My coworkers don’t know they are being laid off (but I do), can I help them?

30 comments

1. It seems you were told in confidence. It’s probably not a good idea to tell anyone else.

   Just out of curiosity, did your friend say why they are laying off?

2. If you tell anyone, the trust he had in your confidentiality will be broken. Just know that no matter what you decide to do.

3. Honestly, I would stay out of it. You are not in charge of hiring and firing decisions, and you definitely don’t get the final say.

   Just hang on to your job. Look out for yourself first, because in the end that’s all you can do.

4. Don’t say a word

5. I wouldn’t… people lose their jobs all the time. If you tell them then you’ll lose the head coordinators trust and friendship, and I doubt that your salary increase is enough to let more than maybe one of them keep their job.

6. >I can take a pay cut or something similar to convince the BOE to save some of them?

   No. You can’t and if you do you may get your friend fired or in trouble. He told you this in confidence as a trusted person.

   Also, you should be happy you’re worth keeping. Second, BOE jobs do this a lot. It is the danger of being in a situation where you are basically just a replaceable cog.

   Making yourself standout will only put you on the list of more trouble than you’re worth. Most of the time BOEs want to put ALTs on shit dispatch contracts because they’re too much trouble and if you put yourself in that camp you will end up with lower pay working for Interac.

7. The people who make these decisions are not going to be dissuaded by a grunt (no offense). Likewise, letting on that your know and even presume to question their plan (their view, not mine… remember how hierarchical Japanese companies are) will do you no favors, and is likely to put you on the chopping block in the near future. It sucks, but that’s the reality.

8. Do you like the other ALTs or your bosses more? If I were poor and being laid off in a foreign country, I’d want to know ASAP so that I could scramble. You can’t save their position, but your manager is hurting them by not informing them as soon as they can.

   You have the choice of making a prudent, selfish decision, or a moral, respectful one. That’s up to you to how you want to remember yourself at this time twenty years from now

9. Wow, you’ll get a pay increase but your work load might see a large increase, be warned.

10. If you do something, they’re likely just to find another person to take your slot and you’ll follow the rest of your co-teachers out the door.

    I wouldn’t even warn them, as they’re likely to use your name when they complain to the people in charge. Nothing you can do.

11. Tell them. Your BOE will eventually do the same to you.

12. There is not a great path to resolve this.

    >The other ALTs in my town and I are not extremely close but they are not bad teachers. Is there anyway I can take a pay cut or something similar to convince the BOE to save some of them?

    Sadly, no. If the decision has been made (the BOE forwarded the paperwork to the town hall and got approval), they will not reverse it. If the decision has not been made, you telling the others could create unnecessary stress among the ALTs and out you as an informant. I would probably not even extend the offer to take the pay cut as it might give someone the idea to cut your pay without retaining even a single ALT.

13. Laid off indicates being let go before end of contract. Are they being let go before end of contract? Or simply that they will not get offered a contract renewal?

    Either way, there is nothing you can do. Theoretically, they all should have been informed by now (or at least by tomorrow) that they will not be renewed, giving them 30 days lead notice to look for new contracts.

14. DO NOT GET INVOLVED.

    This is the reality of contract work in Japan. As much as you like your ALT friends, the fact they are not having their contracts renewed in favor of dispatch (which will likely cost the city the same but without the headache), means your ALT friends may have caused trouble for the BoE.

    Count yourself lucky and beware, next year you might also be up for the chop.

15. I think the only thing (and perhaps best thing) that you can do to help the other teachers, would be to put in a word to the head coordinator to please inform the affected teachers as early as possible. This will give them a chance to seek alternative employment, and/or to make other plans to move/relocate as necessary.

    Ultimately, the question to answer would be “What would I like, if it was happening to me?”. If the decision has already been made, I would like to be told earlier, than later.

    Outside of that, it should be business as usual. Seek his feedback on what you can work on to improve for the following year, and clearly communicate that you were the right person for them to chose to keep.

16. Think of it this way. Your friend told you, and since this is such a sensitive topic, it’s safe to assume that he only told you. So, imagine you tip off the ALTs they’re getting the axe. They kick up a huge fuss. Word gets back to your friend about the situation. He’s gonna put 2 and 2 together and figure out that the one person he told – *you* – went behind his back and kicked the hornet’s nest.

    It’s a terrible situation, but in trying to help these ALTs, you’d probably also be throwing your friend under the bus. And, it’s unlikely that tipping them off will either help them get retained at their current jobs or give them a fighting chance at getting hired somewhere else. Look at the calendar. It’ll be March tomorrow. I would crap myself with surprise if they were all able to find other ALT jobs at this time of year.

    If you want to help them, maybe you could remind them to keep their resumes updated in case their current gigs don’t work out and that’s it.

17. Hope you start looking for work because next year you are next. This is an experiment if they like dispatch and their covid backup plan.

18. 1. There is nothing you can do to help them. Stay quiet and pretend that you know nothing. Act surprised when the news comes out. Never let on that you knew in advance.

    2. You are seeing the result of being easily replaceable workers. This time around they decided to keep you (perhaps because of your friend’s influence) but ultimately what is happening to the other teachers is likely to happen to you, too. The best thing you can do is work to get yourself out of ALT work and into some sort of skilled work. Improve your Japanese and work on developing some marketable skills. If your Japanese is good enough you can even get yourself a Japanese teaching license which will give you a lot more opportunities. If teaching is what you want to do then you should look into it.

19. Tell them without letting anyone know it was you. Use a fake account or something. They have a right to know. Look after yourself too though.

20. Just know that you could very well be in the other shoes At one point down the line.

21. I’d stay out of it. Nothing bad will happen if you just don’t do anything.

    On other note, you mentioned that they will hire again for cheaper prices. What exactly do you mean by this?
    Will they hire the same people, but the dispatch agencies fee is cheaper? Or the pay for the teachers is lower?

    I hope it’s not the second. English teachers aren’t paid anywhere near enough as it is.

22. Don’t tell them.

    If you can identify a few teachers who are professional and good, then you can pass this on to your friend for their consideration.

    Otherwise, take care of yourself and keep your options open in case you need to consider changing jobs in the future.

23. Bad idea. Considering you’ve already been in Japan for over 8 years, I’m sure you know that expressing one’s opinions often doesn’t go down well here. It’s going to become a big deal if you decide to take any action or even bring up the idea of taking a pay cut. If I was a teacher with an expiring contract, although I would really appreciate somebody looking out for me, I would already be thinking ahead. I would advise you don’t say anything.

24. I don’t understand the reasoning of “hiring back cheaper through a dispatch company”.

    Dispatchers like Interac only pass along about 30% of the money the BoE pays for any ALT to the ALT themselves. So unless you’re giving those direct hire ALTs a 75% or so pay cut, direct hiring them is cheaper than rehiring through a dispatcher.
    BoEs don’t like direct hiring because it means they have to deal with stuff like visas, and because being dispatch workers gives ALTs massively less rights, but direct hire is way waaaay cheaper if they’ve got the people already.

25. No (good) advice but would just like to say thats super fucked up and its only going to get worse due to apathy demonstrated here-everyone too happy to step on each other and cheer these situations of downright work abuse that the same ppl would condemn in western country but somehow think is perfectly fine in asia. Disgusting

26. r/japan is news sub reddit post in japanlife

27. This exact situation happened at my old position. I left there this contract thankfully and if I would have stayed as they asked me to I would have been left out in the cold right after getting married.

    Don’t worry too much because the current English teaching market is favoring hires within the country with the current lockdowns. If the current ALTs are good teachers and have been keeping their resumes and certifications up to date they should have no problem finding other positions.

28. This is a very difficult situation that you are in. From experience, I had a former direct hire ALT supervisor who did try to help out other ALTs. The city had a sister-city relation with another country, but it all went downhill and involved the GU. It was on the news domestically in Japan and abroad. The ALTs had some issues, but the BOE didn’t do much to resolve those issues and wouldn’t let the ALTs attend their students’ graduation ceremony. As for the ALT supervisor…well, got a different job instead. I respect what he did. The ALTs never had their contract renewed or their situation resolved.

    The BOE did get sued and eventually, (some years later) lost the case. Right now, I believe that BOE stopped using their sister-city ALT program for the ES positions and are using dispatch for ES & JHS.

    Only you know what you can do. And, I hope you can make the right decision.

    ***This is a video transcript:***

    [http://gu.generalunion.org/Takatsuki20160218MBSVoiceTranscript.pdf](http://gu.generalunion.org/Takatsuki20160218MBSVoiceTranscript.pdf)

29. My advice is to not fix other adults problems. You are butting in. You will break the trust if the person who told you and next time, you will be the one laid off. You’re not Batman or their mom. Stay in your own lane. Why are you trying to rescue people who are not asking you to? If the company wanted them to stay, they would offer them a position.

    Become comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. Don’t try to fix things or people unless they ask you to.

30. The budget isn’t decided by the BOE, it’s decided by city officials in committee meetings, the BOE input usually is nonexistent. They decided to pay more to retain you. This means they like you. I do agree it’s best to keep silent. But there is literally nothing you can do to change their minds. I doubt your pay raise will be that much, and certainly not enough to offset what the city is technically saving by going with dispatch.

    However – in the last two years, have you all been required to submit applications and resumes? If you all have, it’s fair to say the writing is ALWAYS on the wall. I’m direct hire, we had to start submitting applications and resumes starting, what, two years ago now? But, just in case, make sure your own resume is up to date. If you have NOT, I’d still keep a resume up to date.