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This article is a bit misleading. He didn't just have a boring job, they wanted to fire him but because of the labor law in France they couldn't easily do this,

by toip34 6y ago

This article is a bit misleading. He didn't just have a boring job, they wanted to fire him but because of the labor law in France they couldn't easily do this, so they gave him nothing to do as a form of harassment to try to get him to quit (more details here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/02/frenchman-takes-former-employer-to-tribunal-over-tedious-job https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/02/frenchman-take... - he was "mise au placard"). This is similar to what got France Télécom in trouble for.

gambiting 6y ago
Apparently it's a thing in Japanese companies for the so called "salarymen". Because the general expectation around these jobs is that they are for life, it's frowned upon to let someone go - instead, you will be sent to the corporation's rural office, with literally nothing to do 8 hours a day. It's designed as both a form of punishment and as a way to make someone quit.
- rambojazz 6y ago
  A stupid question maybe, but if they are paid full salary for doing nothing why can't they use corporate time to work on something else so they get 2 salaries?
  - n4r9 6y ago
    It's almost certainly against contract and would give the company justification for firing them.
- robjan 6y ago
  For anyone interested in reading more, it's called the Boredom/banishment room https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banishment_room https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banishment_room
pydry 6y ago
So, constructive dismissal.
jrsala 6y ago
I'm afraid France Télécom didn't just give their employees "nothing to do", they actively made their employees' work life hell and harassed them psychologically, resulting in 35 suicides. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_France_Télécom https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_France_Télécom (this article is written rather poorly but the referenced newspaper articles explain it quite well)
gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
When I read that I end up thinking that labor laws end up having unintended consequences. If you make it impossible to fire people, they end up being abused (I don't think that's ok, but it's absurd that we could connive a legal structure to somehow make unwanted employees appreciated).

by toip34 6y ago

gambiting 6y ago

Apparently it's a thing in Japanese companies for the so called "salarymen". Because the general expectation around these jobs is that they are for life, it's frowned upon to let someone go - instead, you will be sent to the corporation's rural office, with literally nothing to do 8 hours a day. It's designed as both a form of punishment and as a way to make someone quit.

rambojazz 6y ago
A stupid question maybe, but if they are paid full salary for doing nothing why can't they use corporate time to work on something else so they get 2 salaries?
- n4r9 6y ago
  It's almost certainly against contract and would give the company justification for firing them.
robjan 6y ago
For anyone interested in reading more, it's called the Boredom/banishment room https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banishment_room https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banishment_room

pydry 6y ago

So, constructive dismissal.

jrsala 6y ago

I'm afraid France Télécom didn't just give their employees "nothing to do", they actively made their employees' work life hell and harassed them psychologically, resulting in 35 suicides. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_France_Télécom https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_France_Télécom (this article is written rather poorly but the referenced newspaper articles explain it quite well)

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago

When I read that I end up thinking that labor laws end up having unintended consequences. If you make it impossible to fire people, they end up being abused (I don't think that's ok, but it's absurd that we could connive a legal structure to somehow make unwanted employees appreciated).