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Story time! Back at a previous job in a Japanese Traditional Company over a decade ago, a guy had been trying to quit for months. ‘Tradition’ has it that befo
by SenHeng 2y ago
Story time!
Back at a previous job in a Japanese Traditional Company over a decade ago, a guy had been trying to quit for months.
‘Tradition’ has it that before you quit, you have to schedule a chat with your team lead, who will then direct your request to the department head for approval. (Yes, you need _permission_ to quit. Fuck the law)
This person was a fairly senior engineer and thus quite essential to the company so they kept giving him the run around, rescheduling his chats and not giving him a direct answer.
One day, a letter addressed to the dept head came, looking all important and official, like it came from a client. The dept head opened the letter and after taking a quick glance immediately tossed it. Our senpai engineer then jumped up and shouted across the entire office, you have seen my notice now, you cannot deny my resignation! I quit! And he stormed off like a boss.
Basically the gist of the story is that they cannot deny your resignation if requested but as long as they don’t acknowledge it they can pretend you never requested it. That’s the origin story of these companies.
- SenHeng 2y agoIt’s telling that if you google for resignation letter in Japanese, you still get a lot of them titled 退職願 — Request to Quit. Things have gotten better in the past 2 decades. 退職届 — Notice of Resignation is more common nowadays.
- exitb 2y agoWould having quit your earlier job reflect on you badly when looking for a new job?
- SenHeng 2y agoNot in our particular industry which is still somewhat meritocratic. Even in the late 2010s, I was still hearing people saying shit like not having more than 5 entries on their employment history.
- cassianoleal 2y ago> Yes, you need _permission_ to quit. Fuck the law Is this in Japan? What happens if you simply stop showing up?
- SenHeng 2y agoLegally speaking, you may be sued for damages. Socially speaking, you’re never working in the industry again, possibly never be in full employment ever again. Things are better now but shit like this was rampant even back in the late 2000s early 2010s.
- lucianbr 2y agoCan't you just avoid the suit notice, the same way they avoid the resignation notice? I mean, I'm sure you're right. I just want to highlight that it's actually oppressive bullshit perpetrated by the rich, not "a funny quirk of a foreign culture". Of course when you try to avoid the notice, it won't work.
- poincaredisk 2y agoDo you think just not showing up to work one day is OK? A honest question, it's interesting to me from a cultural point of view. I agreed to my current contract, and a part of that contact is "if I want to quit I either give a months notice, or agree to a shorter notice together with my company". This just sounds like an adult thing to do to honor that agreement. (I live in Europe btw). Of course we both agree that company straight up refusing to let you go is oppressive and scummy.
- cassianoleal 2y ago> agreed to my current contract, and a part of that contact is "if I want to quit I either give a months notice This is fine. What's not fine is not being able to determine when that notice period starts, or if it's allowed to start at all. This is the context of this thread. Having a legal avenue for an employer to never allow an employee to quit is incredibly dystopian. Some might say analogous to slavery.
- MrHamburger 2y agoIf your boss is being smartass by keeping you in job through a loophole (refusing notices), then there is no reason for you to keep being decent and play by expected rules either.
- vr46 2y agoLike an inverse subpoena, brilliant