VOX POPULI: Landing a job offers no guarantees for grads

Mikiya Nagao of Osaka often contributes tanka poems about his workplace to the Asahi Kadan column. "Having let go of some employees as part of corporate restructuring/ I come apart like a statue."

Eleven years ago, this tanka caught my attention and prompted me to interview Nagao. He told me the poem described his experience as a department head in charge of sales.

"I could not decide which four employees to let go/ And spent a holiday in autumn without a smile."

When he faced the employees that he was about to fire, his mouth dried up and his legs shook. He repeatedly said, "I'm sorry," and apologized for not being able to help them. One broke down and cried in front of him. Nagao was unable to hold back his tears.

As I read a news article that ran in Monday's vernacular Asahi Shimbun's education section, I recalled Nagao's situation.

In some companies, managers hoping to reduce their staff numbers begin to make unreasonable demands or hurl verbal abuse at new hires or the soon-to-graduate students who have just received job offers. Such cases, which are virtually "firing new graduates," are on the rise, according to the report.

In such cases, there is not a drop of human kindness. One new hire, on his very first day at work received a scolding from his boss and was required to write a composition daily starting from the third day that reflected on his conduct. On the ninth day, the boss asked him if he wasn't too tired to keep at it.

When he replied that he could hang in there, the boss asked him, "Do you mean to stay on and get paid?" The employee was handed a letter of resignation to sign.

It is depressing to know that such companies actually exist.

I have heard reports that some companies apparently hire more employees than they need and think nothing of slashing their numbers later. I don't mean to imply that weeping as one fires employees is a more humane way to act, but I do feel that people are demeaning themselves.

Company managers should at least have the integrity not to degrade fellow human beings or consider them merely a "means to an end."

"Having served 30 years with the company/ I shift from one who wields the ax/ To one receiving it/ How simple." After 11 years, Nagao recently submitted this tanka. I sense an undertone of relief and enlightenment in this poem. I wonder how managers intent on firing new graduates will read it.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 26

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.