Do you need to be transferred alone? August 11, 15:52

Many office workers may find it necessary to be assigned to a single person. But is it true that the "working style" and "living style" in which families live apart?
Nowadays, with the spread of new coronavirus infection, there is a movement to eliminate the transfer of a single person. Will the usual things change to "new normal"?
(Hiroki Fujimoto, Reporter, Ministry of Economic Affairs)

Even on the net

"Cancellation of a single person" announced by confectionery maker Calbee on June 25.
For approximately 800 employees who work in offices such as the Tokyo head office and sales offices in various places, if the department they belong to has found that there is no hindrance to their work, then it is not necessary to be transferred to a single person.

When an employee is ordered to move to another place, leaving the family member who lives with him/her in his or her original home and choosing to move the employee “alone” is the case where the employee is transferred.
This is Calbee's initiative to "unlock" it, and the main goal is to have employees who are currently working alone move back to their hometowns.

This news has received a lot of attention on the net.

``I've never been seen as a male taking a child with
a
single employee , which means that it's a system that consists of throwing up childcare to his wife and working
together as a matter of course. I think that."
(From Twitter)

"This is a paradigm shift. I feel that the world is beginning to shift to a new era with corona."
(From Twitter)

"Bachelor want you to become if the flow of abolition, It 's human rights violations in ahead of this is of course be considered"
(from Twitter)

Family should not leave

Calbee started working from home in 2014.
In 2017, we introduced a “mobile work system” that eliminates restrictions on the number of working days and locations for working from home.

With the spread of the new coronavirus, from late March, we changed the work style for employees working in the office to "work from home".

Then, not only can he/she work from home just as when he was working in the office, but he has also come to the advantage of reducing commuting time and improving work efficiency.

And what the company has taken a step further is quitting the transfer.
This is the case that is supposed.

When an employee from Hokkaido who works at a local factory is transferred to the administration department of the head office in Tokyo, he or she sometimes left his family in Hokkaido and was transferred to Tokyo alone.
However, as a general rule, telework will be carried out in the future, and if the company finds that there is no hindrance to the work, it will carry out the work of the administration department of the head office in Tokyo while living with the family in Hokkaido.

What inspired you to start these efforts?
I asked a Calbee public relations officer.

A spokeswoman for Calbee,
"Because you can work in mobile work, you started with the question in the HR department, "Do you need to be transferred alone?" We believe that the inconvenience of having a separated family can be eliminated by advancing the workforce, which can be used to replace a large amount of work that was premised on a single assignment by combining mobile work and efficient business trips. With the understanding of our customers and our company, combining mobile work and business trips will increase the number of employees who can carry out their work.”

In the first place, if you do not transfer jobs, you will not have to be assigned to a single person, but it is difficult to change the personnel system to that extent.
The idea is to use telework at least and not have to be assigned to a single person if it is something that can be managed by combining it with a business trip.

President Shuji Ito
"Although not all single assignments are bad, I've always thought that it would be undesirable to have a single assignment. I think that in a rural area I might live in a big house, and that choice is for the working side. Shouldn't a person have it?"

I truly hope that it will lead to the realization of diverse work styles.

Zero single assignments in the future

Metawater, a Tokyo-based company that designs and manages water treatment facilities.
Originally, this company has major bases in various places because the business of three companies in Nagoya, Tokyo, Osaka were integrated, and currently about 120 people are assigned to work alone, but about a year later We would like to reduce the number to 60 and to zero in the future.

So far, we have been proactively promoting work style reforms such as three days off per week, setting up satellite offices, shortening prescribed working hours, etc., but we are also trying to expand the review of single assignments by effectively utilizing telework. is.

Teruo Muto (37), Chief of Plant Engineering Business Division.
I have been in charge of basic design of water treatment facilities and have been living in Kansai for many years, but last May, I changed the department to which I was assigned to work alone in Tokyo.
However, I plan to use business trips and telework to return to Osaka later this year.

Teruo Muto
“If I have a child in the future, I think it would be better if I could go back to Osaka and build a foundation of living together, considering parenting.”

Tomoo Fujii, Executive Officer of Metawater, talks about the aim of eliminating the transfer of a single person as follows.

Tomio Fujii, Executive Officer
“It is a direct assignment that goes counter to creating an environment where it is easy to work. The normal way to think of working as a family is to lose important time It's a strange story.Many people who work at the head office in Tokyo spend an hour and a half to commute, but it is the same one and a half hours from Nagoya to Tokyo, but the person who works in Nagoya is in Tokyo. It is very strange that I have to be transferred to a single person, and I think that changing the transfer to a single person will change the way people work from the postwar reconstruction period to the present.

When reviewing how the company should be

We are facing major changes in the times triggered by the spread of the new coronavirus.
Completely quitting all single assignments from this country may not be feasible.
However, at least it may be time to reconsider the personnel system and the company, which has been ongoing so far, in order to reduce the number of single-person jobs that the person or his/her family does not want.

Economics reporter
Hiroteru Fujimoto
Joined in 2005
Yamaguchi station, Osaka station, etc.
Currently in charge of distribution industry