[Clueless, Bad Companies] I Don't Want to Go to the Year-End Party! This Isn't the Showa Era — How Long Will It Go On?? [All Harm and No Good]

We're now in the middle of December, a month known as "Shiwasu" (the month when even teachers run).

When this "Shiwasu" comes, whether or not they truly have to be busy, Japanese people get busy as a conditioned reflex.

The world is moving ahead with digital transformation, and efficiency is improving.

Even so, do the Japanese still have to spend a December that wears them out?

Aren't we doing even things we don't need to do?

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Let's abolish year-end parties nationwide

One of the reasons December is so busy is an event that many Japanese companies love to hold: the "bonenkai" (year-end party).

Even in these times of Reiwa, it is still held as if it were a given, but isn't it about time we abolished it?

It's obvious that it's better not to do it

I can't think of a more pointless event—who does it even benefit?—so let me list the reasons.

Nobody wants to go

People who want to go are the minority.

That alone is reason enough not to hold a year-end party.

Source: 80% say "honestly, I don't want to go" to the company year-end party — the true feelings of modern people

The voices of people who don't want to go include "being pressured to drink," "being made to perform something," "it costs money," "having to be considerate even outside working hours," "a waste of time" and so on.

But these reasons aren't new opinions at all; they've hardly changed for ages.

And yet the parties are still going on as usual...

What's more, the companies that say things like "customer first..." are often the ones where forcing people to attend year-end parties is accepted practice. A company that can't read the room can't possibly provide good service, and I can hardly believe it will survive going forward...

Other harmful effects of alcohol include "sexual harassment" and "annoying drunks".

Simply being "unsightly" is more than enough of a drawback, too.

Employees, especially the organizers, get worn out

Being made to organize the party is, for an employee, like a call-up notice (the "red paper" draft notice).

It would be one thing if it were just booking a venue for a drinking party, but you are also asked for weird performances and considerations just to please the executives.

For the person in question it is nothing but terror, and it creates no value for the company, let alone for this country's economy.

Will putting that employee through terror make them more engaged with the company and perform better from now on?

It definitely won't.

Occasionally someone claims something like "Organizing drinking parties raises your business skills!", but you could simply give them more experience in their everyday work.

Why force such a roundabout thing?

And it's not just the employee made to organize it who suffers; the other employees who usually work on that person's team are inconvenienced too.

Exhaustion is contagious.

Oh, and by the way, if there's an employee who gets strangely fired up for these kinds of events, there's a high chance their everyday work performance is terrible.

Have them leave the company right away.

Most companies hold them at the same time, which is draining

The phrase "year-end party season" itself is packed with the causes of exhaustion.

You could just as well hold it in November, or in February after the new year (Lunar New Year). Why keep doing it every year at a time you know will be crowded...

Incidentally, the restaurants that host year-end parties also get caught up in the exhaustion of "year-end party season," and I have one proposal. That is, "During year-end party season, jack up all prices (double every amount or more)".

This should push companies to shift the timing, and companies without money to consider, "Shall we abolish the year-end party?"

It adds insult to injury in a needlessly busy December

I think it's fine to spend December idly, but most Japanese companies build in tasks so that they have to be busy every December.

And, as if to add insult to injury, they add the unnecessary task called the year-end party.

"If you can't commit to either the work or the year-end party, why not quit both?" is what I think...

In the first place, if December is busy, you should scrutinize how productive December's tasks are. When you actually scrutinize them, they often turn out to be almost all low-value tasks.

For example, going to hand calendars to business partners for "year-end greetings..." (calendars, in this day and age?).

Attending business partners' year-end parties is also unnecessary. You're clearly going there to wreck your health.

"No, there's meaning in going to a business partner's year-end party!" If you say that, there is more than enough room to consider whether you could build a good relationship in other ways, or whether they are even worth continuing to do business with.

By the way, things like "big year-end cleaning" are also unnecessary. If you keep things perfectly clean every day, there should be no need for a big cleaning.

The day after the year-end party, it's work as usual from the morning

It's a common story.

Not just year-end parties — company drinking parties come with the super-drawback of "being forced to work the next day in your worst possible condition".

It's true for me as well: just drinking until late the night before definitely lowers my work performance the next day.

...How are you supposed to work properly from the next morning like this?

It's like being forced, the night before, to lay the groundwork for the worst possible performance the next day.

Summary

Having written all this, it strikes me again that year-end parties really are pointless.

There are problems that urgently need solving, like responding to digital transformation and labor shortages at small businesses, and yet year-end parties are not only "wanted by nobody," but also "a waste of money," "a waste of time," and "a staggering drop in employees' productivity the next day."

In this situation, we can't afford year-end parties that are all drawbacks.

If you hold a gathering with the original meaning of "gratitude for wrapping up the year" and "resolve to do our best next year,"

Mazrica Inc. holds "remote drinking parties." The workplace already allowed full remote work and held its meetings on the web, so they reportedly tried it for drinking parties too. The company cites advantages such as "being able to communicate without being tied to a place," "no burden of choosing a venue or traveling," "no worry about the last train," and "low cost."

On this, Mr. Shioda commented, "A friend's company was doing it and said it was incredibly effective. You can drink and have fun, and switch off when you get sleepy."

Quoted from: Kendo Kobayashi: "TV shows' year-end parties are decreasing too" — Businesspeople's "drift away from year-end parties" and the ideal drinking party (AbemaTIMES)