I have been in Japan over 5 years. The situation at my workplace seems not so happy in the last 2 years, and I have noticed more people will just totally ignore greetings when entering the office or walking past people in hallways or outside. There is no reason why some of the people would have any issue or conflict with me either. I think the people who ignore greetings are doing it to most people. I find it kind of strange and now I just say hello to the people who respond and stop doing it to people who don’t. I don’t really care or take it personal but it is still kind of puzzling to me. Does anyone else experience this regularly at work?
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I was a temp at a place that was going downhill fast. Losing money, fewer and fewer things to do, everybody was 55 and older, no new hires and I think that office branch was literally just waiting for people to retire so they can close it or sell it off. Everybody was low spirited, nobody talked, we never even had any drinking parties.
Perhaps the most interesting thing was they blasted the radio exercise on the facility-wide PA system every morning, and literally not anyone would move an inch from their seats. Even the director in the middle desk of the room would just keep reading his newspaper.
I also once worked at a weird place like this. Greetings between people were spotty. The weirdest thing was after oshogatsu, the first day back, there was no morning new years greeting by the big boss (I’d worked in a few other companies where this was the norm), nor was anyone at least saying “kotoshi mo yoroshiku …etc etc” to each other. I got so weirded out I thought maybe they had all started work the day before and I alone had been mistaken and come in a day late?? Twilight zone stuff lol but the schedule wasn’t wrong. I thought oh well maybe it’s not such a traditional place, but they had put kadomatsu outside the building all proper? It was odd.
But incidentally it was a place like another commenter has said, company as a whole was not doing well *at all* financially, and in my particular department, people were showing up but no one actually had much work to do, apparently: lack of 新規 contracts and projects. I myself left after 6 months.
At my previous job one woman would never respond to my greeting (small office, often she’d be first to arrive in the morning and I was second) but she most certainly had a problem with me personally. I thought that was childish and kept saying good morning so nobody could say I was the one being rude. Sometimes she’d forget that she was ignoring me and out of habit a reply would slip out haha but this woman also put cardboard between her desk and another coworker’s cause that coworker once accidentally spilled something on her bag (for which that coworker apologized and cleaned up) and was pretty self righteous in general.
She ended up getting reprimanded by the department head and from then on she made sure to greet everybody.
If these people do it to most people they are probably not in a good place mentally in general (it’s still bad manners imo).
I had a 50+ day stretch where no one acknowledged my greetings or goodbyes.
I generally keep track of everything I do throughout the day as a safety net, so I counted the days from when I first started to notice I wasn’t being acknowledged.
It wasn’t until I delivered whatever results they were looking for that I started to get responses back. This is partial speculation, but I started receiving more attention and my greetings were acknowledged after I secured a 4 new partners.
Still at the company. The company is doing well financially. It depends on the people, workplace environment, and financial situation. There are people who still do not talk to me, despite being a member for quite some time now.
I had a new teacher literally frown and roll his eyes at me without a greet back when I greeted him in the hallway. Safe to say, that was the last time I ever greeted him again.
Yes, some people just don’t greet, it’s the same as pretty much everywhere. Some people are just grumpy. I’m grumpy. I sometimes don’t greet either. Some just greet with a not or a muffled “hm”. Depends on the person.
People are weird all over the world. I have had coworkers that would bring donuts, while another one would put headphones all day and barely said anything. Same here in Japan, people barely acknowledging your existence or basically loving you because you greet them everyday.
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aggressive KONNICHIWA is the way
When I walk into the office I expect everyone to stop and hail my greatness also.
Did you say otsukaresama ? or worse konnichiwa ? No wonder, you’re the awkward foreigners.
It’s enough to just hiss, like this ssssss, blow wind outward through teeth.
I personally like it. At my old job (of about 500 people) there was this unwritten rule that you had to say お疲れ様です to literally every colleague you walked past in the corridor. It was annoying.
I remember お疲れ様ですing this girl who I used to walk past by chance on a certain day (I guess we both had 定例会 in the same places every week – fucking hate 定例会 but I digress). I can clearly remember her face but to this day I have absolutely no idea what her name is.
Of course I would always happily greet people I *actually* work with/have worked with directly but other than that it was just dumb.
Current workplace people barely acknowledge those from outside their team/department unless moving out the way, holding the door open etc. I love it. Maybe I’m just an antisocial hermit though.
Don’t worry about that. They’re not friends.
Just greet them and keep it pushing. Whether they respond is on them and their character. You’ve completed your end of the bargain
The reason for greeting coworkers is to show your enthusiasm and to brighten another’s day.
You are doing a good job. Other people are not. At least that’s how you are “supposed” to think about it.
During high school I avoid eye contact with my friends when we passed each other. It is not that I hate them, I was simply socially awkward.
Now, I can give head nod with eye contact to coworkers, but saying ohayo gozaimasu or otsukaresama desu is not a really natural for me.
Where I am, regular employees will get greetings returned pretty well 100% of the time. As a temp, it’s like 50%. So I decided not to return greetings unless spoken to directly. Yes, I don’t work at your company, but I’m not a serf. I’m here because none of you can do my job. In fact, I’m surprised some of them can go to the toilet unassisted. Maybe they’re wearing diapers.
The working culture in Japan is weird af, and it’s sometime stressful to work here.
It’s normal, they do the same at my work. I just greet with a huge おはようございま〜〜〜〜す！in the morning, trying to make everybody feel ashamed of themselves.
Yes my office is the same. I know 6-7 guys who appreciate it so I always make sure to say hello and good bye to them or have a quick informal chat here and there. Mostly foreigners. But the number of people who simply show up, sit down in front of the screen and isolate tends to be higher. I work in tech btw.
Do you greet them in English or Japanese? Try the opposite. Mess with them. If they are an ignorer, they’re fair game.
Just say OI BRUV FUCKIN DO ONE!!