世論 What Japan Thinks

Just in case you, like me, cannot relate to many of the people in your office, here’s some tips from goo Ranking, where they asked members of the goo Research monitor panel on how to improve relations with your workmates.

Demographics

Bewteen the 22nd and 25th of January 2008 1,126 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample was female, 3.6% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 35.1% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

For me, 1 is difficult as there is the issue of not having a common background, and sometimes trying to communicate is a strain; 2 is a non-starter as there aer few veggie options at our staff canteen, and all of them have the manners of peasants – slurping is the Japanese way, granted, but speaking with your mouth full and shovelling food into your gob is just too much for me to cope with; for 3, my wife is far better company and all they do is talk about work or colleagues that I don’t know; 4, baby stories bore me; 5 I try to do; and for 6 I don’t understand their complaints as we have mutually alien concepts of what work really is. 7 is probably a bad translation…

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the spelling in the headline…

Ranking results

Q: What is the best way to improve relations with your workmates? (Sample size=1,126)

Rank		Score
1	Talk to them frequently	100
2	Go to lunch together	69.6
3	Go out drinking with them	65.4
4	Share private life topics (hobbies, family, etc)	63.7
5	Praise your co-workers	60.7
6	Listen to their complaints	58.8
7	Work as part of the same team	55.1
8	Ask after people who are off sick	40.5
9	Pass them souvenirs from business trips, holidays	36.9
10	Hand out sweeties	26.6