HAL Laboratories got talked to by the Japanese Labor Board last year after not paying a WFH employee overtime and their excuse was “that’s on you.”
HAL Laboratories got talked to by the Japanese Labor Board last year after not paying a WFH employee overtime and their excuse was “that’s on you.”
by SemiLazyGamer
14 Comments
Hueless-and-Clueless
Open the pod bay doors HAL…
ViviMelia
Toxic Japanese Work Culture is so nasty and we need more articles like this exposing this exploitation
No-Zookeepergame-80
Japanese game studio abusing their workers? That’s a shocker! I’m shocked! SHOCKED!
CJTenorio03
~~Yeah, this is really disappointing to hear.~~
~~At least the employee got paid for ALL of the overtime, so that’s good.~~
UPDATE: Apparently some people think this is a hoax since the FRIDAY tabloid has a reputation of being untrustworthy (such as articles being over exaggerations or outright lies). If this article is false, then they went through so much effort (using quotes and available regulations as reference) to ruin HAL. But the article could also be true since unpaid overtime is common.
We’ll have to wait and see if this is actually fake or not.
UPDATE 2: Apparently the story was real but FRIDAY wrote it in a vicious manner to make things seem worst than they do to generate outrage. It was actually a miscommunication between HAL and the employee and was resolved in 2020.
TIL that I hate tabloids.
FINAL EDIT: I really hate that FRIDAY decided to distort a miscommunication issue (that was already resolved) to generate outrage and to get views. Such a scummy thing to do.
Deviant_Kannibal
Time to steal shit from work. I’d assume that “that’s on you” means compensate myself. If they say anything, tell them “that’s on you” for not paying my OT.
danwoop
I know stuff like this is very common in Japanese companies but it’s still sad to hear from a studio that makes such joyful games.
takkoyakii
I’m gonna buy this game
Nintendad47
So ask the staff at HAL if they want to leave? Isn’t turnover at Nintendo the lowest of any game company.
Squish_the_android
This is weird. It says in the article that the employee tried to put in the additional time but the system wouldn’t accept it.
Then this employee seemingly did nothing about this until they left and demanded back pay?
Honestly this does kinda sound like it’s on the employee. They’re entitled to their pay but handled this in the worst way possible.
easycure
When my company went WFH during the start / height of the pandemic, they strictly told us NO overtime unless approved. They assumed the worst of employees and, sadly, they were right. Some people thought they’d be slick and clock out an hour or two later but had no production to show for it, so the company cracked down and tried to monitor everyone even more so than they were before.
Not trying to defend the company (either mine or HAL) just giving an example of how things aren’t always as cut and dry as it seems. My company instituted that policy and if you tried to put in extra hours, yeah that “was in you”.
From what I’m reading, it also sounds like the employee had time clock issues that went unreported. That’s… Also on the employee. If I can’t clock on in the morning or clock out for lunch, for whatever reason, I have to send a text and an email just to have multiple forms of accountability between myself and my supervisor regarding adjustments to my time sheet.
Those adjustments also need to be approved by my supervisors manager before being submitted to Payroll, so they want to have that sort of accountability too. It looks bad if I’m clocking in at 9:15 every day and asking my supervisor to adjust it to 9:00.
Once I submit my time sheet there’s a literal pop up message saying that I’m agreeing to the times shown, so any mistakes are on ME for not having them rectified. That’s just.. standard business.
IntrinsicStarvation
This would have never, ever, ever, happened with Iwata still around.
jackolanternbunny
Kirby and the Forgotten WFH employee.
AdmiralSpeedy
It’s almost like WFH doesn’t work lol.
Spookyheart817
Japan has such a bullshit workplace culture honestly.
14 Comments
Open the pod bay doors HAL…
Toxic Japanese Work Culture is so nasty and we need more articles like this exposing this exploitation
Japanese game studio abusing their workers? That’s a shocker! I’m shocked! SHOCKED!
~~Yeah, this is really disappointing to hear.~~
~~At least the employee got paid for ALL of the overtime, so that’s good.~~
UPDATE: Apparently some people think this is a hoax since the FRIDAY tabloid has a reputation of being untrustworthy (such as articles being over exaggerations or outright lies). If this article is false, then they went through so much effort (using quotes and available regulations as reference) to ruin HAL. But the article could also be true since unpaid overtime is common.
We’ll have to wait and see if this is actually fake or not.
UPDATE 2: Apparently the story was real but FRIDAY wrote it in a vicious manner to make things seem worst than they do to generate outrage. It was actually a miscommunication between HAL and the employee and was resolved in 2020.
TIL that I hate tabloids.
FINAL EDIT: I really hate that FRIDAY decided to distort a miscommunication issue (that was already resolved) to generate outrage and to get views. Such a scummy thing to do.
Time to steal shit from work. I’d assume that “that’s on you” means compensate myself. If they say anything, tell them “that’s on you” for not paying my OT.
I know stuff like this is very common in Japanese companies but it’s still sad to hear from a studio that makes such joyful games.
I’m gonna buy this game
So ask the staff at HAL if they want to leave? Isn’t turnover at Nintendo the lowest of any game company.
This is weird. It says in the article that the employee tried to put in the additional time but the system wouldn’t accept it.
Then this employee seemingly did nothing about this until they left and demanded back pay?
Honestly this does kinda sound like it’s on the employee. They’re entitled to their pay but handled this in the worst way possible.
When my company went WFH during the start / height of the pandemic, they strictly told us NO overtime unless approved. They assumed the worst of employees and, sadly, they were right. Some people thought they’d be slick and clock out an hour or two later but had no production to show for it, so the company cracked down and tried to monitor everyone even more so than they were before.
Not trying to defend the company (either mine or HAL) just giving an example of how things aren’t always as cut and dry as it seems. My company instituted that policy and if you tried to put in extra hours, yeah that “was in you”.
From what I’m reading, it also sounds like the employee had time clock issues that went unreported. That’s… Also on the employee. If I can’t clock on in the morning or clock out for lunch, for whatever reason, I have to send a text and an email just to have multiple forms of accountability between myself and my supervisor regarding adjustments to my time sheet.
Those adjustments also need to be approved by my supervisors manager before being submitted to Payroll, so they want to have that sort of accountability too. It looks bad if I’m clocking in at 9:15 every day and asking my supervisor to adjust it to 9:00.
Once I submit my time sheet there’s a literal pop up message saying that I’m agreeing to the times shown, so any mistakes are on ME for not having them rectified. That’s just.. standard business.
This would have never, ever, ever, happened with Iwata still around.
Kirby and the Forgotten WFH employee.
It’s almost like WFH doesn’t work lol.
Japan has such a bullshit workplace culture honestly.