Posted on 03/23/2011 3:46:44 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
ASIA NEWS
MARCH 23, 2011
Expatriates Tiptoe Back to the Office
TOKYO—Life in Japan is showing tentative signs of returning to normal, but a fresh challenge may be facing the expatriates and Japanese who left and are now trickling back to their offices: how to cope with ostracism and anger from their colleagues who have worked through the crisis.
One foreigner, a fluent Japanese speaker at a large Japanese company, said that his Japanese manager and colleagues were "furious" with him for moving to Osaka for three days last week and that he felt he was going to have to be very careful to avoid being ostracized upon returning to work in Tokyo.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
P!
I wonder how much US anti nuclear leftist politics played in the announcement of the much larger exclusion zone and chartered evacuation flights for expats?
Latent Bushido Code frowns on running away in a crisis.
One foreigner, a fluent Japanese speaker at a large Japanese company, said that his Japanese manager and colleagues were “furious” with him for moving to Osaka for three days last week and that he felt he was going to have to be very careful to avoid being ostracized upon returning to work in Tokyo.They will never forget what a pathetic, contemptible coward he has shown himself to be. Serves him right.
Latent American honor frowns on running away too.
You no work no more round eye.
LLS
>> They will never forget what a pathetic, contemptible coward he has shown himself to be.
And not only that, but WRONG in his judgment, too.
Not a good record to have in the Japanese workplace.
If he’s on contract, it won’t be renewed and they might just go ahead and terminate anyhow — giving one month’s notice as is standard in most Japanese contracts.
As someone who stayed and did my job (actually jobs) I find it extremely difficult to sympathize with this guy. Bailing on your coworkers and leaving them to not only their jobs but yours, too?
Not something anyone in his office is going to forgive or forget anytime soon.
And if it bothers him, I suggest he take his fluent Japanese speaking ability back to some safe school in wherever he came from and get a teaching job.
Agree
Damn right! More than half our IT took a runner in the past couple
of weeks. This added even extra workload for those of us who soldiered
on. Our business side is very Japaenese and in the middle of last
week, our local president went ballistic on the trading floor about the foreigners who ran. The day after the quake, all the French and
nearly all of the foreign interns and fresh (college) grads fled, most
without asking permission.
More than a couple of senior gaijins were really unhappy about
being dragged back to the office.
Tough. I didn’t leave NY after 9/11.
And those of us who stayed behind will climb up the ranks faster.
All my friends and coworkers did. All except one, but he was out of the country at the time. He said, he won’t be coming back, or if he does, it will just be to close out his apartment and sell his stuff.
A online poll at The Japan Times two days ago (I think) indicates that fully 23% of the foreigners here are going to leave. I think that number will come down as the panic subsides, but I still expect it to be about 10 to 15%.
Good riddance.
Lol. If you’ve worked in Japan for at least a month, you know Japanese take work seriously.
These loser runaways need to have their golden week taken away. Then there wont be any animosity.
I was thinking along the lines that his co-workers were thinking that even for gaijin, he is now part of their “family”. He was accepted among them. Running away broke their trust in him.
Consider relocating to Illinois.
Let them wear yellow plucked chicken suits for a week to expiate their shame.
You say "good riddance", but given Japan's demographic implosion, is it really a good thing that the immigration flow's gone negative?
A coworker you can’t depend on is no better (and often worse) than nobody at all.
Besides, the foreigners who are going to be leaving are mostly middle-class white-collar workers who, while useful, seldom fill essential positions. A shortage of English teachers (there’s too many of those drones, anyhow) is not going to cause much hardship.
One positive impact (if it can be termed that) is that I expect a baby boom in Japan about nine months from now. It always seems to happen after a disaster.
My beloved spouse who spent the night after the quake in an emergency shelter in Tachikawa complained the next day that she had trouble sleeping because several couples were celebrating the fact that they still lived in the most natural way.
Life goes on. We just have to have the courage to face it.
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