I heard that in Japan there is a thing where in some offices they turn off the lights and keep working after regular working hours so Students and other people won’t think they work overtime into the night when they look at the building even though they still do. Is that actually a thing?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/10k20b1/turning_off_lights_in_offices_in_japan_after/
4 comments
Not nationwide. After a spade of people working themselves to death or ending their lives over the stress a couple of years ago there was a movement to turn off the lights at some point after hours, not to hide the people working OT but to nudge people to go home. I always thought that’s mostly a PR response to having lost an employee. Look over here, we’re doing something. And nobody checks if they’re still doing it.
There was setsuden after 3/11. But that mostly entailed turning of the lights in the empty sections of the office. If folks were still working after 25:00, then they weren’t left sitting in the dark.
Also, nobody gives a damn what students think.
Not really pretending to work, but rather it forcing workers to go home .You cannot stay there even if you bring your own lights anyway.
One famous example is Dentsu which is known for long working hours and working to death scandals. They made it impossible for turn on individual lights after 10 pm.
There was a CEO at Triumph, the lingerie maker, who was well-known for turning off the lights at 6PM during his tenure. It changed people’s mindset to work more efficiently, I heard 2nd hand. I believe he was German. It helped them recruit more women, as well, which makes sense given the products.