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This is not surprising given that Japan is an intensely conformist society. Individuality is not something they value much.

rachofsunshine 2y ago
It's not like individualist cultures are immune to being horrible to service workers. I was at lunch today watching a guy complain to some random employee at a Fuddrucker's that they'd put the mushrooms on top of the melted cheese rather than put the mushrooms on first and then melted the cheese on top of them. He was berating this poor girl for long enough that it was still ongoing when my food - which had been ordered only a minute before his had been up to the counter - was ready. This wasn't in Japan or Korea. It was a middle-aged, apparently-decently-well-off white guy at a medium-upscale mall in suburban California.
TheDong 2y ago
This isn't Japan-specific, and retail jobs basically anywhere in the world are similarly soul-crushing. Don't tell me you think the job of a walmart cashier in america values individuality and freedom in some uniquely american way. Support staff in the US, and anywhere, for ages have had all their customer interactions recorded, and sentiment analysis run to automatically gauge them as being nice enough or not. Amazon tracks warehouse worker's work-speed, and even has little tablets with games to try and make people work faster. You get fake virtual points and level up for fulfilling orders faster. The company behind this also says it's trying to gamify a job requirement. These retail workers are required to smile and greet customers, and now it seems like they have an app that's giving them fake virtual points for doing a "good job".
- userbinator 2y ago
  The cashiers I see in the US don't look like they were trained to all behave and look exactly the same; and if they were, they certainly weren't making much of an attempt at it.
presentation 2y ago
I wish people wouldn’t talk confidently about things they’re so clueless about. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajsp.12322 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajsp.12322

rachofsunshine 2y ago

It's not like individualist cultures are immune to being horrible to service workers. I was at lunch today watching a guy complain to some random employee at a Fuddrucker's that they'd put the mushrooms on top of the melted cheese rather than put the mushrooms on first and then melted the cheese on top of them. He was berating this poor girl for long enough that it was still ongoing when my food - which had been ordered only a minute before his had been up to the counter - was ready. This wasn't in Japan or Korea. It was a middle-aged, apparently-decently-well-off white guy at a medium-upscale mall in suburban California.

TheDong 2y ago

This isn't Japan-specific, and retail jobs basically anywhere in the world are similarly soul-crushing. Don't tell me you think the job of a walmart cashier in america values individuality and freedom in some uniquely american way. Support staff in the US, and anywhere, for ages have had all their customer interactions recorded, and sentiment analysis run to automatically gauge them as being nice enough or not. Amazon tracks warehouse worker's work-speed, and even has little tablets with games to try and make people work faster. You get fake virtual points and level up for fulfilling orders faster. The company behind this also says it's trying to gamify a job requirement. These retail workers are required to smile and greet customers, and now it seems like they have an app that's giving them fake virtual points for doing a "good job".

userbinator 2y ago
The cashiers I see in the US don't look like they were trained to all behave and look exactly the same; and if they were, they certainly weren't making much of an attempt at it.

presentation 2y ago

I wish people wouldn’t talk confidently about things they’re so clueless about. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajsp.12322 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajsp.12322