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Monday Morning Commute / Emotions
Once more into the fray - braving Tokyo's Monday rush hour commuter traffic on the way to Narita. Finland for the week. One Monday morning is much like another right? So why the extra feeling of pessimism?
Japan is a country with a significant number of national holidays - in a culture where respect for your colleagues means you're unlikely to take your full vacation allowance, the government stipulated holiday's give everyone a chance to take a few days off, guilt free. Early May includes a string of national holidays - Showa Day, Constitutional Memorial Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day combine to make Golden Week after which there is nothing until late July. Hence the collective back to work sigh known locally as 'go gatsu byoo' - May disease.
Does your culture have an equivalent of 'May disease'? In Finland November is (apparently) the toughest month - it's cold, dark and wet and in Helsinki at least the snow doesn't settle enough to stay firm underfoot. And a long dark winter of the soul awaits.
Thought for today - the extent to which a personal feeling of malaise are generated from the emotions of those around you? Whether newish ways of working - such as telecommuting disrupt the critical mass, and in which contexts? And in a world of time travel the extent that 'skipping May' becomes an acceptable norm?
Writing from Shibuya | May 12, 2008 | Permalink
Comments
and, similarly, when you are with 20,000 people in front of, say, sai baba, it is completely impossible to have your own thoughts, or own opinion, of what is happening...
group mind will be one of the study areas of the very near future
heck, the technology you are working with is the shovel uncovering the reality
Posted by: gregory at May 13, 2008 3:02 AM
I rather enjoy May. Even in a world of time travel, I doubt I would be skipping it. I'd much rather skip January, February or March.
Posted by: Rose at May 13, 2008 3:02 AM
The month of August in Washington, D.C. is similar-but-different - the end of a long, hot, humid summer, but also the hottest, humidest and most disgusting month of the year. Basically, not much gets done even by people who stick around, and most people try to be gone for as much of the month as possible. Semi-relatedly, it's also the month before the real most important D.C. calendar - the Washington Redskins' season - begins.
Posted by: jkd at May 13, 2008 5:02 AM
Jan through March is the worst in Ontario, Canada, but especially Feb. Basically it's the worst of both Japan and Finland.
Similar to Japan it's after the major holidays ( ie: xmas and new years ), with no holidays til Good Friday which is usually at the end of March or April.
It's also the darkest and coldest point of the year, in a place where the temperature goes from 30oC in summer to -30oC in winter. When the snow banks start to reach 6-8 feet tall, and all the streets lose a lane, people start giving up.
To be fair, there is Valentines (which is not a holiday), and this year the government added Family Day (which is), but for those of us who are single and lonely they don't help much.
Posted by: anon at May 13, 2008 9:31 AM
It is not just weather endused depression that effects the emotions.
Try getting a Scandinavian to concentrate on work as they are winding down for vacation as July nears. Good luck.
Trying to plan an event for collegues from multiple countries can be pretty funny. There is always at least one in the group that considers a certain week "off bounds" due to holidays... or pre-holiday preparations or post-holiday getting up to speed.
The poor business partner that didn't realize that by booking a phone meeting on "The eve of first of may" he would be creating some major anger in the spouse of his collegue.
I find the malaise comes more from the weeks where I am working at a distance or digitally without one-on-one meetings.
Posted by: KP at May 14, 2008 7:05 AM
Thanks for this. for a moment it made me love mondays for their particular malaise... just for a moment though.
Posted by: Ryan at May 15, 2008 2:39 AM