As the end of August approaches each year, I start thinking that hope that the un-ending muggy and hot weather is at hand. More often than not, relief does not arrive until October but there have been years when the horribleness which is the Japanese summer ends after the first week in September.
I've been checking my weather widget regularly to see what lies ahead. I'm afraid that, more often than not, it's simply wrong. It often predicts rain and no rain comes. I have to give it some credit though. When it's already raining, it does say that there will be rain today.
Anyway, if the widget is to be believed, extended periods of coolness may be right around the corner. After nearly 5 months without an appreciably cool and crisp day, I can't wait.
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On an absolutely unrelated side note, and I mention this here for a bookmark in in my personal history, my successor at my former company unceremoniously quit today. He did not give notice and left my former boss holding the bag on the scheduling and paperwork. This isn't the same as a school where schedules are set a few weeks ahead. At my company, the schedules are set 3 months ahead for hundreds of people so it's no small deal. The work is also relatively complex and training takes awhile before someone can take over.
The only reason this fellow gave was that he just 'couldn't do it anymore'. The job isn't that hard but it is repetitive. The company has kept him on despite angry, inappropriate and foul-mouthed interactions with co-workers, cutting out of work early, goofing off rather visibly during working hours and 3 weeks of his being completely incommunicado while he was in prison. The thanks he gives them is that he bugs out without notice. For me, this means more freelance work though it's hard to say how much right now. The sad thing is that he'll be paid in full up to the moment of his departure and my boss is left scrambling to fill the spot before he departs for Australia on October 7 for a long-planned holiday.
The only "bright" side is that, while in the past my former company has gotten lackluster responses to their job ads, the decaying Nova situation (closing branches and fears that they will go bankrupt initiating a mass ship-jumping at the schools) means they'll probably get a lot of takers. The only question is whether or not those takers will be sincere about doing the job well or simply taking the work as a stop-gap between Nova and their next job.
"The company has kept him on despite angry, inappropriate and foul-mouthed interactions with co-workers, cutting out of work early, goofing off rather visibly during working hours and 3 weeks of his being completely incommunicado while he was in prison."
ReplyDeleteYou're kidding! Why on earth did they put up with his antics?
Incidentally, I always cringe when I hear tales of flaky gaijin (as I frequently do), I worry that they make the rest of us look bad.
The way that they kept him on has baffled both my former boss and me for quite some time. In fact, at one point, my former boss asked the (Japanese) office manager what the company would do if this (British) fellow bugged out in the middle of an important task and the office manager said he'd go to his apartment and attempt to convince him to return to work.
ReplyDeleteI think part of it was a misplaced impression that this fellow brought some expertise with DVD/video production to the company while they were in the middle of attempting to produce a Chinese language learning DVD. I believe they felt that production couldn't be completed without him. Part of the reason for this is the Japanese at my former office are utterly hopeless at acquiring new skills and thoroughly intimidated at the prospect of having to do so. Even if his skills could have been learned quickly by someone else, their fear of that kept their tolerance level high.
I think another part of it though was simply spinelessness. No one wanted to be responsible for firing him or confronting him though my former boss (who is Australian) wanted to have a talk with him on more than one occasion and wanted to try and set him straight but the Japanese staff prohibited him from doing anything.
As for him making us look bad, I'm hoping the 12 years when I worked my ass off for the company will have made us look good enough to mitigate the impact of this guy. However, I do believe that the Japanese tend to believe that the one in a hundred foreigners who acts poorly is representative of us all while the other 99 good ones are forgotten or seen as aberrant.
"I do believe that the Japanese tend to believe that the one in a hundred foreigners who acts poorly is representative of us all while the other 99 good ones are forgotten or seen as aberrant."
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. :sigh: That's the way they think about everybody. I also have a sneaking suspicion that I'm doing my fellow gaijin a great disservice with my hyper-genki, cheerful persona. The thing is, I really *am* a genki and positive person in real life. I can only hope that the Japanese people I deal with don't make the assumption that all gaijin are like me, but I doubt it.
"Part of the reason for this is the Japanese at my former office are utterly hopeless at acquiring new skills and thoroughly intimidated at the prospect of having to do so."
One of the many hats I wear is that of teacher trainer, and roughly 90% of my job involves basically pep-talking a bunch of extremely insecure Japanese English teachers into believing that YES, they do have the ability to learn these simple new skills, and NO, they are not complete and utter failures if they don't get it all at once! It's very hard work, like pulling teeth at times (albeit very rewarding when it does work well). I'd love for the day to come when they really don't need me to hold their hands any more, but I don't think that day will come any time soon.
Good thing I'm soooo genki, eh!
Shari, I've read about this guy before on your blog and thought he sounded awful. And he's a Brit! It almost embarrasses me, for I've just written a comment which describes how I don't have great relations with some of the staff at my work. I like to think that while I'm at work I do my job well and that any unpleasantness they perceive from me is what we'd call sticking up for oneself.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's amazing that no one did call him on his behaviour. I'm a little surprised that the Australian guy didn't have a 'quiet' word with him anyway and see what his issues were. The Japanese staff shot themselves in the foot a bit here. It does go to show that you can do just about anything and not get fired in Japan - or is this just a one in a hundred case?
On a lighter note, rain in Kansai. Yessss! And both yesterday and today we've been treated to lovely grey days.
Ahhhhh, reminds me of the grey skies of home!
Miko: I must admit that I had to restrain myself from saying "Japanese people are easily intimidated about acquiring new skills" rather than qualifying it with saying "at my former office" because my students also have no confidence about every little thing (especially in regards to computers). I'm not surprised at your struggles to infuse people you train with confidence!
ReplyDeleteEmsk: I wasn't going to mention the fellow's nationality because I didn't think it was important but, in the comment, it sort of seemed necessary since it set my boss and the Japanese apart (and seemed odd if I omitted the teacher after mentioning the others).
Honestly though, I don't think nationality has anything to do with how good a worker someone ends up being. In my years of experience with various people from many different places, I've not noticed a trend among any of them. We had a wonderful British woman who came back for two years as a temp and couldn't have been a harder worker. We had slackers and we had this fellow who turned out to be a basket case.
The only thing I can say with absolute certainty is that women, by and large, were reliably better workers than men regardless of nationality though that doesn't mean all women were better than all men but they were better on the whole. Nationality-wise though, we probably had the worst luck with Australians and mixed luck with most others though the British fellow who recently quit definitely got away with the most.
BTW, I'm guessing my boss couldn't take him aside quietly because it would have certainly gotten back to the Japanese who didn't want him doing much about the problems. Also, it really wasn't worth him sticking his neck out or risking any hassles in response. If they didn't want him to interfere, there was nothing in it for anyone if he did so of his own accord.