A minor change in your Job Description

Unbelievable... From The Times Online comes this story of a mandatory change in careers:

This executive has won £70,000 because for 30 years he had to weed the office car park
A SENIOR Japanese executive forced to pluck weeds from a car park for more than 30 years has won a landmark case against his employers.
The judgment and £70,000 payout will bring about a cultural shift for Japanese corporations that prize loyalty above all: salarymen who speak up against their bosses have finally won the protection of the law.
But it will probably not change the life of Hiroaki Kushioka. On Monday he will dress for work in suit and tie, and again report to the office for unnecessary weeding duties.
In 1974, three years after joining Tonami Transportation, a large haulage company in Toyama, as an administrator, Mr Kushioka spoke out against his company's involvement in illegal cartels. Every day since then he has suffered a bizarre series of psychological tortures at the hands of his bosses.
The day after blowing the whistle, Mr Kushioka, 58, was moved to the company's training centre on the outskirts of town and shown to his new desk - a table in the corner of a small hut with nothing on it.
As a university graduate who had previously managed office accounts, his new duties were more straightforward: he was to inspect the car park and remove any plants that made their way through the cracks in the concrete.
"Sometimes, the pattern of my day would change and I would perform some other completely meaningless task," Mr Kushioka said. "I might be told to wash the dishes in the canteen or raise and lower the company flag outside the car park. For the rest of the time, I was forced to kill time at a completely empty desk."
The only human contact he has had during his 30 years of employment is a daily visit from his boss. For about an hour before home-time, Mr Kushioka is relentlessly harangued and urged to resign.
After a period, Mr Kushioka brought a computer to his hut to work on a book describing how whistle-blowing changed his life. He was given a tongue-lashing from his boss for pursuing private activities during company time.
Despite his strange treatment, Mr Kushioka does not regret his actions and has never considered leaving Tonami Transport. "I knew that as a person who blew the whistle and exposed my name in the public as a whistle-blower, my future road was set in thorns," he said. "I couldn't leave the company because now I was for ever branded as a whistle-blower, I would never find a job in another Japanese company and I have a family to support."

I know that business is run differently in Japan -- I remember that when the Japanese first opened up manufacturing facilities in the USA, the managers were flabbergasted that one of their employers might consider quiting. When you are hired over there, you are hired for life, unless your manager convinces you to resign. I think that 70K UKP is a bit small for the 30 years of harassment that Mr. Kushioka endured. I support tort law reform but he should have gotten a good bit more. I would have launched the lawsuit earlier too...

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This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on February 27, 2005 6:33 PM.

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