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Great read! One thing that stood out to me: > when I entered the team...I had no real electrical engineering skills to speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even k
by nmfisher 7y ago
Great read!
One thing that stood out to me:
> when I entered the team...I had no real electrical engineering skills to speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even know how to boot up Windows 3.1, let alone how to write any programs...I got the chance to learn how to program computers thanks to a training program that the company ran.
I don't know if that's a function of the 90s, or of Japanese companies, but I almost never hear of companies nowadays taking in completely unskilled employees and training them up.
I also found it quite amusing that the engineer went through all that effort to emulate the PSX sound chip in software, only to have the decision reversed and the hardware chip included in the PS2.
- illwrks 7y agoI'm likely wrong but I believe that is/was part of Japanese company culture. You were brought in, trained up and expected to stay with the company through good and bad times until the day you retire/die.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mcraiha 7y agoIt sounds exactly like that. "Someone else was already supposed to be taking care of that and when I asked what was going on, I was told that they were quitting the company and that it was on me to pick up where they left off, no ifs, ands, or buts."
- phendrenad2 7y agoPerhaps in Japan it's easier to let someone go if they're not pulling their weight. Here in the US companies are absolutely frightened of making a bad hire, because it's so hard to fire someone (and if you lay them off you need to pay unemployment), that companies would rather hold out and not fill a role rather than hire someone who they aren't 99% confident will be a rockstar.
- wk_end 7y agoIt's the opposite, actually. Here's noted HNer patio11 on Japanese work culture (https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...): --- Japanese folks consider at-will employment to be an alien institution, much like you might be thinking about the salaryman system. [...] If you hire full-time employees in Japan, you can only dismiss for cause, and the bar is relatively high. Imagine having the following conversation with the relevant authority: “Incompetence at one’s job is only a reasonable cause for termination if you’ve dutifully discharged your duty to retrain the employee, documented several months of poor performance subsequent to the retraining, and explored options for other jobs they could do for you. After all, everyone starts out at incompetent, right? If we let any company just up and fire anyone merely for not being able to do their job, that would contravene the social purpose of employment.” If one wants to terminate an employee for poor performance in Japan, the most efficient way is dealing with them like an unwanted New York or San Francisco tenant: offer to buy them out. If they don’t take the buyout and don’t wish to leave, your escalation options are limited and fairly high-stress.
- eska 7y agoOther popular alternatives are giving you a desk at the window (= you only get busy work), overworking you, forcing you to relocate to a far away city after just having bought a house, etc.