The C Factor
Hello! As promised last time, I would be sharing about why I chose to work for my company. The aim of this blog is to simply present some of what I believe are its unique points.
To start with, Atrae is one of the leading Japanese IT companies specializing in HR services. It’s been in business for more than a decade and currently have 40 members in total, still growing and aiming to globalize in the future.
Accordingly, it’s quite imperative for the members to develop their English skills. Thus, I serve a valuable existence, being the first non-Japanese member and a part of this significant progression of the company.
We all are aware of the fact about how the Japanese work and what a Japanese working environment is like. Evidently, they’re such hardworking people. Hence, I visualized myself working in this kind of environment.
To tell the truth, I was ecstatic and anxious at the same time however, luckily it all turned out different from my expectation.
On my first day upon entering the office, few of my male colleagues were seated on gym balls!
(hmm perhaps I’d have a toned abs by now If I had been seated on one too! haha) other than that, I noticed a colleague next to me was munching on some snacks at her desk. “ Wow, it’s OK to have snacks while working here?? “ I asked with amazement. For someone like me who gets hungry like every four hours, isn’t that delightful? After lunch time, people were taking a nap. That made me even more surprised as I just had the image that napping at the workplace (at your desk) is an uncommon sight in traditional Japanese companies. Whew! Even though I don’t take my nap during working hours, I felt relieved and truly grateful I can work in a less traditional, more relaxed kind of environment.
So here are some more trivial yet cool things I find in Atrae.
- Dress code- we don’t follow a strict dress code in the office. Unless they have appointments with clients, most of my colleagues customarily wear comfy clothes on regular days. Even our boss himself isn’t a big fan of wearing suits.
- Flextime- we come to work whatever time we want. We can opt for a usual 9am-6pm schedule or come a little late ( for those who are not a morning person ) For working Moms, they get off work earlier. Engineers and people in Sales, well they’re more of a night owl so.
- Work-life balance- we can do our errands while at work. Yes! We can go to the salon, go to the bank or go shopping and come back to work. Indeed, we can work freely, choosing whichever style works for us the best. Not only that, working Moms are always welcome to bring their kids to the office after school too!
“ The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. “ — Steve Jobs
So then what made me choose Atrae? It’s not due to those things I mentioned but one major factor why I decided to be a part of it, is its Culture.
While it’s nice to say that I’ve found what I love to do, I’m still in constant search for something motivating and impactful. I believe that at some point in time, I’d certainly desire to accomplish something other than teaching. Atrae is a flat organization and our CEO genuinely believes that Holacracy is fairly effective for us. We take on different tasks allowing our skills to flourish more bringing out our best potentials. We can be leaders of our own. We are given the sense of ownership thus enriching our jobs resulting to great contributions to the company. With that said, we feel a sense of purpose. And that definitely means a lot to me.
Fortuitously, just when I was trying to seek professional growth had I found somewhere gratifying, somewhere I feel my value while teaming up with excellent talents and extraordinary characters at the same time. In the future, I will take on different, fresh tasks in addition to teaching my boss and colleagues in Atrae.
How about yourself, what factors do you consider when choosing a company to work for?
