Little things that irk you.. (no swearing please)

[Dirty Sanchez]

Wow. There is so much wrong with that. That girl needs to get a lawyer ASAP. That's clear cut constructive dismissal

Not sure of the law over there but back here that is a clear case. A bit obvious with the boss preferring her to resign - the oldest trick in the book as then he doesn't have to follow due process.

Do they have caller id in Japan? If so I'd never answer the phone to the guy outside of working hours, total nutcase.

[Dogg Thang]

If someone shouted at me in my adult life, I'd laugh my ass off. That has to be a cultural difference thing because, over here, yes, it would not only be constructive dismissal without a doubt but the guy would be a laughing stock.

Although those chef shows show people shouting so maybe it depends on your workplace. I would hope real restaurants don't work that way.

[Darwock]

Law over here? If there's any kind of employment law, nobody knows about it. I see and hear about so much blatant exploitation of people's rights on a regular basis I'm almost at the stage where I don't even get worked up. My fiancee's best friend was also forced to resign from her job a few months ago. Why? Because she became pregnant. My head nearly exploded when I was told about that.

If so I'd never answer the phone to the guy outside of working hours

It is so logical, and yet completely impossible under Japanese culture. It's all mobile phones here, but seeing his name just makes her MORE likely to answer the phone.

During Obon (a national holiday akin to xmas) we were in the car with her gran and mum driving back from Ise, he called up and shouted at my fiancee for an hour (literally, by the way). All she could do was apologise repeatedly and hope that her family didn't hear the abuse he was spouting. She was in tears after that.

Another time - one weekend in the summer we went to a swimming pool to relax - separated at the changing rooms (obviously) agreeing to meet poolside right away. I changed in five minutes, she arrived 35 minutes later. He had called her (as she was changing) demanding copies of various emails to be sent to him immediately, and when she couldn't do it he started lecturing her about that. I think the way she translated it to me was he had called her "f**king irresponsible". She had to listen to his abuse until he decided to hang up.

I realised a while ago I was beating my head against a brick wall so I learned to bite my tongue and hope my fiancee would decide enough is enough and quit without me coercing her into it. She actually did hand in notice a month ago, and the boss wouldn't allow her to. She agreed to stay on, with the exact same pay and conditions as before.

The trouble is, he is not really an exception to the norm. Managers here believe they are kings who own their employees lives, and this version of reality is accepted by the employees as well. The really frustrating thing is that he only has a handful of staff, and if they all decided to take some control of their lives and quit, his entire business would collapse.

[abigsmurf]

I believe there are constructive dismissal laws in Japan. I know Sega got sued when they tried to make someone quit by sticking them in a bare, windowless office and giving him no work to do (I believe he actually managed to last about 6 months like that).

Not accepting a resignation is pretty bizzarre, even for Japan that has to be unusual (the only times you hear resignations being rejected are when people relucantly resign for mistakes).

[randombs]

Everything I know about employment in Japan I learned from Fear and Trembling:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318725/

And Tim Rogers' rant on Kotaku a while back

[toythatkills]

Missed calls from blocked numbers

Was it important? Not important? A wrong number? HOW DO I KNOW?!

[djjimbob]

Young men who think cycling using no hands and smoking a tab is the height of looking cool.
PleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePl easePlease crash into the kerb.

[djjimbob]

brap!!!

[koopatroopa90]

Missed calls from blocked numbers

Was it important? Not important? A wrong number? HOW DO I KNOW?!

I've had calls from "withheld" before but yesterday I got my first "unknown", which I found a little creepy.

[prinnysquad]

Throwing food away irks me.

I found some cheese in the fridge today that had started to go mouldy. I cursed myself for letting the tasty goodness get that far. Waste of money, waste of chomps.

[dazzling_bubble]

Missed calls from blocked numbers

Was it important? Not important? A wrong number? HOW DO I KNOW?!

Thing is if it was important they would either call back or leave a voicemail......if not....probably a cold call!

[abigsmurf]

One of my clown fish was swimming oddly near the surface last night, woke up this morning and it was lying dead at the bottom being picked at by the hermit crabs. Now the other one has white patches on him and is swimming near the surface in the same way. It's probably not going to last the night. Looks like a parasyte infection called Brooklynella's to blame.

Marine fish require so much care to look after and even if you do everything right, you can still have stuff like this kill them off, it's depressing.

[dazzling_bubble]

Not being able to 'switch off'

[toythatkills]

That just means you're human.

Literally.

[abigsmurf]

So does that mean you can switch off dogs?

Wish my neighbours knew that.