Little Things that Irk You 4Ever

[Asura]

Related to some of the stuff on the previous page.

Redundancies. Not the idea, per se - it's a necessary evil - but when a company has made "less money than expected".

This might sound like a daft thing, but as a concept - should it be illegal for companies to make redundancies at beneath executive/management level unless they make a loss? Not "less profit"; I mean an actual loss?

I just feel that whilst a company is making money after payroll is met, year-on-year, it has no justifiable reason to shed staff.

Just you often see this on the news; Tesco is closing a store because they made less than last year - but then their profits are still in the millions!!

[teddymeow]

Execs should take payouts first. I don't get how companies can announce redundancies but the high ups still get fat bonuses.

[charlesr]

Is Jap any different to Brit? I would have thought it's maybe a contextual thing.

We did discuss it before, but I don't remember the outcome. I think if anyone is here to insult the Japanese nation, they wouldn't last long before being banned. Remember the "report post" option if something looks over offensive.

[charlesr]

Related to some of the stuff on the previous page.

Redundancies. Not the idea, per se - it's a necessary evil - but when a company has made "less money than expected".

This might sound like a daft thing, but as a concept - should it be illegal for companies to make redundancies at beneath executive/management level unless they make a loss? Not "less profit"; I mean an actual loss?

I just feel that whilst a company is making money after payroll is met, year-on-year, it has no justifiable reason to shed staff.

Just you often see this on the news; Tesco is closing a store because they made less than last year - but then their profits are still in the millions!!

Avoid working for a PLC - for them all that matters is short term gain to the shareholders' dividends etc.

[Asura]

Is Jap any different to Brit? I would have thought it's maybe a contextual thing.

We did discuss it before, but I don't remember the outcome. I think if anyone is here to insult the Japanese nation, they wouldn't last long before being banned. Remember the "report post" option if something looks over offensive.

It is different to "Brit". There isn't really a proper slanderous term for Brit to compare it to, because Britain has always been seen as a victorious, powerful nation. Old attempts like "Limey" have never really caught on.

The term's association with WW2 means that ultimately it's a poor choice. Funnily enough, some of the Japanese people I've known have voiced the opinion they even dislike "Japan" and "Japanese", because they're not Japanese terms; though the Japanese terms I think translate to "homeland" and "homeland-person", so there is at least some logic to adopting a different name.

That being said, I've never heard of their government trying to get the "Nihon" name to catch on.

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, it's different to Brit due to how the Japanese in the US were treated during WW2.

[importaku]

Is Jap any different to Brit? I would have thought it's maybe a contextual thing.

We did discuss it before, but I don't remember the outcome. I think if anyone is here to insult the Japanese nation, they wouldn't last long before being banned. Remember the "report post" option if something looks over offensive.

One has racist overtones the other doesn't, try abbreviating pakistani and seeing how far would be accepted accepted online. Some people use jap just to abbreviate without any intended malice but i cringe when i read someone using it.

[charlesr]

Is it ok to refer to the Jap version of a game? i.e. "I met a Jap at the station today" = bad, "I have the Jap version of Mario Kart" = ok? Or are they both unacceptable? Is " J version" ok?

[teddymeow]

How's about JPN version?

[QualityChimp]

JP is written on a lot of cartridges, so I stick to that if writing Japanese is a herculean task.

[Asura]

Is it ok to refer to the Jap version of a game? i.e. "I met a Jap at the station today" = bad, "I have the Jap version of Mario Kart" = ok? Or are they both unacceptable? Is " J version" ok?

That's kinda the crux of the conversation, and in truth, socially, it's not something with a definitive answer (insofar as some of the more obvious racial slurs that are always unacceptable).

Generally though the prevailing thought here is that it shouldn't be used, regardless of if referring to a person or an object.

On the WW2 thing; I believe the reason it carries a stigma is that it's associated with the "Japanese Internments"; i.e. the concentration camps that America set up for racially Japanese people during WW2.

[charlesr]

To save a particular post being pointed at in public, can someone do a report-post on one that irked them? Add a note to say for Charles to have a think about, so the other mods know not to delete it. If need be I can add it to the filter (as a whole word). I have to say that personally I've never noticed or been irked by it, but happy to consider options.

[Colin]

I do admittedly say Jap when referring to Japanese items, I think it was due to gaming magazines when I was young, never intended it as a racial thing though. Charles, why not just set up autocorrect from jap to jpn if it's a big issue for people?

[Asura]

I do admittedly say Jap when referring to Japanese items, I think it was due to gaming magazines when I was young, never intended it as a racial thing though. Charles, why not just set up autocorrect from jap to jpn if it's a big issue for people?

Yeah, it was considered acceptable in the UK, back in the 90s - but then for us, it was never a term of discrimination.

Then again, other terms that were sort-of acceptable then definitely aren't now. There's a particular time for "Chinese" - usually in the context of "Chinese food" that begins with a Ch-. People used to say that a lot in the 90s. You'd never use that term today.

[briareos_kerensky]

I normally go for Japanese or JPN. "Jap" does sound a bit racist, but not enough to get upset by it.