昨日読んだ以下の本の感想文です。
This book has pointed out that second-generation baby boomers, what is called “dankai juniors," have been exploited, which leads to the high turnover of young people. The hotbed of this phenomenon seems to be seniority system. Under this system, employees are to be promoted and rewarded on seniority. Basically, seniority system says that you will be rewarded later. On the contrary, merit system gives us simultaneous rewards.
Some people say that seniority system in Japan has died. However, this book argues that seniority system is deep-rooted in our society. Moreover, seniority system has been maintained at the cost of younger generation. For example, many corporations have tried to cut cost or to make a profit by hiring temporary workers. As far as temporary workers concerned, companies don’t have to worry about retirement benefits or fringe benefits.
Undoubtedly, temporary workers provide companies with flexibility and financial stability in a short-term. However, it may bring devastative consequences in the long run. Younger generations, differently from previous counterparts, seem not to climb the corporate ladder, and their salary will be far from satisfactory. Above all, younger employees might not get challenging career under seniority system. In other words, they will continue monotonous jobs forever. Such a gloomy outlook makes younger generation leave their jobs early on.
Of course, merit system can not be a panacea. Both seniority system and merit system have their advantages and drawbacks. On the one hand, seniority system allows us to predict our future life. This predictability provides us with feelings of security and attachments for organizations. On the other hand, merit system is relatively impartial one because people are rewarded on the basis of their performances, irrespective of age, gender, race and so on. Younger employees can receive substantial salary or high position and vice versa. On the down side of merit system is uncertainty for the future. If your skill, knowledge or experience became useless, you might lose your job or would be forced to live with lower salary. Of course, if you are young or adaptable, you will acquire necessary skill or knowledge. However, if you are not so adaptable, your job hunting will be tougher. Unfortunately, the unfairness among the generations is inevitable.
To sum up, all we have to do is to look directly at this problem and to recognize the existence of uncertainty. We cannot predict our future precisely, so one best scenario doesn’t exist. We should prepare several scenarios in accordance with our own situations. The more alternatives or scenarios we have, the less worried about our future.