Evening,
Before we start, keep it constructive. I genuinely do not care if you don’t like the work that I do, or how I am reacting to a bad work environment. If you insist on being snide I will just laugh at you. This is a burner as my coworkers read this sub.
So, I work as an ALT and the BoE I work for is pretty awful, along with my other American coworkers. I’ve decided my best course of action is to cut loose the moment I find another job. I don’t know how I’ll do it, but anything is better than waking up miserable with anxiety.
This BoE contracts most of their ALTs from JET, and if those JETs get assigned to my city I want there to be something that shows up when they google it, to warn them about the shitstorm they’ll walk into. I know this seems like I’m virtue signalling here but imagining someone like me going into that situation without knowing is haunting.
So, what’s the legality of that? Can I mention the specific city?
Edit:
Good advice everyone. Sorry, I’m still a bit angry — years of this will do this to you. But thank you for keeping it mostly civil.
13 comments
You can say anything that is true, no? What exactly is your question?
Just grow up and move on. Anyone who wants to come work in Japan is going to do it anyway and the easiest way to do it is to become an ALT. There’s been negative reviews of being an ALT on the internet for decades. It hasn’t stopped anyone. Just because it sucks for you doesn’t mean it’ll suck for everyone. It’s not like anyone who gets hired has a choice of where they’ll be working anyway.
Also, with the recent stepped-up enforcement of internet slander going on it’s not worth the risk. Your employer will have the last laugh.
Just like you, they’ll eventually learn. They can handle it like an adult or a child. It’s up to them.
You can be sued for defamation/liable even if it’s true.
If they can prove that you’re intent is to harm their reputation, they can sue you.
None if you care about your own reputation. Trash talking doesn’t go down well in this culture.
You can gripe to your friends in confidence, but the moment those complaints become public, you can be sued for defamation. Be very careful who you talk to. Just let it go and move on
So you’re a JET? You and the other JETs at your BoE can report it to CLAIR. If it’s bad enough, (as in breaking labour law, power harassment etc) and enough of you complain, they might blacklist the BoE so they won’t get sent any more JETs.
Limiting your online review to things you objectively and truthfully perceived with your 5 senses would minimize your chances of being sued for defamation.
I. E. This restaurant got my order wrong and took 30 minutes to get my food would arguably be OK while “this restaurant sucks” or “don’t go to this crappy restaurant” could potentially be seen as defamation or liable to their financial losses.
But seriously, as much as your Boe sucks, you won’t do yourself much favors if you let them get to you to the point you need to smack talk them.
You might be able to get around defamation by writing about “Mr. T at the BoE of S City in K Prefecture,” but that kind of diminishes the point.
Don’t. Yes it is actionable here.
It’s probably not worth it. A lot of COs deserve more crap than they get but it won’t help you to martyr yourself in aid of a bad review. If you’re going to get another job and move out of their sphere then you’ve already got as much as a one-up as you can by costing them a couple grand in flights and manpower to replace you.
Generally speaking I think if you keep yourself anonymous, keep it factual, and use sites like Reddit, Glassdoor, etc., go for it.
I wanted to write a strongly worded letter to my
BOE when I was ending JET because of certain unfair XYZ decisions, and I wanted to be reimbursed for some
unnecessary expenses, the actual details of which aren’t exactly important.
In the end, I decided that even if I still believe that I was in the right (that the decision wasn’t fair/equitable to all parties involved) it was more valuable to end that working relationship positively.
In the unlikely event that they actually gave me what I wanted at that time, I would have gotten maybe 15,000 yen. I cut my losses and left with a good reputation, which is priceless.
One never knows how things will turn out on the end, so I try not to burn bridges. I mean wouldn’t work with them again, but it is an open door for potential partnerships. Eventually I visited post-JET, I got a warm welcome.
What exactly have they been doing to you? We can probably tell you if it’s unique to your job or something you’ll face in most other workplaces.
And I get your hurting and wanna bite back, but there will always be a whole train of weebs willing to come here, regardless of what they read. That’s not even considering the potential legal ramifications.
Start your healing journey now