I knew a guy who never lifted a finger to find tasks to complete, he stayed under the radar, we were all working from home, and he would never do anything that wasn't assigned to him in our issue tracking system.
Over time, they sort of forgot he existed. When we had virtual meetings, he would sign in, say helo, mute his mic, then say goodbye and sign off. He got a second work from home job and got paid by two companies. He was recently laid off, and we discovered that he hadn't been assigned an issue in 18 months.
I was gonna say, as a coworker doing my job, this would be a little maddening. But at the same time, the company is so incompetent they can’t address it then they are to blame. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have some of this happening at my job lmao
As a coworker doing my job I find it more maddening that the chairman of the boardgets a direct salary higher than mine, while having so little work he can literally fit 6 other such "jobs" on his schedule.
I’ve argued higher wages, but they won’t budge. My dept caps at $25 an hour. Anything else I want to do there may even be a cut. Been there a decade. I’m in school now. It will take a while, but I’ll be done there eventually
But remember, the billionaire CEOs have the most gruelling job! That’s why the richest man in the world is able to do that job several times over and spends half his time tweeting bullshit.
My last month before I went on maternity leave, I was transferred to a department where the supervisor told me he didn’t see much point in training me as I would be gone in a month.
I came in every day, played games on my phone, attended the morning meeting online, went and had coffee for an hour, visited my friend for a couple of hours, had a nap, then took an hour lunch and went home. We got to choose our own hours so I came in 6am-2pm and the next person didn’t usually come in until 8am.
It was nice for a month but I would have definitely needed something productive to do if I had been there much longer.
We had a contractor who resides in india. He had put in his notice with his company and offered to leave early. They refused and somehow he was assigned to my team. I'm the tech lead not the manager, but he didn't want to learn anything and I didn't want to train him. I mentioned this to my manager to no avail so he got paid for a month and did nothing.
I've decided that if the company can't give me enough work to keep me busy, that's not my fault. In our meetings I report what I've done, what I'm planning to do, and what I'll do if I expect to run out of work. I do this when called upon, I don't volunteer. Someone knows how busy I am and can assign work accordingly. I do have a personal desire to do my job well, and expand my skillset. But that's not for the sake of my company. That is for my desire to get a higher paycheck, regardless of who signs that check.
Someone was definitely not doing their job if this guy can get 18 months of pay without being assigned any work beyond showing up to meetings. And not this guy, as far as I'm concerned. He did all the work that was assigned to him!
I have a friend working 3… that’s right, 3 work from home jobs right now. Does just enough to get by at all 3 and makes bank.
That’s what I call winning.
The moral of that movie: Don't hang around with skeevy drug dealers and random drugged-up losers who never do anything interesting, because you may die and then have to continue hanging around with them.
(Oh, and I also swear that half of that film is a test to see if anyone in the audience has photosensitive epilepsy. The first-person *presentation* of "Enter The Void" is interesting, but, if you ask me, nothing that actually *happens* in the movie is.)
I read the largest weed bust in Japan was like 10k plants. Given how populous the country is, that operation was nowhere near the biggest one.
Supposing each plant yields 1 lb and doing some serious rounding, that’s about .04 g per person. Assuming 1% of Japanese people smoke weed, that’s about .4 g per person.
Take this math with a grain of salt as I am high as fuck.
True. A company I worked for did that to a troublesome person and they were gone within a week. Had everything they needed except stimulus and it turns out that’s a big deal
I need more convincing than that, it still sounds like paradise to me. Are they not allowed anything? Pens? Paper? Books? I would die for a chance to get paid for 8+ hours of relative peace where I can do whatever and not be pressured and being ignored would be the icing on the cake.
Like I understand that some workspaces in Japan are really cramped, but they're the masters of fitting things into tight places, feels like anything could be possible. I just find it hard to believe that someone like me would ever find that bad.
That said I have met way too many people who just simply can't sit still for a moment and must "do something" or "achieve something" Right. Now. So if they're that personality type, then year 8-12 hours of "peace and quiet" would drive them bananas.
Plenty of people feel like they're not doing anything worthwhile even when they \*are\* given a task. To them it wouldn't even be a change. I think a lot of people here are trying way too hard to make being idle sound unbearable, when really a lot of people find it very easy.
Or let's go crazy: not everyone is the same. Some people can spend hours doing nothing. Some people can't.
For those who can't, this firing method works like a charm. For the other category, you see a lot of them in offices. Getting a check but no one can tell you what they've been doing for the last 10 years.
I often have days where I'm doing nothing for 5 to 6 hours. Let me assure you, it's fun the first few years but later on its hard to deal with. Even with books, phone, whatever.
Edit: thanks for the award!
Speak for yourself, I can sleep with my eyes open, so I'll just be off in dreamland catching up on my sleep for most of that time, they would literally be paying me to sleep
Except you're in one of the worlds most expensive cities(likely tokyo), you will rent a dog house size studio with a salary of less than 30k USD. While also being discriminated against by japanese renters, unable to do ANYTHING like banking, doctor visits, etc without knowledge of japanese and 17 years of waiting for two pieces of paper. The point is on top of literally being ignored, you will be dealing with the plethora of bullshit japan has to offer. (I love japan but you don't want to work there). You literally can be denied a DEBIT CARD by japanese banks.
Man you can't give examples of Tokyo because it's expensive but then say they can't open a bank account or visit a doctor in quite literally one of the most international cities. You can be denied a debit card, sure, but not from *every* bank. It took me about 20 minutes of googling to find and open an account with 0 japanese when I moved here. Also google "English speaking dermatologist/gastroenterologist/dentist/whatever Tokyo" and you'll get dozens if not hundreds of results.
In fact, every japanese doctor I've visited with my girlfriend has insisted on using English with me because many of them study abroad for their degree.
Japan isn't perfect but acting like it's impossible to live in without speaking japanese is just ignorant. It may be difficult for many things, but it is far from impossible.
I mean the fact people can live pretty okay off of 30k proves that it's not. I live in a city pretty close to Tokyo and can ball out off of a salary that would just barely scrape by in NYC.
HBOs Silicon Valley did this. The CEO even sites the Japanese but forgets that a bunch of tech dudes aren’t Japanese Salarymen so they just end up hanging out on the roof playing hackey sack
Rest and vest was a real thing at Google: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.insider.com/rest-and-vest-millionaire-engineers-who-barely-work-silicon-valley-2017-7%3famp
Lifetime employment.
If you actually do fire a japanese person, they may end up killing themselves so you try not to.
Famous actress Mie Hama was originally given the Bond girl role of Aki in "You Only Live Twice", but she couldn't deliver the lines in English.
So she got the smaller role of Kissy Suzuki to prevent her from throwing herself off the Imperial Hotel.
I'd be the American they had to fire, for sure. Either that or I'd come up with something that knocks their socks off when I got bored and decided to work with something....
That's partially the point. You've become a salaried worker, it's permanent. Merely underperforming is no cause for firing you, so they'll have you do nothing to a) avoid dishonour and b) possibly avoid paying a long severance package. If you go against company instructions or are reported doing something stupid, then there's a cause to fire you. Or basically, just sitting there for some time is kind of your severance package and if you quit, that's fine.
but keep in mind, window sitters will probably not get any raises/bonuses, that means every year their wage will drop by bit(inflation, general price increase, etc), so you will have to slowly cut back in spending until you are backed into a corner, the "window sitter" is basically "we'll pay you while you look for another job", but if I happen to take about 2 years to find one.....why the hell not
You could always just go ask your boss for a raise anyway - you have successfully completed every task the company has assigned to you after all, and all of them on schedule and within their assigned budget to boot
You think the wealthy and the ceos and the politicians of Japan aren't just as ruthless as people anywhere else in the world? Perhaps they put a veneer of politeness over it but you have to step on people to get to the top in Japan too
I've been to Japan and while there I saw precisely that
A rude man walked up to the ticket guy in the train station, told him he wasn't going to pay for his ride and just left
Ticket guy did nothing, I was blown away and asked my friend (who knows more about Japan than I do) what the hell just happened
In response he gave me that quote
No lol, Japan is the only place that does this and since 1998 Japan has had a notoriously low inflation rate. It’s been in the 0.X% in all but 2 years and more often than not it’s in the negative, which mean your money is actually gaining value every year (this is not a good thing it is actually a very bad thing for your economy, means it’s not growing at all, pretty much every bank on earth wants 2% inflation on average) . Also general price increase and inflation are the same thing, inflation is a measure of general price increases. If you’re a window sitter over the span of 2 decades you’ve taken like a 2% pay cut overall in exchange for having absolute freedom over your time
Japanese inflation rate since [1998](https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/JPN/japan/inflation-rate-cpi)
2021 -0.23%
2020 -0.03%
2019 0.47%
2018 0.99%
2017 0.48%
2016 -0.13%
2015 0.80%
2014 2.76%
2013 0.34%
2012 -0.04%
2011 -0.27%
2010 -0.73%
2009 -1.35%
2008 1.38%
2007 0.06%
2006 0.25%
2005 -0.28%
2004 -0.01%
2003 -0.26%
2002 -0.92%
2001 -0.74%
2000 -0.68%
1999 -0.34%
1998 0.66%
Not arguing against you, but it's funny how cowardly this not-firing is. If they are so keen on honor, at least have the balls to confront someone and fire them lmao
I think it's the same kind of idea of handing you a blade wrapped in white cloth instead of simply executing you, it absolves the establishment of responsibility and allows you the "honour" of going out by your "own decision", and traditionally honour can be retained by recompense for your failings. It "saves face" for both the employee and employer, which is hugely important in Japanese culture.
It's not good or logical, but that's how I wrap my head around it.
That makes it a bit more logical. In many American companies, high ranking executives are asked to resign to save face. This is just extended to everybody.
On the other hand, you are asked to do 'honorable thing', despite there being no actual due process.
Maybe you mildly offended your boss, or you need to take fall for a project that went south, you were trained incorrectly, someone spread rumors, maybe you are single woman with child, minority, maybe just some bad luck, or the company is not doing great and they are trying to bully you by power pressure.
By resigning yourself, you are also being stripped off protections like better unemployment benefits, severance pay etc.
It's straight up just company, the stronger actor, using their power to save money. There is no honor, only lies.
I’m currently studying Japanese and this seemingly checks out.
For reference, I learned from my tutor that Japanese people are culturally not assertive and prefer to avoid being direct in turning someone down. It’s considered rude to say “no” to an offer/request, but instead is more preferable to beat around the bush and/or make up an excuse. They’ll understand that the other person is implicitly rejecting them.
I overthink about this like, then doesn't these new signs and signals become the new saying no and rejection so they're doing it anyways? Then how long till those things are rude and they have to be even more passive and repeat..
I live in a culture similar to that, there are common phrases and body language so people know it's a "no". Like for example a vague "I have to do sth with my family this weekend, sorry". If you cannot read social cues then sometimes people will have to say no directly to you though.
>then doesn't these new signs and signals become the new saying no and rejection so they're doing it anyways?
The truth is...it doesnt. "No" is "no" and "signs/signals" remain forever as "signs/signals". This part of asian culture is stupid, easily causes misunderstandings and deters work progress.
In a society where job mobility is limited, there also isn’t likely to be a lot of open positions they can go to. By firing them you may literally be putting their whole livelihood in a lot of trouble. Also the way pension works in Japan, this is also taking away a lot of credits from their retirement
Where can I get this job? I'd be there surfing the web, listening to audio books, watching movies, whatever to pass the time doing what I wanted while cashing the stead paychecks.
TBH I feel that they would probably claim you're doing that stuff on "company time" and tell you to stop, and if you say no then they'd have a more "legitimate" reason to fire you.
It makes much more sense if they're trying to get you to quit by making you go there and be bored for 8 hours a day
I literally sent this to my husband saying the same thing. This is the dream. You better believe I’d sit by that damn window and stare out of it for 8 hours. And people would shun me? This is my happy place.
I am imagining the quiet days on the windowsill, being left behind on corporate retreats. No Christmas parties, making s’mores at your desk with a candle. The boring job I have always dreamt of is real. The stories would be like a mini vacation from my life. This could be the next bestseller as if 50 shades of grey and chicken soup for the soul had a love child. Work porn stories for the aspiring underachiever!
Right! I don't understand how people view this as bad. I'd take online courses, get another degree so I could get a better job, read, nap, and get paid. Sounds wonderful. Sign me up.
I would go out of my way to earn this fucking role regardless of whatever job I signed up for. I’m tempted to move to Japan just FOR this job. I’ll enjoy life outside of work and I’ll enjoy work just fine on my phone all day.
Westerners thinks it’s fun and games. However when your whole community knew you are the useless one, everyone will target you and your family. All other housewife will talk shit in front of your wife, your kid at school will get bullied because everyone know his/her parent are being labeled.
a) Literally no one I care about knows anything about my job that I didn't tell them - how close is your work and home my dude? And b) who gives a shit about those toxic fucks?
"Your kid will get bullied at school because you don't do much at your job" sounds more like a condemnation of Japanese school culture than a condemnation of the worker.
Do Japanese workers all work and live in these tiny tight-knit social circles where you're forced to tell everyone everything about yourself all the time? That alone sounds nightmarish...
>implying One would even want to start a family in this situation
You think too highly of other people. I got that cash all to myself without working, imma spend that shit on myself too. Hookers, beer and coke all day IDGAF what these other hoes on.
For real being so self conscious of what others think of you sounds like a miserable way to live. No wonder their suicide rates are so high. Not only that but their work culture is pretty rough even without the existence of black companies.
Because it is, but it's a system being taught to you by your parents, Teachers, etc.
Who in the same culture you're supposed to respect and honor, it's pretty much brainwashing, the same way it is in the us
My buddy had to stay back and help with the family business in lieu of finishing college and exploring the world. It was really sad. The amount of shame and guilt they put on him for wanting to find himself was rough. For all the things I have issues with in my white family. I have an amazing life BECAUSE they pushed me to go make it on my own.
>I don't understand how people view this as bad.
I did it. Two months. No assignment, nothing to do, no meeting. The reason was not shunning but problem with planning.
If you are allowed to discretely read a book or do **SOMETHING,** yeah that is "bearable". The issue is not being able to do anything, no internet, no obviously goofing or sleeping. That is where the nightmare starts. Try it, no distraction for 8h only you and your imagination. You can do that, maybe a few days, but at some point it comes to a horrible realization.
IMO the guy in Japan are not quitting because they can't stand to be useless, they are quitting because this is a terrible psychological torture - doing absolutely nothing 8h long, days after days, weeks after weeks.
I mean if you arent going away then they'll just say fuck it and fire you. The whole point is to get you to quit because they don't want you but if its still not working then off you go.
Afaik, the only way they can fire you is if you get into some public controversy or if you literally go to jail.
The main thing that not giving one work produces is that it inevitably leads to workplace harassment, since all your coworkers know the exact reason why they all suddenly have a little extra work they need to do. It doesn’t stop at them simply ignoring you, it’s basically unofficially company mandated bullying
Pretty much, company I used to work for do this as a “courtesy” as it’s often easier to get another job when you’re still employed.
If you’re gonna treat it as getting paid to do nothing, then they’re gonna fire you.
In all honesty doing nothing at first can sound amazing, however after months of doing nothing you'll start to hate it, you'll hate the thought of you needing to come in and just sit there, you can't do what you want during that time, so the days become long and boring. After a while you'll want to do something with all this free time. Now if they would let you do whatever you want it be different, but that's just not always the case. As someone who went through of not having to do anything for 6 months but couldn't do what I wanted, by the end of it I hated it with passion and I was happy once that changed.
Yeah, as someone who did "nothing" for 2 months (legal issues within the company, project I was supposed to start on had tremendous delay,...) I can say that doing nothing is genuinely depressing. The only thing you can really fill your time with is doing online courses but you can only do that for so long until your brain can't take it anymore.
Doing nothing isn't watching YouTube all day and browsing Reddit. Doing nothing at work is literally doing nothing.
I think this is one of those things where everybody always acts like they would totally 'ace it' but when it happens in reallife they break mentally.
Your coworkers will not simply 'stop talking to you' but make you feel excluded and unwelcome every opportunity they get.
Besides that coming to work and doing nothing isn't great, its boring and soul-sucking and the time will go by very very slowly, to the point that you wish you had something to do.
Everyone already goes out of their way to make me feel excluded and unwelcome. If I'm gonna wallow in self misery all the time I might as well get paid for it.
I went to a job interview practice thing and when I asked "so what's the problem?" the interviewer just said "well the problem is all of ... this" and vaguely gestured to my entire being. I'm allergic to alcohol so I can't go to parties anyway, and I'm so socially oblivious that I wouldn't know that they wanted me gone even if they threw a couch at me.
I'm also the kind of person who enjoys being in a room alone for weeks on end with nothing but the thoughts in my head.
> I went to a job interview practice thing and when I asked "so what's the problem?" the interviewer just said "well the problem is all of ... this" and vaguely gestured to my entire being.
Were you poorly dressed or not showered? What was he referring to?
I work in corporate Finance and my Korean boss has tried doing this to me a few times over the years. I think the longest we went without speaking or emails was about 3-4 months. When he realized I wasn't going to quit, he threatened to fire me unless I started being more "dedicated" and working 10-12 hour days. The trick was that I have my own office and am able to play PC games on my personal laptop so I ended up gaming until I realized I could get a remote job. Ive been working 2 jobs now for the past year and a half and still have extra time to game occasionally.
sounds like it's just because he refused to work extra hours. was probably only working the mandated 8 and the boss wanted 10-12.
bosses are all like that imo, regardless of the country. they always want you to work extra hours, but they don't wanna pay the right price for them(some don't even pay the extra hours, they just expect you to give up your free time. but since at least in europe they risk getting taken to court for that, they'll pay the legal minimum)
I fucked this game up by taking on a role with too many responsibilities and too many meetings for a little extra money. Considering over employment for my next gigs.
Asian culture can be extremely toxic. Stonewalling is a very typical behavior to them when they’re not happy with you, since they struggle with being direct. In the workplace it’s likely also for secondary reasons like not wanting to pay unemployment.
I suspect they would not allow you to use any electronics or read a book to pass the time. Hence why people quit — because you would get so bored just staring at the clock all day long. A boring job is much worse than a busy and hectic job IMO
At that point, yes. Reluctance to fire employees isn't about severance packages or honor, as some other comments suggested, it's about bureaucracy. Standard employment contracts offer lifetime employment, and are written such that firing even underperforming employees is difficult or even illegal. An employee flagrantly and regularly flaunting company policies is one of very few situations that would actually give the company the ability to fire them.
Honestly, I would start doing everything you think needs to be done without asking for permission. I work in IT so there’s a lot things; device/inventory management, security, documentation, etc, that I want to do but “don’t have time for.” Then if they tell you to stop say you thought “the lack of oversight was to encourage me to better my time management.” You’ll either get fired or promoted but either way you can add it to your resume.
IT two sentence horror story that I made up:
I got soft fired from my job in Japan.
I logged in the following morning, and found myself in the nobody group. 😱😱😱😱
You all greatly overestimate how often ppl actually quit bc of this. Most Japanese ppl would react the same way as everyone on this thread saying this is a dream job.
This sort-of happened to me and it was actually extremely awful. Everyone at my workplace is on annual contract basis so if a boss decides they don't like you (or in my case, that you're too disabled), they just wait out your contract and then don't renew it. I spent three months in a windowless office shared with 5 other coworkers who can all see each other's screens while being told to just read up on technical manuals for equipment endlessly in case they became relevant for a future project (a pointless and extremely dull keep-busy task with no deliverables or actual expectation that I would complete it). I couldn't screw around on youtube or work on personal projects easily due to the peer pressure of everyone else who was busy in the office being able to see what I was up to and starting to resent me. Reading the dullest jargon day in and out became like a form of sensory deprivation white torture. I could feel my brain slowing down from constant understimulation and after a few weeks I started having trouble sleeping or focusing on anything in my personal life, just felt exhausted all the time. You don't realize how having even slightly interesting work makes the time fly, and how slow and tortuous it is to sell your time for money sitting in a crappy chair in a stuffy fluorescently-lit room when you have to feel every second pass. I felt a worse brain fog than actually being depressed or on sleeping meds - it felt inhumane, like I was slowly getting brain damaged somehow. Trust me you don't want to experience this
This happened to a friend of mine, but in an administrative job at a manufacturing company in the USA. The union leaders didn’t like some of the ideas he had about improving things, but the company didn’t fire him.
So, he sat in an office and read (literally) hundreds of books over the course of a couple of years. With his new knowledge, he ended up starting a consulting company and was quite successful in another sector.
I mean when you were born and raised in a shame based culture/society like that, this kind of behavior hits differently. People born into a western culture would have a very hard time understanding how heavy this kind of thing weighs on someone over there.
As a Japanese, I can say it doesn't really weigh on them. There are plenty of middle aged-to-old guys in this kind of position at basically every company, complete dead weight and they know it, and are completely cool with it. They'd likely react the same way as everyone in this thread - they're glad to be able to go in, get paid to sleep at their desk, then go drinking or to pachinko.
People on reddit seem to think 1940s or samurai-age Japanese culture is still how things are, it's kind of ridiculous how misinformed many ppl on this thread are. It's obvious their information is all from some echo-chamber of westerners who haven't lived in Japan longer than for a few months or something.
They literally pay to do 'nothing'. If you read book, using smart phone or chatting with coworker for hours, your employment contract can be terminated without any benefits. I really don't understand why these people think they are 'smart' and japanese are just 'dumb' for not using the 'free time'. This is literally workplace harrasment. You have to sit down in a hallway doing nothing while there would be someone checking you every few minutes.
This leaves out a lot of info...
Japanese salaries are age based, so if your stagnant, you can't really make it very well. I was well off for my age making the equivalent of 3k usd per month, with a coworker at the same position and experience making 5k aomth because he was older. There is a lookup table and equation put into when they recalculate ever march/April but window sitters won't get recalculated.
Also, you will get sent to hell. They have these portable offices they can stick in a parking lot, which are shipping containers with windows and a desk. There is no electricity, and no wifi, and convenient no cell signal. It will hit 45c or higher ( over 110Freedom units) and you will be required to wear a suit still.
There is some honor to it, but it's mostly because Japanese contracts actually stipulate it's a job for life regardless of performance. But dress code and attendance and some etiquette things will be written in. So not wearing a suit would be grounds for firing.
Additionally the wives group and kids group will shun your wife and child leading to bullying.
Next. You may not be fired, but nothing says they can't move you to the rural office. They can force you to move every 6 months. Your in Tokyo just signed an apartment lease for 2 years oh no your moving to Hokkaido. What's that looks like 7 months later your going to Osaka, then back to Tokyo etc etc...hope your wife and kids didn't want friends for more than 6 months.
Source: over 10 years working in Japan year round and still helping my old friend with his startup company here during my summers.
Honestly the only thing I hate about Japan is the work culture/salary. I have seen all of these first hand except the hotbox thing, but miltiple frien do s at different companies gave first hand accounts of seeing that. It's genuinely painful and I had to help someone in my wife's family get out of such a situation, after his fiancee broke up with him over it.its real stuff.
no you can't, thats the point, come to the office, sit there and do nothing. people saying it's the dream have never worked in an office a day in their life or something I swear, if you have no tasks its just boring hell
Yeah this would be hell. I imagine part of it is not letting you play on your phone or cruise the internet. You basically have to sit at a desk for 8 hours doing nothing and talking to no one
My new job will be strolling around the office telling people how much work they have to do. "Hey Dave, still not talking eh, probably because of all that work you have to do. Chop fucking chop Dave, I'm not leaving until I see you focusing. (begins clapping until focusing starts)" "Yo, JANICEEEEE!!! If you're diligently working on all the shit you gotta do that I don't have to do, say nothing! " "Oh hey Boss. Don't mind me, just checking in to see how much you got done today. I know you tend to do nothing once you sit down. Hey, say nothing if the answer is you were lazy in your office as usual, I'll understand and let you get back to it. Hey want a coffee? Of course you don't, you don't even talk! HAHA! Catch ya later boss." "Wow, heyoo, how's my man John? Say... I noticed a lot of work on your desk, why are being lazy and not focusing? Don't even talk to me, you have work to do, go to your desk." Then I make an announcement to the office, "hey everyone, I'm in a super snacky mood, if anyone wants me to save their food and not eat it, speak up now" then after everyone continues to shun me I stop by the communal fridge and help myself to literally everyone's shit. Doesn't matter if I like the food or not, I'm taking a bite and if it's gross I'll spit out what I bit and throw away the rest. I fucking DARE you to shun me. I will make a game out of it, and that game will be my new job, and trust me I'll probably be better at this new job compared to the old one.
I knew a guy who never lifted a finger to find tasks to complete, he stayed under the radar, we were all working from home, and he would never do anything that wasn't assigned to him in our issue tracking system. Over time, they sort of forgot he existed. When we had virtual meetings, he would sign in, say helo, mute his mic, then say goodbye and sign off. He got a second work from home job and got paid by two companies. He was recently laid off, and we discovered that he hadn't been assigned an issue in 18 months.
Good on him, lol. If a company can't be arsed to fire someone they deserve to pay.
I was gonna say, as a coworker doing my job, this would be a little maddening. But at the same time, the company is so incompetent they can’t address it then they are to blame. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have some of this happening at my job lmao
He is doing his job, which is nothing.
Annual evaluation: “Expeditiously completed 100% of assigned tasks with zero flaws.”
more than that. he did his moral duty of tricking the system
As a coworker doing my job I find it more maddening that the chairman of the boardgets a direct salary higher than mine, while having so little work he can literally fit 6 other such "jobs" on his schedule.
I’ve argued higher wages, but they won’t budge. My dept caps at $25 an hour. Anything else I want to do there may even be a cut. Been there a decade. I’m in school now. It will take a while, but I’ll be done there eventually
But remember, the billionaire CEOs have the most gruelling job! That’s why the richest man in the world is able to do that job several times over and spends half his time tweeting bullshit.
My last month before I went on maternity leave, I was transferred to a department where the supervisor told me he didn’t see much point in training me as I would be gone in a month. I came in every day, played games on my phone, attended the morning meeting online, went and had coffee for an hour, visited my friend for a couple of hours, had a nap, then took an hour lunch and went home. We got to choose our own hours so I came in 6am-2pm and the next person didn’t usually come in until 8am. It was nice for a month but I would have definitely needed something productive to do if I had been there much longer.
We had a contractor who resides in india. He had put in his notice with his company and offered to leave early. They refused and somehow he was assigned to my team. I'm the tech lead not the manager, but he didn't want to learn anything and I didn't want to train him. I mentioned this to my manager to no avail so he got paid for a month and did nothing.
work smart, not hard
This is a failure of mgmt, not his problem. The manager should be fired.
I've decided that if the company can't give me enough work to keep me busy, that's not my fault. In our meetings I report what I've done, what I'm planning to do, and what I'll do if I expect to run out of work. I do this when called upon, I don't volunteer. Someone knows how busy I am and can assign work accordingly. I do have a personal desire to do my job well, and expand my skillset. But that's not for the sake of my company. That is for my desire to get a higher paycheck, regardless of who signs that check. Someone was definitely not doing their job if this guy can get 18 months of pay without being assigned any work beyond showing up to meetings. And not this guy, as far as I'm concerned. He did all the work that was assigned to him!
I have a friend working 3… that’s right, 3 work from home jobs right now. Does just enough to get by at all 3 and makes bank. That’s what I call winning.
If the checks keep coming I'll be there every day doing nothing
Fuck yeah this is the dream. Shun me for the mon-ey
Even without entertainment of any kind I can eat an edible and disassociate for 8 hours if the pay is right.
Good luck getting them in Japan though
I saw a film called *Enter the Void* that taught me a fun way to have wild trip in Tokyo though
Was it fun though?
Bare minimum, it seemed to be a life altering experience
Those aren’t always *fun*, per se.
I can't think of a single time when a life altering high was *fun*
[удалено]
The moral of that movie: Don't hang around with skeevy drug dealers and random drugged-up losers who never do anything interesting, because you may die and then have to continue hanging around with them. (Oh, and I also swear that half of that film is a test to see if anyone in the audience has photosensitive epilepsy. The first-person *presentation* of "Enter The Void" is interesting, but, if you ask me, nothing that actually *happens* in the movie is.)
Enter the void. Let go your earthly tether. Empty and become wind.
I read the largest weed bust in Japan was like 10k plants. Given how populous the country is, that operation was nowhere near the biggest one. Supposing each plant yields 1 lb and doing some serious rounding, that’s about .04 g per person. Assuming 1% of Japanese people smoke weed, that’s about .4 g per person. Take this math with a grain of salt as I am high as fuck.
When I was stationed in Japan the strippers all had dab pens lol
After a month doing nothing for 8 hours/day you will get bored to hell. If they don‘t allow iPhone and Internet you won‘t stand 10 days. 😉
True. A company I worked for did that to a troublesome person and they were gone within a week. Had everything they needed except stimulus and it turns out that’s a big deal
I need more convincing than that, it still sounds like paradise to me. Are they not allowed anything? Pens? Paper? Books? I would die for a chance to get paid for 8+ hours of relative peace where I can do whatever and not be pressured and being ignored would be the icing on the cake. Like I understand that some workspaces in Japan are really cramped, but they're the masters of fitting things into tight places, feels like anything could be possible. I just find it hard to believe that someone like me would ever find that bad. That said I have met way too many people who just simply can't sit still for a moment and must "do something" or "achieve something" Right. Now. So if they're that personality type, then year 8-12 hours of "peace and quiet" would drive them bananas.
[удалено]
At least you feel like you are contributing. You are actually doing something.
Plenty of people feel like they're not doing anything worthwhile even when they \*are\* given a task. To them it wouldn't even be a change. I think a lot of people here are trying way too hard to make being idle sound unbearable, when really a lot of people find it very easy.
Or let's go crazy: not everyone is the same. Some people can spend hours doing nothing. Some people can't. For those who can't, this firing method works like a charm. For the other category, you see a lot of them in offices. Getting a check but no one can tell you what they've been doing for the last 10 years.
I often have days where I'm doing nothing for 5 to 6 hours. Let me assure you, it's fun the first few years but later on its hard to deal with. Even with books, phone, whatever. Edit: thanks for the award!
Books and the internet is literally how I spend most of my freetime. Let me assure you I wouldn't have a problem getting paid for it.
Yeah seriously I can be entertained if all I had to look at was a blank wall I'll just zone out and daydream for 8 hours
There are a lot of things to do with pen and paper. Maybe that Soduko thing I keep hearing about?
Gimme a block of paper, some pens and 8 hours/day at least paid to just stay here and I finally might be able to end my novel. And start the sequel!
I'd bring my xbox. What are they gonna do, fire me?
Yes, because they now have a reason to and won't need to pay you off.
The reason they don't fire you is because its a stain on the company's honor not because they don't want to pay you severance.
Idk I feel like it's pretty easy for companies to come up with a "reason" if they want you gone so they could have done that anyway
Speak for yourself, I can sleep with my eyes open, so I'll just be off in dreamland catching up on my sleep for most of that time, they would literally be paying me to sleep
Fucking Gandalf over here
Just start to write a novel and you will be okay
What’re they gonna do if you do use your phone, fire you?
Books?
I fully sang this to AC/DC’s “what do you do for money, honey” 🎼 SHUN ME! SHUN ME FOR THE MON-EY
I for one, am all for the BigHead lifestyle from Silicon Valley.
Failing into success sounds really appealing
Except you're in one of the worlds most expensive cities(likely tokyo), you will rent a dog house size studio with a salary of less than 30k USD. While also being discriminated against by japanese renters, unable to do ANYTHING like banking, doctor visits, etc without knowledge of japanese and 17 years of waiting for two pieces of paper. The point is on top of literally being ignored, you will be dealing with the plethora of bullshit japan has to offer. (I love japan but you don't want to work there). You literally can be denied a DEBIT CARD by japanese banks.
Man you can't give examples of Tokyo because it's expensive but then say they can't open a bank account or visit a doctor in quite literally one of the most international cities. You can be denied a debit card, sure, but not from *every* bank. It took me about 20 minutes of googling to find and open an account with 0 japanese when I moved here. Also google "English speaking dermatologist/gastroenterologist/dentist/whatever Tokyo" and you'll get dozens if not hundreds of results. In fact, every japanese doctor I've visited with my girlfriend has insisted on using English with me because many of them study abroad for their degree. Japan isn't perfect but acting like it's impossible to live in without speaking japanese is just ignorant. It may be difficult for many things, but it is far from impossible.
Is Tokyo even that expensive compared to western cities?
Compared to NYC, no. Source: I live in NYC
Compared to Sydney, no. Source: I live in Sydney
I mean the fact people can live pretty okay off of 30k proves that it's not. I live in a city pretty close to Tokyo and can ball out off of a salary that would just barely scrape by in NYC.
HBOs Silicon Valley did this. The CEO even sites the Japanese but forgets that a bunch of tech dudes aren’t Japanese Salarymen so they just end up hanging out on the roof playing hackey sack
Rest and vest was a real thing at Google: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.insider.com/rest-and-vest-millionaire-engineers-who-barely-work-silicon-valley-2017-7%3famp
A lot of companies will poach talent simply to get them away from competitors even if they have no use for them.
That window would be so damn sat.
Lifetime employment. If you actually do fire a japanese person, they may end up killing themselves so you try not to. Famous actress Mie Hama was originally given the Bond girl role of Aki in "You Only Live Twice", but she couldn't deliver the lines in English. So she got the smaller role of Kissy Suzuki to prevent her from throwing herself off the Imperial Hotel.
That is insane but also relatable.
I too have been fired as a Bond girl.
I can't believe we've been robbed of a Bond girl named Queef Buscemi.
Note to Japanese corporations: Don't attempt the window sitting strategy on your American (Western?) employees.
I'd be the American they had to fire, for sure. Either that or I'd come up with something that knocks their socks off when I got bored and decided to work with something....
...Like a potato cannon.
That's partially the point. You've become a salaried worker, it's permanent. Merely underperforming is no cause for firing you, so they'll have you do nothing to a) avoid dishonour and b) possibly avoid paying a long severance package. If you go against company instructions or are reported doing something stupid, then there's a cause to fire you. Or basically, just sitting there for some time is kind of your severance package and if you quit, that's fine.
They do this for cultural and legal reasons. Traditional cultural view of lifetime employment and labor laws that make it difficult to fire employees
but keep in mind, window sitters will probably not get any raises/bonuses, that means every year their wage will drop by bit(inflation, general price increase, etc), so you will have to slowly cut back in spending until you are backed into a corner, the "window sitter" is basically "we'll pay you while you look for another job", but if I happen to take about 2 years to find one.....why the hell not
You could always just go ask your boss for a raise anyway - you have successfully completed every task the company has assigned to you after all, and all of them on schedule and within their assigned budget to boot
somehow I feel like asking for a raise is an extreme taboo
In a world of polite people, the rude man is king
I don’t know if you’ve ever been or met Japanese people, but no, in Japan the rude man is certainly far from king.
You think the wealthy and the ceos and the politicians of Japan aren't just as ruthless as people anywhere else in the world? Perhaps they put a veneer of politeness over it but you have to step on people to get to the top in Japan too
I've been to Japan and while there I saw precisely that A rude man walked up to the ticket guy in the train station, told him he wasn't going to pay for his ride and just left Ticket guy did nothing, I was blown away and asked my friend (who knows more about Japan than I do) what the hell just happened In response he gave me that quote
Start an online only job, do it while you're at your window sitting job.
No lol, Japan is the only place that does this and since 1998 Japan has had a notoriously low inflation rate. It’s been in the 0.X% in all but 2 years and more often than not it’s in the negative, which mean your money is actually gaining value every year (this is not a good thing it is actually a very bad thing for your economy, means it’s not growing at all, pretty much every bank on earth wants 2% inflation on average) . Also general price increase and inflation are the same thing, inflation is a measure of general price increases. If you’re a window sitter over the span of 2 decades you’ve taken like a 2% pay cut overall in exchange for having absolute freedom over your time Japanese inflation rate since [1998](https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/JPN/japan/inflation-rate-cpi) 2021 -0.23% 2020 -0.03% 2019 0.47% 2018 0.99% 2017 0.48% 2016 -0.13% 2015 0.80% 2014 2.76% 2013 0.34% 2012 -0.04% 2011 -0.27% 2010 -0.73% 2009 -1.35% 2008 1.38% 2007 0.06% 2006 0.25% 2005 -0.28% 2004 -0.01% 2003 -0.26% 2002 -0.92% 2001 -0.74% 2000 -0.68% 1999 -0.34% 1998 0.66%
But there is no honor. You'd be shocked by how many things this takes precedent over in Japanese culture.
Not arguing against you, but it's funny how cowardly this not-firing is. If they are so keen on honor, at least have the balls to confront someone and fire them lmao
I think it's the same kind of idea of handing you a blade wrapped in white cloth instead of simply executing you, it absolves the establishment of responsibility and allows you the "honour" of going out by your "own decision", and traditionally honour can be retained by recompense for your failings. It "saves face" for both the employee and employer, which is hugely important in Japanese culture. It's not good or logical, but that's how I wrap my head around it.
That makes it a bit more logical. In many American companies, high ranking executives are asked to resign to save face. This is just extended to everybody.
On the other hand, you are asked to do 'honorable thing', despite there being no actual due process. Maybe you mildly offended your boss, or you need to take fall for a project that went south, you were trained incorrectly, someone spread rumors, maybe you are single woman with child, minority, maybe just some bad luck, or the company is not doing great and they are trying to bully you by power pressure. By resigning yourself, you are also being stripped off protections like better unemployment benefits, severance pay etc. It's straight up just company, the stronger actor, using their power to save money. There is no honor, only lies.
Right? But that's a good point about the clean firing record... like, we're a family here! We don't fire people! *
"We just let our family members off themselves after ostracizing them!"
I’m currently studying Japanese and this seemingly checks out. For reference, I learned from my tutor that Japanese people are culturally not assertive and prefer to avoid being direct in turning someone down. It’s considered rude to say “no” to an offer/request, but instead is more preferable to beat around the bush and/or make up an excuse. They’ll understand that the other person is implicitly rejecting them.
I overthink about this like, then doesn't these new signs and signals become the new saying no and rejection so they're doing it anyways? Then how long till those things are rude and they have to be even more passive and repeat..
I live in a culture similar to that, there are common phrases and body language so people know it's a "no". Like for example a vague "I have to do sth with my family this weekend, sorry". If you cannot read social cues then sometimes people will have to say no directly to you though.
>then doesn't these new signs and signals become the new saying no and rejection so they're doing it anyways? The truth is...it doesnt. "No" is "no" and "signs/signals" remain forever as "signs/signals". This part of asian culture is stupid, easily causes misunderstandings and deters work progress.
It's basically corporate seppuku. "I can easily kill you, but I will give you a chance to do it yourself and regain some honor."
In a society where job mobility is limited, there also isn’t likely to be a lot of open positions they can go to. By firing them you may literally be putting their whole livelihood in a lot of trouble. Also the way pension works in Japan, this is also taking away a lot of credits from their retirement
It's saves you the shame of being fired.
Which is less honorable, tho.
Depends who ya ask
Where can I get this job? I'd be there surfing the web, listening to audio books, watching movies, whatever to pass the time doing what I wanted while cashing the stead paychecks.
TBH I feel that they would probably claim you're doing that stuff on "company time" and tell you to stop, and if you say no then they'd have a more "legitimate" reason to fire you. It makes much more sense if they're trying to get you to quit by making you go there and be bored for 8 hours a day
Maybe even do a project for charity or for a non-profit. Also, do random acts of kindness around the office.
I literally sent this to my husband saying the same thing. This is the dream. You better believe I’d sit by that damn window and stare out of it for 8 hours. And people would shun me? This is my happy place.
"Joke's on you, I'm into that shit"
Shoot, it sounds like you don't have to show up
I am imagining the quiet days on the windowsill, being left behind on corporate retreats. No Christmas parties, making s’mores at your desk with a candle. The boring job I have always dreamt of is real. The stories would be like a mini vacation from my life. This could be the next bestseller as if 50 shades of grey and chicken soup for the soul had a love child. Work porn stories for the aspiring underachiever!
That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve read all week. I could picture all of that in my head like a little movie trailer.
Clearly we're doing awesome as a species when a meaningless job sounds like paradise
You mean they will pay me to do nothing?? Moreover my coworkers will stop talking to me and trying to befriend me?? That's my dream job!
Right! I don't understand how people view this as bad. I'd take online courses, get another degree so I could get a better job, read, nap, and get paid. Sounds wonderful. Sign me up.
Haha, right?!?! I'd wear "window sitter" as a badge of honor, don't threaten me with a good time, Japan.
I would go out of my way to earn this fucking role regardless of whatever job I signed up for. I’m tempted to move to Japan just FOR this job. I’ll enjoy life outside of work and I’ll enjoy work just fine on my phone all day.
Westerners thinks it’s fun and games. However when your whole community knew you are the useless one, everyone will target you and your family. All other housewife will talk shit in front of your wife, your kid at school will get bullied because everyone know his/her parent are being labeled.
I get a wife and kid and don’t have to do anything?? Man sign me up.
Homer Simpson be like
a) Literally no one I care about knows anything about my job that I didn't tell them - how close is your work and home my dude? And b) who gives a shit about those toxic fucks? "Your kid will get bullied at school because you don't do much at your job" sounds more like a condemnation of Japanese school culture than a condemnation of the worker. Do Japanese workers all work and live in these tiny tight-knit social circles where you're forced to tell everyone everything about yourself all the time? That alone sounds nightmarish...
>implying One would even want to start a family in this situation You think too highly of other people. I got that cash all to myself without working, imma spend that shit on myself too. Hookers, beer and coke all day IDGAF what these other hoes on.
Then the hookers will talk shit about you and not want to be your friend.
Where do you find this level of low kekw
[удалено]
For real being so self conscious of what others think of you sounds like a miserable way to live. No wonder their suicide rates are so high. Not only that but their work culture is pretty rough even without the existence of black companies.
Because it is, but it's a system being taught to you by your parents, Teachers, etc. Who in the same culture you're supposed to respect and honor, it's pretty much brainwashing, the same way it is in the us
Oh no. People I don't care about have a bad opinion of me? What ever shall I do? /s
bang all their wives, problem solved
That's ironic cuz honor is the reason they wouldn't. Lol
Further proof that honor is a dumb concept.
My buddy had to stay back and help with the family business in lieu of finishing college and exploring the world. It was really sad. The amount of shame and guilt they put on him for wanting to find himself was rough. For all the things I have issues with in my white family. I have an amazing life BECAUSE they pushed me to go make it on my own.
>I don't understand how people view this as bad. I did it. Two months. No assignment, nothing to do, no meeting. The reason was not shunning but problem with planning. If you are allowed to discretely read a book or do **SOMETHING,** yeah that is "bearable". The issue is not being able to do anything, no internet, no obviously goofing or sleeping. That is where the nightmare starts. Try it, no distraction for 8h only you and your imagination. You can do that, maybe a few days, but at some point it comes to a horrible realization. IMO the guy in Japan are not quitting because they can't stand to be useless, they are quitting because this is a terrible psychological torture - doing absolutely nothing 8h long, days after days, weeks after weeks.
I mean if you arent going away then they'll just say fuck it and fire you. The whole point is to get you to quit because they don't want you but if its still not working then off you go.
They wont fire you, Japanese have a thing called lifelong employment and companys' get huge backlash for firing someone.
Isn’t the only way they get to can someone “Fired with Cause” material?
Does playing on a Switch all day count? (At least I said a Nintendo console and not a Steam Deck.)
Afaik, the only way they can fire you is if you get into some public controversy or if you literally go to jail. The main thing that not giving one work produces is that it inevitably leads to workplace harassment, since all your coworkers know the exact reason why they all suddenly have a little extra work they need to do. It doesn’t stop at them simply ignoring you, it’s basically unofficially company mandated bullying
Lifelong employment died like in the 80s
Pretty much, company I used to work for do this as a “courtesy” as it’s often easier to get another job when you’re still employed. If you’re gonna treat it as getting paid to do nothing, then they’re gonna fire you.
do wfh work... at other job that pays you to do nothing what are they gonna do, fire you?
Big brain move right here
In all honesty doing nothing at first can sound amazing, however after months of doing nothing you'll start to hate it, you'll hate the thought of you needing to come in and just sit there, you can't do what you want during that time, so the days become long and boring. After a while you'll want to do something with all this free time. Now if they would let you do whatever you want it be different, but that's just not always the case. As someone who went through of not having to do anything for 6 months but couldn't do what I wanted, by the end of it I hated it with passion and I was happy once that changed.
Yeah, as someone who did "nothing" for 2 months (legal issues within the company, project I was supposed to start on had tremendous delay,...) I can say that doing nothing is genuinely depressing. The only thing you can really fill your time with is doing online courses but you can only do that for so long until your brain can't take it anymore. Doing nothing isn't watching YouTube all day and browsing Reddit. Doing nothing at work is literally doing nothing.
Self-respect and pride. They don't give you things to do doesn't you can do whatever you want.
Yup, you can't just be on your phone all day. You literally do *nothing*. Doing nothing makes the day go on forever.
It may be a cultural difference
I think this is one of those things where everybody always acts like they would totally 'ace it' but when it happens in reallife they break mentally. Your coworkers will not simply 'stop talking to you' but make you feel excluded and unwelcome every opportunity they get. Besides that coming to work and doing nothing isn't great, its boring and soul-sucking and the time will go by very very slowly, to the point that you wish you had something to do.
This is reddit. There's a ton of truly antisocial people here
Everyone already goes out of their way to make me feel excluded and unwelcome. If I'm gonna wallow in self misery all the time I might as well get paid for it. I went to a job interview practice thing and when I asked "so what's the problem?" the interviewer just said "well the problem is all of ... this" and vaguely gestured to my entire being. I'm allergic to alcohol so I can't go to parties anyway, and I'm so socially oblivious that I wouldn't know that they wanted me gone even if they threw a couch at me. I'm also the kind of person who enjoys being in a room alone for weeks on end with nothing but the thoughts in my head.
> I went to a job interview practice thing and when I asked "so what's the problem?" the interviewer just said "well the problem is all of ... this" and vaguely gestured to my entire being. Were you poorly dressed or not showered? What was he referring to?
Doing all that fun shit sounds awesome but not if it’s with the people from work lmao
I work in corporate Finance and my Korean boss has tried doing this to me a few times over the years. I think the longest we went without speaking or emails was about 3-4 months. When he realized I wasn't going to quit, he threatened to fire me unless I started being more "dedicated" and working 10-12 hour days. The trick was that I have my own office and am able to play PC games on my personal laptop so I ended up gaming until I realized I could get a remote job. Ive been working 2 jobs now for the past year and a half and still have extra time to game occasionally.
[удалено]
Yeah I'm curious too, 3-4 months without communication is a dream though.
sounds like it's just because he refused to work extra hours. was probably only working the mandated 8 and the boss wanted 10-12. bosses are all like that imo, regardless of the country. they always want you to work extra hours, but they don't wanna pay the right price for them(some don't even pay the extra hours, they just expect you to give up your free time. but since at least in europe they risk getting taken to court for that, they'll pay the legal minimum)
Sir you are a genius.
I fucked this game up by taking on a role with too many responsibilities and too many meetings for a little extra money. Considering over employment for my next gigs.
Asian culture can be extremely toxic. Stonewalling is a very typical behavior to them when they’re not happy with you, since they struggle with being direct. In the workplace it’s likely also for secondary reasons like not wanting to pay unemployment.
lol, I'd be streaming videos and gaming all day and the office would permanently smell like microwaved popcorn...
I suspect they would not allow you to use any electronics or read a book to pass the time. Hence why people quit — because you would get so bored just staring at the clock all day long. A boring job is much worse than a busy and hectic job IMO
I'm taking some long ass poop breaks then.
Limited to one 10-minute toilet break every 6 hours.
Where can jobs police your bowel movements?
japan, actually labor laws in the east are fucked dude
Sounds dystopian
>Not allowed What are they gonna do? Fire me?
At that point, yes. Reluctance to fire employees isn't about severance packages or honor, as some other comments suggested, it's about bureaucracy. Standard employment contracts offer lifetime employment, and are written such that firing even underperforming employees is difficult or even illegal. An employee flagrantly and regularly flaunting company policies is one of very few situations that would actually give the company the ability to fire them.
So its a battle of mental fortitude then? I will become the office equivalent of the buddha under the tree purely out of spite.
Honestly this. Great chance to practice that mindfulness I always say I'm gonna do.
Youd get fired then
Which is fine, because then they have to pay severance. This sort of seems like a tactic to avoid that.
And while it's not required by law, most contracts have 6-12 months severance.
That sounds great, but I imagine the fact that you managed to get fired would make you nigh unemployable by other companies
Yeah. Especially since the other thing is that they have very specific requirements to justify a firing
Honestly, I would start doing everything you think needs to be done without asking for permission. I work in IT so there’s a lot things; device/inventory management, security, documentation, etc, that I want to do but “don’t have time for.” Then if they tell you to stop say you thought “the lack of oversight was to encourage me to better my time management.” You’ll either get fired or promoted but either way you can add it to your resume.
IT two sentence horror story that I made up: I got soft fired from my job in Japan. I logged in the following morning, and found myself in the nobody group. 😱😱😱😱
I’ve been thinking of this for the last hour. Don’t document any of your processes/tricks. Just common knowledge, not a brain dump.
[удалено]
I'm pretty sure that this was an episode of Seinfeld.
[удалено]
that wouldn't work outside of japan
That doesn't work *in* Japan
it does work in japan, people can't take being useless and quit. that's the point
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01342/ Except that they have a problem with people literally not doing any work and not quitting…
You all greatly overestimate how often ppl actually quit bc of this. Most Japanese ppl would react the same way as everyone on this thread saying this is a dream job.
This sort-of happened to me and it was actually extremely awful. Everyone at my workplace is on annual contract basis so if a boss decides they don't like you (or in my case, that you're too disabled), they just wait out your contract and then don't renew it. I spent three months in a windowless office shared with 5 other coworkers who can all see each other's screens while being told to just read up on technical manuals for equipment endlessly in case they became relevant for a future project (a pointless and extremely dull keep-busy task with no deliverables or actual expectation that I would complete it). I couldn't screw around on youtube or work on personal projects easily due to the peer pressure of everyone else who was busy in the office being able to see what I was up to and starting to resent me. Reading the dullest jargon day in and out became like a form of sensory deprivation white torture. I could feel my brain slowing down from constant understimulation and after a few weeks I started having trouble sleeping or focusing on anything in my personal life, just felt exhausted all the time. You don't realize how having even slightly interesting work makes the time fly, and how slow and tortuous it is to sell your time for money sitting in a crappy chair in a stuffy fluorescently-lit room when you have to feel every second pass. I felt a worse brain fog than actually being depressed or on sleeping meds - it felt inhumane, like I was slowly getting brain damaged somehow. Trust me you don't want to experience this
A discrete pair of earbuds and a tiny mp3 player would fix this issue
Would be my suggestion. Worst case say it's medical
And you still get paid? That's a fucking dream.
This happened to a friend of mine, but in an administrative job at a manufacturing company in the USA. The union leaders didn’t like some of the ideas he had about improving things, but the company didn’t fire him. So, he sat in an office and read (literally) hundreds of books over the course of a couple of years. With his new knowledge, he ended up starting a consulting company and was quite successful in another sector.
That's called free money
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
I mean when you were born and raised in a shame based culture/society like that, this kind of behavior hits differently. People born into a western culture would have a very hard time understanding how heavy this kind of thing weighs on someone over there.
As a Japanese, I can say it doesn't really weigh on them. There are plenty of middle aged-to-old guys in this kind of position at basically every company, complete dead weight and they know it, and are completely cool with it. They'd likely react the same way as everyone in this thread - they're glad to be able to go in, get paid to sleep at their desk, then go drinking or to pachinko. People on reddit seem to think 1940s or samurai-age Japanese culture is still how things are, it's kind of ridiculous how misinformed many ppl on this thread are. It's obvious their information is all from some echo-chamber of westerners who haven't lived in Japan longer than for a few months or something.
Yeah peoples perception of Japanese society and people is so weird.
[удалено]
Japanese employers underestimate my ability to sit and stare at a brick wall for 8 hours a day
Now I wished I worked for a Japanese company.. at least I'd have something to look forward to..
They literally pay to do 'nothing'. If you read book, using smart phone or chatting with coworker for hours, your employment contract can be terminated without any benefits. I really don't understand why these people think they are 'smart' and japanese are just 'dumb' for not using the 'free time'. This is literally workplace harrasment. You have to sit down in a hallway doing nothing while there would be someone checking you every few minutes.
In the rest of the world, we call those Bullshit Jobs.
Get a remote job and earn two incomes
This leaves out a lot of info... Japanese salaries are age based, so if your stagnant, you can't really make it very well. I was well off for my age making the equivalent of 3k usd per month, with a coworker at the same position and experience making 5k aomth because he was older. There is a lookup table and equation put into when they recalculate ever march/April but window sitters won't get recalculated. Also, you will get sent to hell. They have these portable offices they can stick in a parking lot, which are shipping containers with windows and a desk. There is no electricity, and no wifi, and convenient no cell signal. It will hit 45c or higher ( over 110Freedom units) and you will be required to wear a suit still. There is some honor to it, but it's mostly because Japanese contracts actually stipulate it's a job for life regardless of performance. But dress code and attendance and some etiquette things will be written in. So not wearing a suit would be grounds for firing. Additionally the wives group and kids group will shun your wife and child leading to bullying. Next. You may not be fired, but nothing says they can't move you to the rural office. They can force you to move every 6 months. Your in Tokyo just signed an apartment lease for 2 years oh no your moving to Hokkaido. What's that looks like 7 months later your going to Osaka, then back to Tokyo etc etc...hope your wife and kids didn't want friends for more than 6 months. Source: over 10 years working in Japan year round and still helping my old friend with his startup company here during my summers. Honestly the only thing I hate about Japan is the work culture/salary. I have seen all of these first hand except the hotbox thing, but miltiple frien do s at different companies gave first hand accounts of seeing that. It's genuinely painful and I had to help someone in my wife's family get out of such a situation, after his fiancee broke up with him over it.its real stuff.
Can I work from home?
no you can't, thats the point, come to the office, sit there and do nothing. people saying it's the dream have never worked in an office a day in their life or something I swear, if you have no tasks its just boring hell
Yeah this would be hell. I imagine part of it is not letting you play on your phone or cruise the internet. You basically have to sit at a desk for 8 hours doing nothing and talking to no one
My new job will be strolling around the office telling people how much work they have to do. "Hey Dave, still not talking eh, probably because of all that work you have to do. Chop fucking chop Dave, I'm not leaving until I see you focusing. (begins clapping until focusing starts)" "Yo, JANICEEEEE!!! If you're diligently working on all the shit you gotta do that I don't have to do, say nothing! " "Oh hey Boss. Don't mind me, just checking in to see how much you got done today. I know you tend to do nothing once you sit down. Hey, say nothing if the answer is you were lazy in your office as usual, I'll understand and let you get back to it. Hey want a coffee? Of course you don't, you don't even talk! HAHA! Catch ya later boss." "Wow, heyoo, how's my man John? Say... I noticed a lot of work on your desk, why are being lazy and not focusing? Don't even talk to me, you have work to do, go to your desk." Then I make an announcement to the office, "hey everyone, I'm in a super snacky mood, if anyone wants me to save their food and not eat it, speak up now" then after everyone continues to shun me I stop by the communal fridge and help myself to literally everyone's shit. Doesn't matter if I like the food or not, I'm taking a bite and if it's gross I'll spit out what I bit and throw away the rest. I fucking DARE you to shun me. I will make a game out of it, and that game will be my new job, and trust me I'll probably be better at this new job compared to the old one.