The End of the 'Salary Man?'
VIEW EVENT DETAILSChanging Work Ethics in Asia
White-collar employees in Asia, and especially Japan, have for years been known as ‘salary men’: people who spend an entire career at one company and don’t ever go home before the boss does. But that archetypical office worker may become a thing of the past. In various Asian countries, a rethink of the approach to work is underway. The pandemic seems to have put this process on steroids.
Companies and governments are cautiously testing the idea of a four-day workweek, as notoriously long working hours take a toll on staff, with little to show in terms of productivity.
Employees have fundamentally changed expectations of what they want to get out of their jobs, demanding a better work/life balance. Meanwhile, investors are paying more attention to how companies handle their employees, as research in Japan has shown that a happy workforce leads to increased earnings.
In this webcast, co-hosted by Asia Society Switzerland and The Adecco Group, we’ll ask if the ‘salary man’, is out for good.
What kind of employee is replacing them? Are companies in the region willing to allow working from home, at flexible hours, to continue? Will these changes persist, even when an economic slowdown reverses the current dynamics of the labor market?
We’ll talk about all this with Ian Lee, Regional President Asia Pacific at The Adecco Group, and sociologist Nilanjan Raghunath, assistant professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design and author of Shaping the Futures of Work: The Power of Collaboration in Times of Disruption.
About Our Speakers
Ian Lee is Regional President Asia Pacific at The Adecco. A Singapore national, Ian started his career in 1990 with Procter & Gamble, working for the organization in the U.S. and Asia for 13 years. Before joining the Adecco Group in September 2017, Ian spent 14 years with the Whirlpool Corporation, holding various positions including VP of Corporate Affairs & Business Development Asia, VP of Asia North, VP and General Manager of China, and VP and CFO of Asia Pacific. Ian obtained his BSc with Honours in Finance in1989, graduating Magna cum Laude, from the Indiana University, Kelley School of Business. He went on to complete his MBA in Finance at the same university in 1990.
Nilanjan Raghunath is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Singapore University of Technology and Design. Her latest book is Shaping the Futures of Work: Proactive Governance and Millennials, published in 2021.
Her research interests include Sociology of Work and Social Stratification in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Within these major fields of Sociology, she has written about topics such as Millennial Workforce, Collaborative Teams and Skilled Migration. She teaches Digital Sociology, Shaping Futures and Sociology of Social Networks and Social Capital.
She is also a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge.
This event is organized together with The Adecco Group.