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How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

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Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#151

Post by goykasi »

saagarjha wrote: post #142
goykasi wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well your "here" is clearly not Japan. Your confidence about inexperience is weird though.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#152

Post by caskstrength »

ElFitz wrote: post #147
baron816 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bus…

> 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.

What about running a tech startup with high chance of failure? Ever considered why they seem to be few and far between in EU?

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#153

Post by JackFr »

CalRobert wrote: post #98
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 was stunned when I realised my Irish work contracts had a forced notice period, not just a courtesy. Accenture uses this as a tool to stop people quitting - forced three month notice even for super low level employees. Makes it hard to interview for new jobs!

I knew about such periods from reading the handbook when I was working for a global company where US was 3-4 weeks depending on title and other locations were ~3 months.

From a practical perspective, how does that work? I understand if you’re making widgets on the assembly line, you’re gonna keep coming in. But if you’re doing creative work or close work with customers, isn’t there a concern that you’re effort will definitely flag and you’re gonna do crappy work?

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#154

Post by JackFr »

jmspring wrote: post #51
rukuu001 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a job ad for the worst startup in the world: super high-IQ + small-government revolutionaries + 80+ hours per week + on unglamorous cost-cutting (salary TDB)

Work hard, play hard, we are like a family — uttered by several YC companies at various recruiting events

To my ears, there is nothing more cringe than “work hard, play hard”

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#155

Post by CalRobert »

politelemon wrote: post #105
CalRobert wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was stunned when I realised my Irish work contracts had a forced notice period, not just a courtesy. Accenture uses this as a tool to stop people quitting - forced three month notice even for super low level employees. Makes it hard to interview for new jobs!

It does not. New jobs know about notice periods and plan ahead.

My wife’s experience was that having a three month notice period to change jobs was a dealbreaker. She’s not a software engineer.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#156

Post by rqtwteye »

ponow wrote: post #141
vkou wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

US healthcare is a market but not for patients. Insurance, employers and hospitals negotiate a lot. But people who get employer based insurance just have to accept what they are given. Pretty crazy.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#157

Post by pjc50 »

rukuu001 wrote: post #37
Culonavirus wrote: post #21

Funny seeing a post about these as that's what I was recently reminded of when reading this post: https://x.com/DOGE/status/1857076831104434289 ("80+ hours per week" ... what kind of a psycho even writes this down and puts it out there as if it was normal in any way...)

Reads like a job ad for the worst startup in the world: super high-IQ + small-government revolutionaries + 80+ hours per week + on unglamorous cost-cutting (salary TDB)

The advert will perfectly select for the type of person they actually want: an obsessive crank who is already independently wealthy and posting about government waste on Twitter 24/7. I'm surprised they haven't offered catturd2 a cabinet post yet.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#158

Post by thirdacc »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #66
Iulioh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your opinion is influenced by probability being a well off professional in a field where you can easily find another job, maybe phisical location is not even that important. Just an hypothesis. I prefer the "chains on both sides" approach for the society.

Some of my dearest friends are on the lower end of working class and don’t make a lot of money. They worry about many things but finding another job is not among them. We talk about it. I am financially well off now but I’ve also lived decades of abject poverty, I am not unfamiliar with what that entails. At every point in time, finding a job wasn’t an issue. It might have not been a great job, but it was a job that…

It can be a totally different experience if you have a chronic illness that affects your schedule, or if you don't have a car. In my case it's been both. Currently, lack of reliable transportation and a driver's license is the main issue.

I've been struggling to even get an interview in junior software dev for over a year now. Tried some help desk as well and never heard back. I've had my resume looked at quite a few times now, so I doubt that that's the problem.

If you go to r/jobs and related subreddits, there are plenty of people who are losing their minds after applying to thousands of jobs for the last 2 years without even getting a prescreen. Some are even being rejected by temp agencies. I assume that this is an anomaly and 2023-24 had a uniquely terrible job market.

I'm going to a job fair soon. Wish me luck.

Re: How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

#160

Post by saagarjha »

goykasi wrote: post #151
saagarjha wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well your "here" is clearly not Japan. Your confidence about inexperience is weird though.

Where I'm from people call doing 10 hours a day and then being socially pressured into going to the bar with your boss afterwards to be overwork. You are welcome to call it whatever you want but going "yeah we do it that way here" doesn't make it any better. And, just to head off the usual response, what we do here also has its own issues. But I definitely will not be going "oh I saw a guy on the train at 3 PM clearly he is slacking at work".
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