Buzz
A Japanese company has recently launched a game-style 'vitality card' system to assist employees in subtly signaling their physical and mental health status.
According to Soranews24, a Tokyo-based company understands the challenges Japanese employees face when expressing their energy levels.
Due to ingrained culture, Japanese companies highly prioritize communication. However, these communication activities often revolve around lengthy meetings, face-to-face interactions, and implicit expectations of after-work socializing with colleagues. Businesses believe this fosters improved relationships and more effective communication.
However, the reality is that individuals rarely feel comfortable voicing their own opinions, especially to superiors, leading to psychological suppression - such as feeling exhausted but still feeling compelled to attend company gatherings.
Explaining this, Soranews24 describes Japanese culture as valuing individual responsibility to the collective, thus people tend to conceal their fatigue or personal pressures rather than verbalize them.
Tokyo-based logistics and communications company Onken has devised a solution to this 'pain point' by drawing inspiration from the interface of electronic games, creating employee cards accompanied by 'vitality bars' with RPG-style.
Onken has unveiled cards with visually intuitive designs depicting the energy levels of each individual.
Accordingly, each employee will receive 3 different cards. Each card contains personal information such as name, department... and a 'vitality bar' attached. The blue bar represents a 'full battery' status with 10,000 HP, the yellow bar indicates an average level with 3,899 HP, and the red bar - indicating exhaustion with only 15 HP.
Each color and energy level visually represents the physical and mental condition of the wearing employee. This is a subtle way to help them communicate with colleagues whether they are feeling tired or full of energy and ready for more work, overtime, after-work socializing, etc.
The vitality bar signifies exhaustion with a red color.
Sharing about the idea, Onken mentioned that they fully understand the natural fluctuation of energy levels throughout the day is very normal for every employee, related to work pressure, emotions, life... and this would be a way to help them express their situation more easily.
Currently, this idea is garnering many positive responses in the Japanese online community. Many people are lavishing praise on the idea as 'sweet and thoughtful', with a 'cute' design. Many are eager for this product to be launched soon and for their company to embrace this idea.
At present, only Onken employees have access to these special cards. It seems the company is still surveying the demand and reaction of customers before officially launching at the end of this July.
Source: Soranews24
