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How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

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Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#141

Post by ponow »

vkou wrote: post #94
rqtwteye wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s super expensive. ACA is often better but that may change now with the republicans having control of congress.

> That’s super expensive COBRA costs you exactly how much you + your employer were paying for that insurance . It's expensive because your employer's share of insurance was a significant part of your compensation (And because US healthcare costs are pants-on-head insane.) I'll point out that it's generally quite expensive to, like, stop getting paid. Practically, post-ACA, health insurance in the US is about as tied…

Our regulations (including the medical guild) and legal structure (including crazy malpractice payouts for unintentional mistakes) forces everything to be more expensive than necessary. We are very far from a free market, even if we stopped with the untaxed benefits.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#142

Post by saagarjha »

goykasi wrote: post #134
saagarjha wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they’re working 12 hour days 5 days a week? That sounds like overtime to me.

Not sure why youre being a contrarian. It seems like you didnt bother to understand my post. But yah, start work at 8-9, knock off at 6 to start drinking heavily at the local izakaya, hammered by 8 or 9 and stumbling towards the snack until last train (or later if the company pays for cabs). I see the same thing everyday.

That’s still 9-10 hours a day. The typical workweek here is 40 hours.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#143

Post by shiroiushi »

pezezin wrote: post #71
ninetyninenine wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda want to go there and purchase a 10k house in a village and chill. It’s basically a place where you can retire. I know a bunch of white people who have already done this. Just like how Japan isn’t characterized fully by anime it’s not fully characterized by corporate culture either.

I actually live in the Japanese countryside, so let me tell you that there are two reasons why those houses are so cheap: 1. The construction quality of the average Japanese house is absolute garbage. Most likely you will need to demolish it and rebuild from scratch. 2. Outside of the big cities, Japan sucks hard. The average small city or village is just a bunch of big box stores and houses scattered everywhere. Man…

>The average small city or village is just a bunch of big box stores and houses scattered everywhere.

This sounds much like rural America. Houses scattered everywhere, and a super Walmart.

The big difference I've noticed here in Japan (I live in Tokyo), at least from my window on the train going through rural areas, is that the houses tend to be clustered together much more closely. In rural America, everyone wants many acres of land to themselves, but in rural Japan, the land is usually used for farming and the houses are quite close together in a hamlet.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#144

Post by throwaway562if1 »

goykasi wrote: post #126
jesterson wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I go home at 6pm everyday. go outside at 6pm and you will see businesspeople everywhere also on the commute home. Just because you see something doesn't make it absolute truth. Try go home at 11PM and you will see plenty of salaryman in trains sleeping on each other.

The same could be said about going home at 6pm (except for the sleeping). Take the Oedo line out of Shinjuku or Roppongi between 6 and 8pm and tell me everyone is still at work.

"Not everyone works at black companies" and "nobody works at black companies" are very different statements. People going home at 6 is evidence for the former, not the latter.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#145

Post by detaro »

anovikov wrote: post #130
autumnstwilight wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in IT, it's not even necessary to emigrate- foreign owned companies offer significantly better salaries and working conditions. The sticking point is English ability. It's genuinely a very difficult thing to learn a second language to the point of being workplace-functional in it, and an additional level of daily stress and mental effort to do everything in your non-native language. The culture here doesn't…

But isn't it kinda mandatory for any IT person to speak usable English, worldwide? Even if super closed societies where language education sucks beyond imagination, like Russia, they mostly do.

Not really, no. Being able to read it is harder to avoid, but usefully communicating in it is not needed in many places.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#146

Post by ponow »

fvdessen wrote: post #131
specproc wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flipside is that you have no job security. In Europe, we've been moving towards more American style "flexible employment" for years, and it's highly controversial. As an aging guy, I'm also staring down the barrel of cross-party consensus on replicating the predatory US healthcare model in my country. I see what things look like in the States, and no thanks. > While getting terminated is disruptive, it isn’t the…

They don't save because they don't need to since there's always a job available as hiring is so easy. In Europe we need to save in case we want to quit, since then we lose all rights and protections and need to wait months before finding a new job.

A major reason poor people don't save is the inflationary currency and government control of interest rates (plus other central bank policy) encourages debt over saving. We slowly put a noose around our necks because our laws put lights on that runway. We need major reform to get back to a saving mindset. It'll be a world where the government will borrow and print far less money.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#147

Post by ElFitz »

baron816 wrote: post #69
jandrewrogers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America has very low unemployment and median household incomes are among the highest in the world. You get to continue your existing health insurance 18 months after you quit if you wish, you just have to pay for it. Most people can and if you can’t then the government pays for it. While getting terminated is disruptive, it isn’t the end of the world for the typical American. The relative ease with which most people…

The other part is that companies are much more willing to hire people if they know they can get rid of them if either that person ends up sucking or business starts to fall off. I believe it’s the case that in some places, bureaucrats can basically just say “no” if you decide to lay people off. Why would you want to hire people in the first place if there were a risk of that happening, especially if you have the opti…

In most of them there is an initial probationary trial period during which you can easily fire someone without providing any justification, and with a minimal mandatory notice.

It goes both ways: during that time, the employee too can quit with a reduced mandatory notice.

That only covers the "if that person ends up sucking" part though.

For the other "business falling apart", maybe they consider it’s part of the business owner’s responsibility to make sound business decisions when involving someone else’s livelihood. Just like when leasing a shop or taking on a loan.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#148

Post by ponow »

baron816 wrote: post #69
jandrewrogers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America has very low unemployment and median household incomes are among the highest in the world. You get to continue your existing health insurance 18 months after you quit if you wish, you just have to pay for it. Most people can and if you can’t then the government pays for it. While getting terminated is disruptive, it isn’t the end of the world for the typical American. The relative ease with which most people…

The other part is that companies are much more willing to hire people if they know they can get rid of them if either that person ends up sucking or business starts to fall off. I believe it’s the case that in some places, bureaucrats can basically just say “no” if you decide to lay people off. Why would you want to hire people in the first place if there were a risk of that happening, especially if you have the opti…

France is especially like that, with consequent mass unemployment. That's the model the progressive side of our politics wants to emulate.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#150

Post by ponow »

jmspring wrote: post #65
jandrewrogers wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of developed countries have subtle versions of this. I was naive about this before I worked outside the US and saw the practical impact. The chains go both ways and have real downsides. Having seen the perverse incentives this creates and the various ways in which it can be abused, I have come to the conclusion that the American “at-will” employment model is actually a good thing and benefits workers. No…

I’d say in the US there is a unique situation because health care is tied to employment, or it’s insanely expensive. When the job market is not great, you see increased costs and more exploitation of those employed.

Deregulate medicine and include benefits as income (and lower income tax rates to prevent revenue windfall).
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