Note: This post contains spoilers for What You Are Looking For Is in the Library!
I honestly didn’t expect that I’d have to split this entry on Ryo Urase into two parts, but it is what it is. In part one we looked at Ryo’s work-related frustration from the lens of Herzberg’s two-factor hygiene and motivation theory. Here, I’ll mostly dive into the resolution of Ryo’s conflict and what it means.
Quick recap
Herzberg’s theory names two factors that determine job satisfaction: motivation and hygiene. We feel satisfied with our job when we find meaning and purpose (motivation), plus good external factors such as a good salary, work environment, and so on (hygiene). Accountant Ryo Urase is sadly stuck in a job lacking both factors. The single hygiene factor keeping him from quitting is his stable salary. His frustration toward the situation builds to the point where it is affecting his relationship with his girlfriend, Hina.
Ryo then visits Ms. Komachi’s library, and this leads him to another visit, this time to a cafe called Cats Now Books. Ryo is eager to ask owner Mr. Yasuhara about his parallel careers - something that might be the solution to his troubles.
Working in parallel
So what is a parallel career? Let’s hear it from someone who is actually doing it (in fiction), that is, Mr. Yasuhara. In his own words (written in an online article Ryo reads):
A parallel career means having two careers that are complementary, with neither being secondary to the other.
Mr. Yasuhara lives this out by juggling two different jobs. He works in an IT company on weekdays and runs his own cat cafe on the weekend.
One of Ryo’s questions for Mr. Yasuhara tackles the meaning of “neither being secondary”. He thinks one must be inferior because it doesn’t make as much money as the other. Again, let’s look at Mr. Yasuhara’s answer.
‘I don’t mean secondary in that sense. To put it bluntly, I get more from the shop in terms of mental and emotional satisfaction than I do in monetary profit. Though of course I am interested in increasing sales to keep the business afloat.’
This suggests that a parallel career is an alternate way to satisfy both our motivation and hygiene levels. Herzberg’s two-factor theory speaks of deriving motivation and hygiene from one single job. However, with parallel careers, we obtain motivation and hygiene through two different jobs. We can satisfy our need for meaning through one job and satisfy our other need for good hygiene through a different job. Each job compensates for what the other cannot sufficiently give. In this sense, both jobs are equal - none is considered secondary.
In the same way that both parallel careers are equal, both motivation and hygiene factors are equal. One might think pursuing your passions is the right thing to do. But what if it doesn’t pay the bills? You’ll end up in poverty. On the other hand, there might be one who considers money as everything. They don’t mind doing all sorts of jobs or overworking themselves as long as it pays well. But what if it doesn’t satisfy that human desire for meaning? You’ll end up destroying your mental well-being and perhaps your humanity. At the end of the day, continuously neglecting one factor won’t do us good.
Infusing meaning
There’s another interesting thing I’d like to highlight here. I wrote earlier that a parallel career makes up for what the other career cannot give. Interestingly, in Ryo’s case, having a parallel career doesn’t simply compensate for his accounting job’s lack of meaning, but it infuses that monotonous job with meaning.
By the end of the story, I don’t think Ryo still finds zero meaning in his job. I don’t think he simply receives more strength from his dream to power through the meaningless job. I think he’s actually able to find meaning in his current job thanks to a parallel career. To be more accurate, it isn’t exactly due to Ryo’s parallel career - he doesn’t have his dream shop yet! Currently it is the dream of having a parallel career and acting on that dream that infuse Ryo’s accounting job with meaning. Cool!
Plus, finding meaning motivates Ryo to work better. This is exemplified by how he creates a troubleshooting manual for Mr. Taguchi out of his own initiative.
Someone might ask: What difference is there between the Ryo at the beginning of the chapter and the Ryo at the end of the chapter? Ryo has that antique-shop dream from the very beginning, but didn’t feel motivated right away. I think that’s because Ryo initially believed his dream to be an impossibility. As a result, it became a source of despair instead of a source of meaning. However, his meeting with Mr. Yasuhara changed that. Ryo sees that his dream is achievable, and that transforms him into the person he is at the end of the chapter.
To sum up…
Ryo Urase, a middle-aged accountant with career-related troubles, finally finds a solution in the form of parallel careers. Parallel careers allow Ryo to pursue a meaningful career by opening an antique shop while also maintaining financial security through his day job. Interestingly, Ryo also ends up finding meaning in his accounting job. Even if that meaning is simply “to make the money I need to open my dream shop” and not something too grand like “to save the world”, it still benefits Ryo positively.
Honestly, Ryo’s story didn’t really stand out to me during my initial read. But the rereads I had to do to create this post (and the other previous one) definitely increased my appreciation of it. I relate to Ryo’s desire for purpose, and to his worries of not being able to make ends meet. I see some overlap as well in terms of our personalities (haha). It’s a good read!
That’s the end of part two, and that’s it for my detailed review of Chapter 2 in What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama :)
A little easter egg
One last thing - there’s an easter egg I just noticed in this chapter. I don’t know where to best insert this, so I’m just going to leave this here. Hina mentions that she regularly goes to a computer class in the Community House in order to learn how to run an online shop. In chapter 1, Tomoka similarly attends a computer class in the same place. During her first session, she notices the presence of a girl who is “concentrating so hard on [her] own stuff that [she] takes no notice of me]”. Tomoka then learns that the girl is setting up an online shop. Hey, that sounds familiar! I’m pretty sure that’s Hina. So apparently Tomoka and Hina are enrolled in the same computer course!
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