Companies You Hate to Hate

EVERYTHING IS HAPPINESS IN JAPAN. LET'S ENJOY HAPPY!

If you're Japanese, and when you work for a major Japanese company, just keep this simple idea in your head:

You are a slave.

No, no. No, no, no...let's rephrase that:

You are a happy and loyal employee who would never leave the company until the company was ready to let you go, which is, suffice it to say, never anytime in your future.

Such is the experience of too many Japanese people.
Such is the recent experience of my wife.

FROM BAD...
She liked her job, working for Ayura make-up company. It was extremely tough work, but she came back happy that she was working there. That was until a few weeks before she became pregnant. She works for a company comprised of mostly women - which causes quite a number of problems (understood from first-hand experience). She works for a company comprised mostly of women customers - which adds the that number; and things just simply started to become too much.

...TO WORSE
After getting pregnant, though, things really went down the toilet. Her energy completely vanished - which is no good for a busy company with tons of customers each day; customers who demand attention no better than babies. On top of that, her nose became super sensitive, where she feels like puking because of any small, yet distinctive smell - which is no good when your surrounded by very strong smells at a make-up counter in a department store full of make-up counters.

When you are Japanese and want to leave a Japanese company, you ask, they say 'no' and then you stay. It's that simple.

My wife initially said that she would work until she was eight months, but found it all unbearable, and changed her mind - opting for the twenty-days notice. This decision through the sacrifice into the volcano too late. It became a battle with her supervisor, her area-manager, and indeed her company. Insultingly guilt-ridden statements tried to shame her into staying. There were some misunderstandings which somehow became personal insults. Declarations of how my wife's being selfish for getting pregnant mixed with threats of lawsuits where thrown at her like pea soup from a demonic possession.

Eventually, they gave up and fired her. Meaning that this is still not yet over. Their shame-tactics have a little bit of a hold on her right now, but that's fading, thankfully. She has to get her pension stuff back from them and her area manager wants to talk to her, probably to try to convince her to come back.

I'm very proud of my wife. She overcame a lot of personal obstacles to get, keep and continue to work for this company. She put a lot of blood and sweat into become a great employee, one better than many who have worked there for years. I'm equally proud of her for getting out, no matter how (even though she's not completely out yet). This undue stress was killing her and could have potentially harmed our baby, and family always, ALWAYS comes first!