A young man we'll refer to here only as "Mr. A" had recently joined a firm dealing in medical equipment. Barely several months into the job, he procured the services of a professional taishoku daiko (resignation agency) to notify the company of his wish to resign. His reasons were not specified, but it was known that A had been feeling depressed because a few days before he had made a serious goofup on the job.
During a dinner with his superior the night before, A had pledged to his boss, "From tomorrow, I'll give it my best shot!"
The next day, however, the company's personnel department was contacted by the agency, which informed them that A sought to leave its employ.
"Even while eating dinner together, A couldn't bring himself to convey his intention of quitting," the agency rep explains to Flash (July 16). "It's become a common pattern. This way after resigning, when co-workers are requested by the company to try to talk their colleague out of quitting, in the end, they couldn't."
A salient characteristic of Japan's Generation Z is that they're willing to go to great lengths to avoid stressful situations, like quitting a job. To the point that they'll even pay a specialist to do the dirty work for them.
Take the pseudonymous "Mr. B." Before his paid representative made the call to his company, he'd absconded with a laptop computer and the key to the company storeroom. The company was frantic that he would leak proprietary information to competitors.
If B had fled to his family home, the two items might have been retrievable; but he lived alone and attempts to contact him had been blocked. In the end his company decided it had no choice but to write off the loss.
True, the company could initiate a lawsuit demanding return of the computer and key; but the magazine pointed out that considering the time and costs involved, cases such as these just aren't worth the trouble.
Then there's "Ms. C," who had joined an ad agency. When recruited she expressed her desire to work in one of the company's "star-studded" departments such as a creative unit, but was advised by the personnel department that such jobs were in high demand and she might not get what she wanted. Sure enough, she wound up assigned to sales, which she detested.
"If I can't do the work I want, I don't feel like wasting any more of my time here," was her sentiment, which was conveyed verbatim to the company through her hired representative.
Not all resignations consigned to the agency involve people in white collar jobs. "Ms. E," employed at a popular massage salon, was so popular with the male clientele that her services were booked solid one to two months in advance.
After her abrupt departure, shop revenues plummeted.
From one point of view, the shop could be faulted for not securing enough workers, and more's the point, frequent employee turnover should be understood as status quo in the "pink" business. From this case, Flash comments, it is not only the business that suffered due to the action by the resignation agency; it's entirely possible that those on the consumer side could also be inconvenienced, although Flash balks at explaining why it thinks so.
In a sidebar, Flash interviews Shinji Tanimoto, head of the aptly named resignation agency Momuri -- a play on words for mo muri (I can't stand it any longer). According to its website, fees to pull the plug begin at ¥12,000 for part-time workers and ¥22,000 for regular company staff members.
Since Tanimoto began offering his service several years ago, he claims to have assisted a total of about 12,000 people in leaving their jobs.
"About 60% of our clients are in their 20s and 30s," Tanimoto tells the magazine. "In many cases they voiced dissatisfactions such as how they weren't able to use their paid leave or were obliged to put in overtime work without compensation. Others just told me, 'I'm just not assertive enough and it's hard for me to submit my resignation.'"
Was Tanimoto ever confronted with accusations that he was practicing law without a license?
"Once last year, somebody confided to me that the bar association was looking into us," he replies. "I was informed that if I were found to be in violation of some regulation I would be so notified, but afterwards nothing happened. So I'm still on the job.
"If the occasion calls for it, I can introduce a reliable attorney to work with the client," he added. "I think a distinction that can be made between services provided by attorneys and what I do; that's because the type of negotiations only attorneys are authorized to perform are clearly specified.
"Stated simply," says Tanimoto, "I am just seeking to better the environment that enables employees to quit their jobs."
© Japan Today
3 Comments
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NCIS Reruns
A savvy and experienced Japanese friend once told me, "Never give reasons for quitting beyond 'personal reasons.' If you start complaining about why you want to leave, they'll gang up on you and try to talk you out of it."
There's a simple and straightforward template to accomplish this. Isshinjo no tsugo ni yotte, gatsu (month) nichi (day) wo motte taishoku sasete itadakimasu. (For personal reasons I am hereby resigning effective (day) (month),)
DanteKH
Japan, the only country in the world with those kind of services. That tells a lot about how mentally weak a lot of people are, if they don't even have the courage to properly resign a stressful job. I never heard a foreigner in Japan or otherwise, not to be able to handle by hymself those kind of situations. Then again, foreigners living in Japan need to have a very strong mental attitude in order to survive and thrive on a country that constantly looks down to them and always treat them as 2nd hand citizens.
theFu
There's a word for adults who can't say what they mean, especially to an employer. 5 letters (in English).
Not every job is a good fit for each individual. Recognizing that sooner is good, but it is decent to hand the written resignation to your boss and spend 5 minutes discussing it, even if you don't want to say anything bad. I've always used the "time for me to move onto new challenges" speech and hoped I'd be escorted out of the building immediately. Sadly, that has never happened. They always wanted me to stay for at least 2 weeks and multiple times for 1 to 6 months after being notified. 2 weeks is standard for normal employees. Key employees often negotiate longer transition periods.