The wife of a man who took his own life while working as a care manager at a medical corporation in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. She has sued the corporation, claiming that her husband's suicide was triggered by a superior's harassment toward him, including a lengthy rebuke lasting as long as five hours.
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Rebuking someone to the point of letting them break down is power harassment. I filed this suit to let it widely be known to society how much such language and actions hurt people, as I think my husband is not the only victim.
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Tora
5 hours????? I had to re-read it just to be sure. The perpetrator should have been arrested and dealt with severely. Yet, I feel the victim is at fault here too, for putting up with the barrage for that long.
This is the authority one person in a more senior position can have over another in Japan.
Michael Machida
If anyone talk down to you ^ fight back! Don't let the bully win. Boss or no Boss, Its just a job!
Luddite
I hope she wins.
itsonlyrocknroll
Many J businesses have no formal procedures to address work-place bulling harassment. Or even HR .
blue in green
You do something illegal, you pay a fine, or serve time.
You make a mistake, you're told so and corrected.
Length-y berating is psychotic; outside basic civility.
Working for a person does not equate with giving up your basic rights.
virusrex
No matter what was the problem, 5 hours of harassments is obviously not justified and something has to be done about it, if the problem is serious enough then the person should be referred to human resources and maybe fired, this is just being used as a stress relief for his boss.
Thunderbird2
I thought this sort of behaviour was only in films and TV series... what did the poor sod do, drop a cup of water on the floor?
greenlibran
@Robert Cikki i agree with your point. In my own case i quit my Japanese company due to unnecessary burden put on employees with directionless goals . Outstanding performance is not recognized and only relationships matter in Japanese companies. If you are bad on PR then its a lost cause in J company.
Akula
Saw a similar situation between two Japanese coworkers when I was in Tokyo. One was pretty rubbish at his job, and the other was fairly relentless in his feedback and criticism.
The one with performance issues escalated it beyond the local country manager to the country managers boss who was at head office overseas and it blew up big time. Unfortunately for him, he was one of the first to go when a restructure happened, as head office now knew of his performance issues.
David Brent
I have a power harassing pr*ck of a boss here. The other day I walked out of a meeting we were having due to his condescending tone and attitude. He freaked out, worried that I was going to tell upper management. Been all good-goody to me since then. These people are bullies who crumble when someone stands up to them. The problem in Japan is the education system indoctrinates you to never speak up.
HBJ
Hopefully she wins the case, but unfortunately the only thing that will happen once the case has finished is that a few more 'STOP pawahara' posters will be put up in soulless company corridors.