[Full Text Free] 11 Years Later. The Shrimp Factory Where Unannounced Absence is the Rule

Hello, I am Hokuto Muto, the representative of Papua New Guinea Kai-san.

It was July 2013 when I started moving toward creating a workplace where people could value their own lives. Before I knew it, 11 years had passed. Initiatives like the 'Free Schedule' and 'Dislike List' have been featured in many media outlets, but I feel it is difficult to convey the core aspects due to limitations in character counts and broadcast time. So, to supplement this, I post on note every Friday.

What I have realized over these 11 years is that a workplace where employees can value their own lives is important not only for the individuals themselves but also for the company to continue.

Since I started the reforms 11 years ago, the number of people quitting has decreased overwhelmingly, new employees have grown, and veterans have begun to demonstrate their strengths. Various ideas and measures, which I will introduce later, have also been successful, and conflicts have decreased rapidly. When working in such an organization, one begins to feel that thoughts like 'slacking off' or 'excluding someone' are also negative for oneself. Naturally, efficiency and quality have improved, and company management has stabilized.

While a relationship of trust with employees has been built through repeated dialogue, I basically believe that humans are helpless creatures who are always fighting. This is clear if you look at history and the conflicts that are still continuing around the world today. However, it is also humans who can think and act to prevent those conflicts from happening.

If we could just avoid conflict, people should be able to live happily. My obsession with that might be biased, but 'not fighting' is at the root of everything, from the way the organization is structured to the creation of detailed rules.

In this post, I would like to introduce the trial and error of the past 11 years in a concise and easy-to-understand manner. It is simple, but packed with important things. I would be happy if something could be conveyed to even one more person.

*Postscript: The video of my TEDxKobe2024 talk has been released on TEDxTalks. I think you will understand why I am experimenting with this way of working.

First, I will explain what kind of company we are in 8 lines.

Papua New Guinea Kai-san Co., Ltd. is a seafood company with 1 chairman, 1 representative director and factory manager (me), 1 administrative employee, 2 factory employees, and about 20 part-time employees. We import natural shrimp from Papua New Guinea and make products like fried shrimp at our factory in Settsu City, Osaka Prefecture.

The first floor of the factory is the work site, and the second floor has the office and break room. Operating hours are 8:30 to 17:00 on weekdays, and we are closed on weekends and holidays. Our motto is 'making food that I want my family and friends to eat,' and we value handmade products without relying on chemicals or additives.

Now, what I am about to talk about focuses on how we work with part-time employees. However, companies with only full-time employees should also read on. The relationship with employees and how to think about an organization as a leader are common, and I think this is a story that relates to all human relationships in life, not just work.

So, first, I will talk about how I perceive the way of working as non-regular employment (part-time employees).

Part-time workers choose an hourly wage rather than a monthly salary because they have reasons for not becoming full-time employees. Therefore, almost no one comes to work every day. In our case, many people work about three days a week, so there are many part-timers who only see each other once or twice a week. It is very difficult for those part-timers to work in perfect harmony, communicate well, and grasp daily changes. I don't think this is a matter of whether they are capable or not, but rather a way of working that makes it difficult to grasp the whole picture.

What kind of workplace allows those part-time workers to work happily and diligently? What are they looking for in an organization? The answer I arrived at was a 'workplace where they can value their own lives' and a 'workplace without worries about human relationships (without conflict).'

And naturally, this is also important for full-time employees. To repeat, the underlying philosophy is common to all employees, regardless of whether they are part-time or full-time. I hope you will take the time to understand that.

Now, I will talk about the 16 rules and ways of thinking that I consider important.

1. Work and take time off on days you like (Free Schedule)

The 'Free Schedule' has become synonymous with Papua New Guinea Sea Products. Simply put, it is a system where you can come to work and leave at any time on any day you like, and what is even more important is that contact is prohibited. Regarding departure time, you indicate it on the whiteboard at the factory entrance when you arrive, and salary is calculated using a time card.

Eleven years ago, when I started thinking about changing the way we work, many of our staff were moms with small children, so making it a workplace where it was easy to work while raising children became one of our themes. Through interviews with part-time workers, what became clear was that 'how to take time off' was more important than 'how to work' in the first place.

So, the first thing I thought of was a system where you can 'take time off on days you like' rather than 'work on days you like.' Moreover, I thought it was important to be able to take time off without pressure, so I prohibited all contact such as phone calls and emails, and made so-called unexcused absences the rule. This eliminated the need to contact the company while suffering from a high fever, while watching your child suffer, or while being treated poorly by a supervisor.

It was a method no one had ever tried, but I had a feeling it would work. The reason is that even before this, I had allowed same-day absences when a child was sick or I had a high fever, even though phone contact was required. When you think about it, the fact of taking time off is the same; I realized the only difference was whether you contacted the company and felt miserable while taking time off, or took time off comfortably without contact. And since part-time workers are paid by the hour, they don't get paid if they don't come to work. I thought that if that were the case, we could secure the number of staff even without the company forcing them.

The free schedule began in July 2013. First of all, the most important thing is that there have been no shortages due to lack of personnel in these 11 years, so the company's objective has been achieved. And I think you might be wondering if there was ever a day when no one came, but there was only one day. However, that was in the early days when we only had 9 employees and working hours were fixed. In the 9 years since the number of people increased and hours became free, there has never been a day with zero people.

And in the last few years, one thing has become stricter. That is that we have set a minimum number of working hours. As diverse people joined, some people didn't come to work for months, so we added a rule that you must work at least 20 hours every two weeks. It is an important point that you shouldn't just make everything loose, but also make things stricter if you judge that conflict will arise.

*I also explain this on Voicy

2. You must not do work you dislike (Dislike List)

This is a rule where we conduct a survey every month and you must not do tasks you have declared as 'dislike.' No matter what happens, you must never touch them, and if you try to do even a little bit out of consideration, I, as the factory manager, will scold you, saying, 'Please don't break the rules!'

The reason I created this was because a part-time worker told me, 'I like cleaning,' when I, who find cleaning troublesome and hate it, was complaining about it. I was surprised that someone liked something I hated, and at the same time, I wondered about other tasks, so I immediately conducted a survey. I listed about 30 major tasks and asked them what they liked and disliked. Then, although it seems obvious now, the results were all over the place.

And while looking at this chart, I wondered. Since there are people who like certain tasks and people who dislike them, why would someone go out of their way to do a task they dislike? I couldn't come up with an answer even after thinking about it, so I created a rule that 'you must not do tasks you dislike,' and nine years have passed since then. When people stop doing tasks they dislike against their will, the atmosphere of the organization changes completely, and it seems their feelings when coming to work change as well.

However, there are some people who think that 'there is meaning in tackling and overcoming things you dislike.' I don't deny that; I think there is that side to it as well. So, in those cases, you just shouldn't declare that you dislike it in the survey. If you do that, you can tackle the things you dislike to your heart's content. Choosing to face something yourself—that is what truly becomes your own nourishment.

3. Breaks are free

When both start and end times become free every day, having fixed break times starts to feel very unnatural. For example, it makes no sense for someone who started work at 11:40 to take a break at 12:00. Since break time is not included in the salary, it is now allowed to take as many minutes or hours as you like, up to twice a day (in 5-minute increments). You are required to write it on a designated form at the factory entrance when you arrive at work, and you cannot change it midway or take a sudden break.

And I value the idea that a break is time for each individual to use freely. Since it is a small factory, space is limited, but about three years ago, I created a space where one can be alone. There is a sofa for one person facing the wall, further partitioned off. You can sleep, play games, or read a book without worrying about anyone else.

However, there is also a separate space where you can take a break while talking at a table. It is important that each person can choose freely. In a normal factory, I think it takes quite a bit of courage to go to a private space because you are worried about the eyes of your colleagues. But in our case, start and end times are different every day, and break times are free in 5-minute increments, so it is hard to worry about the eyes of others. Furthermore, we talked many times in meetings about how a break is only a break if you rest properly, and that we should respect each other's ways of taking breaks.

*Also explained on Voicy'Breaks are for resting the mind and body'

4. Seriously valuing opinions

Everyone says that opinions from employees are important. However, just listening to them does not mean you value them.

First of all, since having interviews and getting opinions is part of the job, it is always done during hours when an hourly wage is paid. You cannot get people to speak their true feelings if you have an attitude of listening during break times or after they have clocked out.

The location is also important. I never talk in my own territory, like the president's office. I think it is better to sit on folding chairs in the place where the staff usually work, as it is more relaxing.

And I always provide an answer to the opinions I receive. Even if it is a painful story for the company, or a trivial matter, I provide an answer after careful consideration. There are opinions that are adopted and opinions that are rejected, but in either case, I convey the process and reasons in a meeting. It is hard to be convinced if you are only told the conclusion. By the way, since not everyone attends the meetings, they are uploaded to YouTube so that anyone can watch them. There is nothing to hide, so anyone, including non-employees, can watch them (there is a video that went viral because the factory manager seemed unfriendly, but I intentionally post that on the recruitment page. I am not truly kind, so this is to reduce the number of people who join under a misunderstanding).

Conversely, there are times when I am asked to keep the content of an interview secret. In those cases, I endure it even if it is something I want to warn others about immediately. Valuing opinions is not just about organizational improvement; it is meaningless if each person cannot work with peace of mind. However, I can solve the problem if I discover it directly on-site, so I am grateful for being told the points I should look at.

5. Do not create rules alone

We have a mountain of detailed rules. This is not to bind our employees, but to clarify ambiguous matters through rules, thereby reducing individual confusion and stress, and eliminating conflict.

When creating such rules, it is important to build them from the voices of the field. The leader is the one who consolidates these, and that leader must be someone who works alongside others in the field. Please be careful not to let a top executive who is not in the field create rules based on armchair theories. Even now, as the Representative Director, I work in the factory for about two hours every morning. It is only by having this time that I can truly understand the opinions of the field.

So, what if a leader who is in the field creates them alone? I think it would be faster and look more uniformly neat. However, for the employees, it would just be something forced upon them. It is important that organizational rules are our own rules, created by incorporating diverse opinions, even if they are a bit uneven.

If they are such rules, people will want to follow them properly, and they will feel comfortable suggesting changes if there are problems. By not breaking them recklessly, the rules function better and become tools for freedom rather than things that bind people.

6. Rules are absolute, but they also change

Organizational rules should be followed absolutely no matter what. No matter what sudden problems arise, you must not change them on your own judgment, and even if efficiency drops temporarily, the rules must be followed. Unless you are that thorough, people who are following them might feel like outsiders and have a bad experience, and then no one will follow the rules.

At the same time, it is also important to change the rules. If you find changing them troublesome or scary, more people will stop following the rules. Therefore, speed is sometimes important. In our case, depending on the content, we sometimes take feedback to a staff meeting and change it immediately on the same day.

Conversely, for matters that should be handled carefully, we proceed slowly while listening to the voices of other part-time workers. If that period becomes too long, I ask at a general meeting, 'I know there is a problem, but since it is currently under consideration, please follow the current rules for now.' Then, when a new rule is decided, everyone changes the rule all at once.

By letting employees know that the leader understands the problems and by clearly presenting actions, employees can follow the rules with peace of mind, and by moving forward together, the resistance and hurdles to making changes are lowered.

7. Do not force friendliness

When people think of a workplace that is easy to work in, many imagine a group full of smiles and harmony. However, when I asked employees what kind of workplace they wanted, an overwhelming number of people were looking for a workplace where they could work for a long time without being troubled by human relationships, rather than fun. It was more important to be free from the daily worry of dealing with boss-like figures or being left out. Embarrassingly, this was a result I had somewhat imagined, as we previously had many people resign due to human relationships.

However, while we don't force friendliness, we must not be on bad terms. You might think it's easy to just not be on bad terms, but when you try it, it's quite difficult. Humans are creatures that inevitably compare themselves to others and start conflicts.

What we arrived at was to keep a distance, even if it looks a bit cold, and 'not make an effort to be friendly.' Unlike not being friendly, the point is not to make the effort. We talked about this in a meeting too. 'Let's stop forcing ourselves to be friendly, and instead aim for a workplace without conflict or suffering.' Since then, the turnover rate has dropped steadily, leading to where we are now.

8. Prohibit questions between part-time workers

I said that rules are absolute, but for that to be true, the rules must not waver. However, it is difficult to write everything in a manual, and the more detailed things are, the more they need to be confirmed. If people who are ambiguous ask each other at those times, the rules will crumble.

In the past, part-time workers would ask each other, but they inevitably only asked people they were close to, which led to differences in understanding between groups. Once this happens, various conflicts erupt.

Therefore, I prohibited part-time workers from asking each other questions or giving instructions, and decided that they must always ask a full-time employee if they don't understand something (full-time employees share information at staff meetings). Since adopting this method, the rules have been unified at once, and the number of questions themselves has decreased.

Incidentally, I also abolished the position of part-time shift leader. I feel that having part-time workers manage other part-time workers is just a system to make things easier for full-time employees. It is simply a matter of having full-time employees be the leaders who manage the part-time workers.

9. If you follow the rules, you will not be fired

“If you follow the rules and work hard, I will never fire you.” This is something I have said many times in meetings, and there are two main reasons for it.

One is to work with peace of mind. Living every day with the anxiety of wondering when you will be fired is mentally painful, and you cannot do good work in such a situation. Rather than the pressure of being fired, isn't the peace of mind of not being fired what a company should make its employees feel?

Also, another reason is so that they do not have the desire to exclude someone. Suppose I were a manager who fired people left and right based on personal feelings. Then, if there were someone among the employees that others didn't like, it would be easy to manipulate me into wanting to fire that person. However, if I declare that I will never fire anyone, they have no choice but to give up on exclusion and work together even with people they don't get along with.

This is where the earlier point about not forcing people to get along comes in handy. If you are told to get along with everyone, you have to force yourself to get closer to people you don't click with, which exhausts both parties. But if you don't have to force closeness, it becomes possible to work calmly together on the same site.

10. Full-time employees also take proper time off

People who hear about how our part-time workers work often ask, “Doesn't that put a strain on the full-time employees?” I don't think it does, but since it's difficult to define what constitutes a strain, I will just tell you the current situation as it is.

Full-time employees also have weekends and holidays off (with occasional 2-hour shifts on holidays), and on weekdays they arrive around 8:20 AM. They take a 1-hour break, and one leaves around 6:00 PM, while the other leaves around 6:30 PM. Of course, they get overtime pay and use their paid leave.

In March of this year, one of the only two full-time employees took three consecutive weeks of paid leave. The remaining one and I became busier than usual, but we had planned in advance so that our arrival and departure times would not be different from usual. Of course, we did not contact them about work for those three weeks.

The reason they can even take consecutive holidays is likely because we have established a system where it is easy for full-time employees to take paid leave on a regular basis. And we think about role distribution and routines so that there is no problem even if they take consecutive holidays, provided we make adjustments.

Also, rather than suddenly assigning a role only when someone is absent, we eliminate anxiety by regularly rotating roles (assigning them for just one day) even when they are not absent. This eliminates the anxiety that taking paid leave will cause trouble for someone else. It is the leader's role to think about daily operations so that people don't have to worry, rather than saying, “Paid leave is something you should take, so just put up with each other.”

And what is important is that we aim for a workplace where part-time workers can work easily with flexible schedules, and full-time employees can work easily through the use of paid leave and daily role distribution. Only when both sides are satisfied can we aim together for a workplace without conflict.

⑪ No year-end parties, drinking parties, or souvenirs

　We didn't really have drinking parties to begin with, but we stopped having year-end parties about 10 years ago. The reason is simple: when I asked everyone, they said it was better not to have them because the end of the year is busy. It is true that December is a busy season, so the factory is hectic, and I thought that if we were going to squeeze in a party, a New Year's party would be more relaxed and better.

　However, no one wanted to be the organizer. I didn't want to either. So, we decided to stop everything once, and that is the situation that continues today. Of course, there is nothing wrong with drinking parties, but our employees didn't want them, so I simply acted on that feedback. If someone says they want to do it and says, 'Leave the organizing to me!', we might resume them. Personally, I don't dislike drinking with people I get along with.

　Also, as a similar story, souvenirs from trips were prohibited. It's ridiculous to create conflict over who bought what, who didn't buy anything, or whether something is delicious or tastes bad, and it also meant we didn't have to carry extra luggage back from trips. However, snacks received from customers are shared among those working that day.

⑫ Dealing with people who slack off

　There were certainly people who slacked off, worked sluggishly, or broke rules behind our backs. How should I warn them and make them change their ways? In the past, I simply thought those people were bad and repeatedly gave them intimidating warnings, but that didn't lead to solving any problems.

　However, as we became an organization without conflict, such people decreased drastically, and I realized that the problem lay with me as the leader. If there is someone slacking off now, I reflect on it as the result of me having created such an organization. I believe what I should do is not just blame them (though I do give warnings), but strive toward a workplace where employees don't feel like slacking off.

　And there are reasons why they slack off, and if those aren't solved, problems will remain for the organization as a whole. What is needed for a solution is, after all, dialogue. You need the resolve to think of solutions together through dialogue rather than by being intimidating. People who lack that resolve are not suited for the role of a leader.

⑬ Unified hourly wage

　Many different people work here, but everyone's hourly wage is the same. Whether it's their first day or their 10th year. Whether they are in their teens or their 50s. Whether they have a disability or not. In any case, all part-time workers are the same.

　Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. I believe that evaluating people based on the quality of specific tasks within the part-time work style leads to conflict. Also, I think it is a huge waste to let comparisons between employees begin over a difference of a few dozen yen, which destroys a peaceful organization.

⑭ Working with people with disabilities

As we began to be featured in the media, many people from all over Japan started applying. Among them were people with disabilities, which made me realize that there are many people who cannot work for various reasons.

One part-time worker had never worked before. They said that the pressure of having to arrive at the same time every day was painful, but with a flexible schedule, they could come to work without that pressure. Another part-time worker is not good at calculations, so their mind would go blank in front of the scale. However, because we have a 'dislike list,' they don't have to suffer from that pressure.

The point of the rules we create is that they are basically applied regardless of whether someone has a disability or not. This is because I don't want to create the emotion of 'forgiveness' by making unnecessary distinctions. I believe that instead of forgiving someone by saying 'it's okay not to worry about it,' it is more important to implement rules where they don't have to worry in the first place.

I should add that we have the ultimate rule called the 'dislike list,' so our strength lies in a system where various things can be easily chosen.

15. There are times when you cannot understand suffering

A few years ago, a part-time worker with social anxiety disorder told me that greeting others was painful. They told me that the words would come up to their throat, but they just couldn't make a sound. I tried desperately to understand them, but as someone who loves greetings, I just couldn't understand it.

During that time, they continued to suffer. So, I stopped trying to understand. I realized that I didn't need to understand; I just needed to accept and acknowledge them as they suffered.

They couldn't say 'Thank you,' but having gained that realization, we also started thinking about greetings like 'Good morning' at the factory. Greetings made reluctantly by those who don't want to do them don't feel good, and the greetings of those who are suffering make us feel pained as well. Now, there is an item for factory greetings on the dislike list, and people can choose whether or not to greet others.

When I realized that I didn't need to understand the suffering, I felt as if a weight had been lifted from me. Since then, I think my perspective has become broader than ever before.

16. Why am I not afraid of failure?

Seeing me repeat trial and error, many people ask me, 'Aren't you afraid of failure?' I would like to answer simply, but since I don't want to be misunderstood, I will first ask you all: In creating a workplace that is easy to work in or an organization without conflict, what is failure or success?

For me, 'listening to opinions, thinking, and acting (or deciding not to act)' is success. Of course, I am happy if the result of the action goes well and can be continued. However, what is important for an organization is to think and act (or judge) together, and the outcome is not that important. Therefore, I think failure for me is when I stop listening to opinions or stop thinking. I tremble with fear when I imagine myself staying in my position for my own selfish interests.

That is why, while I am afraid of the failure I define, I am not at all afraid of what is generally called failure (when the result doesn't go well). Or rather, since I have already succeeded by the time I reach that point, I would likely be talking positively with the employees, saying, 'We thought about it and acted, but now we know it didn't work out.'

Thank you for reading such a long text to the end.

Having said that, I have a request: please try the fried shrimp that we make. You will surely realize how delicious fried shrimp can be when it is made in a workplace where you can value your own life and where there is no conflict.

Papua New Guinea Marine Products
Representative Director and Factory Manager, Hokuto Muto

https://pngebi.shop/

・I have started a one-time work style advisory service

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