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Series: Tackling Work-Life Balance (15) Approaches to a comfortable working environment

Series: Challenging work–life balance! #15
Approaches to a comfortable working environment

Susumu Nemoto
Manager of IT Strategies Division (for work support systems)
and Academic Advising Office (for work support)

▲Group photo at WPO (the writer is fourth from right)

▲Group photo at WPO (the writer is fourth from right)

Although I myself do not particularly feel I am “taking on the challenge of work-life balance,” I’ve been looking back over the past and considering how I have been involved in my own work-life balance and that of people around me, and am taking this opportunity to write on the subject here.

In the Faculty Office where I worked until 2006, and especially from 2002 onward, late-night overtime work and even all-night work was common. Work and knowhow tended to be centered on specific staff members. After I left the Faculty Office because of a personnel reshuffle, I started to engage in a project, called the Educational and Administrative Work Support Promotion Project, to improve situations like that of the Faculty Office on a university-wide basis starting in 2007. I consolidated data settings and processing related to educational work conducted at each Faculty Office at the Academic Advising Office (known in Japanese as the Waseda Portal Office, referred to below as “the WPO”), to promote thorough standardization of work procedures and documentation of knowhow, aiming to establish a permanent, university-wide educational administrative work support system based around the WPO. The project aims to create a system where office work is handled on an organizational basis, not an individual one, to improve the existing situation where too much work responsibility is placed on individuals.

Although I myself do not particularly feel I am “taking on the challenge of work-life balance,” I’ve been looking back over the past and considering how I have been involved in my own work-life balance and that of people around me, and am taking this opportunity to write on the subject here.
In the Faculty Office where I worked until 2006, and especially from 2002 onward, late-night overtime work and even all-night work was common. Work and knowhow tended to be centered on specific staff members. After I left the Faculty Office because of a personnel reshuffle, I started to engage in a project, called the Educational and Administrative Work Support Promotion Project, to improve situations like that of the Faculty Office on a university-wide basis starting in 2007. I consolidated data settings and processing related to educational work conducted at each Faculty Office at the Academic Advising Office (known in Japanese as the Waseda Portal Office, referred to below as “the WPO”), to promote thorough standardization of work procedures and documentation of knowhow, aiming to establish a permanent, university-wide educational administrative work support system based around the WPO. The project aims to create a system where office work is handled on an organizational basis, not an individual one, to improve the existing situation where too much work responsibility is placed on individuals.

It is easy to say that we should centralize and standardize work, and promote optimum work procedures, but considerable energy and determination are required to actually achieve this. In order to change other people’s ways of working, it is important to approach them considerately and think together about what should be done next. We also need patience and passion, and to be scrupulous about tackling each task, rather than simply upholding lofty ideals. I realized that the organization would never change unless I humbly listened to, observed, and imagined each individual’s ideas and circumstances. After I started implementing this project, a university-wide educational administrative work support system was created, we saw increased stability in Faculty Offices, and as a result I found overtime work drastically decreased.
I believed that if we prevented situations where too much work responsibility is placed on individuals, and carried out the project with determination, work-life balance would be improved. When trying to change something while continuing to carry out our existing duties, instead of initiating something simply because we believe it to be ideal, we must make solid plans that can be carried out continuously and become firmly established, even if the person in charge changes in the future. Otherwise, current work may be disrupted or overtime work may increase when the person in charge changes. To prevent this, I think it is important to do what I can do, steadily and rigorously, to apply to the organization what I hear from people about their situations and feelings.
In carrying out regular work duties, it is essential to understand and accept other people’s situations. Currently, about half of the employees in my workplace (the WPO) take childcare leave or childcare time. Everyone has to ask for others’ help at certain times, for various reasons besides childcare as well. Basically, everyone should do what they can do when they can do it, genuinely express gratitude for help from others, have mutual respect for one another’s situations, and make efforts together without getting hung up on individual status. When people have limited working time, I ask them to work as hard as they can, even to take on other people’s work when possible. I feel the atmosphere in the workplace is positive, primarily due to each employee’s individual qualities, although I cannot say I am supremely confident about my leadership skills as a manager.

Since workloads at the WPO and Faculty Office stabilized, I have been able to spend more time maintaining my physical health and associating with junior members of an extracurricular club from my school days, in addition to doing other work, thanks to having more energy than when I started the project.
In recent years, people have become less tolerant of others’ mistakes. Not only the parties directly involved but also third parties are required to address errors, and this increases workload and complicates issues, meaning that in Faculty Offices we are often forced to go into defensive mode. Under these circumstances, I would like to establish an organization where people can work together comfortably in the future, keeping in mind that I am lucky to be a full-time faculty member. What goes around, comes around, hopefully in a positive way.

▲With junior members (students) at home

▲With junior members (students) at home

– Profile: Graduated from School of Human Sciences, Waseda University. From 1994, full-time administrator. Until 1998, mainly in charge of educational administrative work at School of Social Sciences. From 1998 to 2006, primarily in charge of educational administrative work at the School of Law, then in charge of administering the entrance examination at the Graduate School of Law. From 2006 to 2008, mainly engaged in maintenance of classrooms and training for new employees at the Media Network Center (now the IT Strategies Division). From 2008 to 2015, Chief Executive for overall administration, improvement of the university-wide office work support system, and Student Participatory Projects (Professionals Workshop and Kohai Navi (navigation for junior members)) as Academic Advising Office (WPO) Manager. From 2015, member of the IT Strategies Division and Academic Advising Office.

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