In this week's issue of Nikkei Business magazine, the topic of reskilling (relearning) was featured. The article said that there are a lot of unemployed people in the company (people who are still in the company but are not fulfilling their roles), and unless these people are brought back to life, the company's survival is in danger.
 
I've met a number of such people myself. Among them, I have seen a lot of people who not only don't work, but also have a negative influence on the people around them, such as making strange appeals for the reasons why they can't do something, making a fuss over the small mistakes of those who are doing well, or finding weak people and beating them up.
 
I strongly believe that if they are so dissatisfied, they should move to a place where they can play an active role, but such people tend to stay in the same place. The organization becomes points-off  system when there are such people. What you can do is not so important, and what you can't do becomes the major focus.  The search for mistakes. That's why it's important to drive safely and not to push yourself too hard. If you try, you lose. It's a really unfortunate environment.
 
Even now in Japan, unless the company is in a very bad situation, lifetime employment is guaranteed. So it is difficult to force someone who continues to cause such a negative impact on the organization to leave the organization. Such people do not work acts that would obviously get them fired. They continue to parasitize the organization politely and well-behaved in the back of the room where they are hardly visible.
 
In order to protect our independence and avoid falling into the unfortunate old man situation described above, we need to acquire new skills that are needed in society, that we are interested in, and that we are good at. Once you have mastered a skill, it is not the end of the road. You must continue to sharpen it and improve your competitiveness, and when it becomes obsolete or you decide that it is unfortunately not for you, you must gracefully discard it and search for a new weapon.
 
Until I was in my twenties, I had a desire to save money and retire early. But as of now, such thoughts have completely disappeared. On the contrary, I have come to have a strong desire to have a sense of mission for the rest of my life, and to repeatedly go through trial and error to achieve it. Learning is essential to realize it, and it will remain incomplete until I die.