depends on hard work but on luck, constance, perseverance and contacts.

To start with, luck is a very important point to one’s success however one thing doesn’t replace the other. People can’t have luck without working hard because after the hard work and giving the best of them, in the wait for the results is where luck comes in to play its role. Everyone can work hard that is why people have to lead to influence luck. You influence your luck when you show up in places that are luckier, when you spendtime with people who are luckier, when you learn ideas that produce luck, when you get crystal clear on your vision and when you begin having lucky conversations. Given the choice of talking to someone who’s convinced there are no opportunities out there, or talking to someone who’s enthusing about an exciting future, I’d talk to the person with an inspired outlook. It’s luckier. I have shown you that luck is really on people’s hands, and its ready to help if it is seek rightfully.

Secondly, another attribute that influences success is constancy and perseverance. Route to success can be carved only with a genuine purpose and with that purpose people can stay faithful to their objectives and therefore succeed. Success is a muddled road with various ups and downs, and you should navigate it with care. You might fall or get lost in your way. However, if you keep going, you will eventually reach your destination. That idea of keep fighting knowing that the purpose is worth it even though it may not result at the first shot, that is perseverance and constancy. For example, Albert Einstein, who did not start well in life ended up being one of the most important people in history because he believed in his ideas and did not give up.

Lastly, having contacts may help hugely in one’s development and success. People achieve much faster their career goals putting their selves out in the marketplace and meet prospective partners/employers. If people want to make a connection with a new contact, especially a very busy one, the quickest way is to arouse that person’s curiosity with something unexpected. That doesn’t mean you should only reach out to contacts or do things for them when you expect something in return. You can’t operate with the thought of reciprocity in mind. Be generous and people will return the favor eventually. Also, contacts can lead you to expanding your ideas and share with new people that can be really helpful in the development of one’s purpose.

Taking everything into account, we can clearly see that hard work is not the only thing needed to achieve something in life. Success is reach through many different efforts and work techniques such as luck, constancy, perseverance and contacts.

Talent is an inborn pleasant that that offers us a clever way to gain success. Talent is useless till we work difficult for it. One has to never sit down on a sofa and assume a correct result. Just due to the fact one has intelligence it would not mean that it can reap success immediately. Hard work can defeat intelligence if Genius fails to work hard.

Hard work is the key to success. Hard work has usually been the baseline of achievements. Hard work is inserting as much effort as feasible to reap a desired goal. Only a purposeful and inclined man or woman will have the guts to work hard and come through all the troubles, difficulties, and limitations that will come between his goals.

Hard work capacity more than talent due to the fact working for something that you choose indicates how badly you choose it and how dedicated you are toward it. Some people believe that challenging work is the sole key to success.

They are right, one who works tough will obtain their preferred goal because no brain without practice can beat difficult work. Though they do not possess any herbal talent by working hard they can obtain success. Dedication and motivation are the keys to success. There is no substitute for challenging work.

On the other hand, some humans accept as true that Genius is an innate capability and a distinctive plausible that a man or woman possesses to attain success in life. Generally, a man or woman who has intelligence can be examined easily.

Talent has an extra price for the gifted character due to the fact it can assist them in pursuing their profession. So intelligence barring challenging work is pretty much useless. When Genius and tough work come together they can acquire outstanding success in life. In conclusion, having a brain would not suggest that you don’t need to work hard.

No one is perfect and there is something that a character wants to work challenging to succeed. A hard-working character has to possess a never-provided mindset and overcome all the barriers that come their way.

Therefore we usually attempt to use our talent and hard work systematically to get better results. If you are no longer inclined to put effort and work tough on your brain then intelligence is useless. Hard work can beat Genius any day.

The rising cost of education has been a cause of concern for many policy-makers in the United States because many school graduates find it extremely difficult to pay their tuition fees in college. One of the possible strategies is to invest more money into the education system.

This argument is challenged by David Levy in his article Do college professors work hard enough? This author argues that educational institutions should reevaluate their employment policies, especially regarding the compensation paid to the faculty. This paper will examine the main points that this author makes and identify the strengths and weaknesses of these claims.

In his article, David Levy discusses the compensation policies of colleges and universities in the United States. He points out that in the past the wages of professors were lower than the compensation of comparably educated workers. However, this trend changed in the seventies when people began to attach more importance to education as a way of climbing social ladder and achieving prosperity.

As a result of this tendency, the cost of tuition began to rise as well as the salaries of professors. In David Levy’s view, the current level of compensation is not justified since it does not reflect the performance of educators. In order to elaborate this claim, he first compares the working hours of college professors against the schedule of other well-paid professionals who are employed in non-academic areas.

In particular, he says that these middle-class employees normally spend at least 2,000 at work per every year. In contrast, educators usually work at most 450 hours per year. The author acknowledges that there are professors who work in research universities. In his opinion, these people greatly contribute to intellectual and technological progress of the United States.

Moreover, he admits that they can work even more than many non-academic employees. Instead, he pays more attention to people who are engaged only in teaching. One of his arguments is that these educators do not actually work 40 hours a week, even if one assumes that they spend time on teaching, preparation for classes, and grading of students’ work.

This is one of the main points that he makes. Overall, David Levy argues that the compensation of college professors should be determined according to their workload. In this way, academic administrators will be able to reduce the cost of education and eventually decrease the cost of tuition. Therefore, more school graduates will be able to get access to education.

As it has been said before, David Levy does not support the idea that the government should invest more public money in educational institutions. In his opinion, such an approach does not improve the inefficiencies of academic organizations, and these policies will not make education more accessible to school graduates. This is why the author advocates the necessity of workload reform that should be at least considered by academic institutions.

The arguments expressed by David Levy should be examined in more detail. In his article, he focuses on quantitative aspects of college professors’ work, especially the hours that they dedicate to teaching, grading, and preparation for classes.

Yet, the writer does not mention that these people also have to be engaged in life-long learning. For instance, they have to spend much time on reading new books, articles or reports that are related to their discipline. In some cases, they have to do it during vacations or sabbaticals. Without these activities, professors will not be able to offer new ideas to students.

The same class taught by a good college professor may differ significantly from one year to another. This aspect of college professors’ performance is not discussed by David Levy in his article. Secondly, one should note that in many universities, students are able to assess their courses. Therefore, these professionals have to compete with one another, especially if they do not have tenure. Moreover, educational institutions have to offer them competitive salaries.

Additionally, the strategies suggested by David Levy are based on the premise that colleges and universities will be willing to adopt new employment and compensation policies. However, these organizations differ in terms of their size, the number of students and endowment.

Some of them may afford to pay higher salaries to professors. If some educational institutions choose to reduce the compensation of professors, many of these teachers may decide to work in universities where they can earn a higher salary. Therefore, many colleges and universities will not be able to recruit the best professors as well as students who attach importance to the quality of education and the competence of their teachers.

These are the main limitations of David Levy’s argument. His views may be considered, but one should look more closely at the implementation of the plan. Nevertheless, one can definitely accept the premise that colleges should find ways of reducing their costs; otherwise education will become more and more inaccessible to students.

Overall, the performance of college professors may be very difficult to evaluate according to the standards, applied to non-academic professionals. Their work should not be reduced only to quantitative aspects. However, colleges should find ways of reducing their costs, because this problem cannot be resolved only with the help of public money.

William H. Peace worked at Dictus Consulting as an independent consultant of management when he wrote this article. The article “The Hard Work of Being a Soft Manager” was written in 1991, but the conclusions the author of the article do remain up-to-date now.

The article under consideration represents the reader with the work of Soft Manager, his responsibilities and obligations, the difficulties which occur in the work of Soft Manager. The author starts the article with the definition of what the notion “Soft Management” means. We get to know that Soft management is not so simple a job as it could be imagined. Soft manager “takes the heat for difficult decision and give unhappy subordinates a chance to unburden themselves at their expense” (Peace).

The author tells about his personal experience as the Soft Manager in the article. The given examples, the Piece’s stories told by him, help the reader to understand the idea of Soft Managing deeper.

The first story is about lay-offs when Peace worked as a manager of the Synthetic Fuels Division of Westinghouse. There were some problems and the company had to discharge people on grounds of staff reduction The example represents the reader with Peace’s desire to meet all the employees and tell them the bad news. Peace wanted to tell the true financial position of the company and to allow everybody to ask him why they were discharged, to give people the opportunity to show their anger and disagreement to their employers.

The very work under the lay-off list was hard, and the meeting with those people worse. When all was done, Piece recollected in his mind the reaction of discharged people for a long time. But Piece was sure that it was important to tell that news personally.

When the time passed and the company was able to hire new people, Peace turned to those employees who were discharged, and they returned. Some of them even gave up their jobs. So, Pease understood that personal communication is very important in the work of a Soft Manager.

The author gives the example of his boss, Gene Cattabiani, who gained some success in his sphere with the help of his ability to get along with people. During his work, the union was organized, which “represented the entire hourly workforce” (Peace). This union was very unfriendly and refused to come into negotiations when the time dictated some conditions, the costs should have been cut. Gene decided to provide a strategy of respect, honesty, and openness. Lots of people did not believe in that strategy, but it worked.

So, the author concludes that openness and vulnerability should be the essential parts of the character features of the Soft Manager. He emphasizes that not all people could accept vulnerability as part of their character and tried to get rid of this feature. Peace thought that absolute control and complete charge of the situation could be very uncomfortable in the communication with people.

Peace had a great experience of communicating with people and knew for sure that the ability to listen to the opponent’s arguments and complaints, the understanding is much better than total control within the relations between employees and employers. Personal qualities are very important in the work of a Soft Manager.

Works Cited

Peace, William H. “The Hard Work of Being a Soft Manager”.