Two weeks ago I posted this thread: [https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/12b7wia/comment/jevx5g2/](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/12b7wia/comment/jevx5g2/) about being but on paid leave over allegations of sexual harassment. In the two weeks since, I have not had any followup from the company, and as of Tuesday of last week, my work email account has been disabled. (This also means that I have lost access to the company website.)
Is this normal? Are they trying to pretend that they never hired me in the first place? I was planning on waiting to see if they actually pay me as they promised but I find it very strange that I no longer have access to tools I would need as a worker on the company website, and also that the company no longer has a fast way to contact me aside from my personal email and phone number.
The stress of this situation has made it difficult to even sleep, as I have no idea if the company is even moving to find me a new position, or if they even intend to pay me for wasting my time at home. Should I lawyer up now or wait to see if they actually pay me for the month?
34 comments
This happens when a decision of firing you has been made.
I hope you already started looking for a new job.
I suggest that you go back to the previous post and reread the answers. You already have your answer there.
Mate you have been fired. I expect they will advise you tomorrow.
😬, Yikes, like others mentioned; you’re probably out of a job. You should begin looking for a new job immediately. I hope your industry isn’t a small one, people know people, who know people, who know your colleagues.
You need to learn from this experience and look for a new job. The chance of keeping your job is vanishingly small.
Ya been fired, pal.
They’re not pretending they never hired you, steps are being made to fire you and since it’s over a harassment case they’re taking their time. It should’ve been clear when your work email was disabled what the outcome was. You should be looking for a new job.
Put this down in the book as a learning experience. Making mistakes aren’t the problem. Making the same mistake repeatedly is.
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This is their way of “winking” at you to tell you to gtfo.
Edit: Thank you for the gold!
You can try calling them to get a followup, but I doubt they’ll say anything on the phone. All communication with you would probably need to be documented (email, letter). They will contact you eventually, they do have your personal email, address and phone number.
You shouldn’t worry about whether they’re paying you for this month or not, you have a much bigger problem than that. I see you’ve been looking for job, just make sure you can explain your story why you got fired. If your next job need reference or background check from your current company, you need to be prepared.
You don’t work for Elon Musk do you ?
They’re removing your access to the network so you can’t do any damage to the company or remove any data when you are terminated. You don’t notify the person because that would negate the benefit of what you’re doing. This is standard practice worldwide for how you deal with someone who is being terminated.
I would expect a phone call from HR in the immediate future to set up a meeting for your formal termination. If you’re going to fight this having a lawyer on call and perhaps arranging to bring them to the meeting with HR would probably be advisable.
Good luck with your future endeavors.
I can’t believe you’ve posted this 😂.
You might need to start learning to take social queues, you evidently have trouble reading people and it will ultimately be to your detriment. I would seriously consider seeing a psychologist and discussing this with them.
Start to look a new job. Forget all about your last job. If you have problems for sleep, visit a doctor.
I just saw your original post. In an office with so many women, rumors spread fast, so you built a reputation that made those sexual harassment allegations flow in quickly.
I mean, if someone with a reputation of making sexual innuendos start glaring or winking at a girl that has no experience with men, she will become uncomfortable and report it to HR. Some people are snowflakes or are not used to close contact, so it’s better to keep it very professional with everyone until you know them well and become friends. No touching them on the shoulder, no winking, no talking about relationships. It sucks, but remember that the culture here is different and people are distant.
I made the same mistake as you once, I tapped a Japanese lady on the shoulder because she couldn’t hear me, and she reported me for that. Thankfully they already knew that she was a bit “sensitive”, and nothing happened. I imagine that the biggest thing that happened to her on that day is that someone tapped her shoulder, it’s kind of sad that something so inconsequential can cause a big commotion on someone.
Now, if you want to talk with HR, you can contact them the same way as when you were hired (personal email), but I’m sure they will contact you soon.
It’s a bye bye I’m sad to say. But looking at your past posts regarding why you got on paid leave, then you kindda deserve it by being creepy
I dunno lads. This guy and his stories keep on changing. First the coworkers (and not even the one with the BF) asked OP for his opinion on a domestic situation on the very first day. Then it’s that he had actually built some rapport with this person before that conversation. It’s advice given on a Friday and followed up on Monday, or is it advice given over the weekend and followed up on Monday? First it’s 3 allegations, but then it’s actually *just* 2, and they’re friends, obviously constructing a campaign of hatred to get this poor man fired! I don’t know what to tell you, but I doubt many people on the internet are going to see you were accused of harassment 3 times IN A MONTH, by 3 separate women and assume that it was all a plot by them. Frankly I’m surprised your wife is even mildly ok with the situation, much less ‘mad at the women for the way they handled it’. The whole thing is fishy. Frankly you’re not telling the truth and instead of looking for ‘chin up buckaroo’ from reddit you should be laying low and looking for a job.
I’m sure that you will receive your final pay. They will want to do everything properly on their end.
Although your intentions may have been totally innocent, you yourself now understand that winking and shoulder tapping are not okay, so it is not like they don’t have cause to fire you. The dating advice may have been some kind of misunderstanding that turned into an inciting incident that turned everyone against you, but you cannot say that you did nothing at all wrong.
In the future, avoid physical contact with coworkers, even a tap on the shoulder. Pretend that your coworkers are covered from head to toe in deadly poison if you have to. And please, for the love of god, stop winking at people. You must have at least an inkling that some people can take that the wrong way. It doesn’t matter if you do it to both men and women. Don’t do it at all.
As I told you in the other discussion, you were accused of sexual harassment by two and possibly three women, which indicates a pattern of behavior. It’s difficult to overcome that perception. I already expected from that discussion that your fate was sealed.
Ask them. It’s always stressful with this kind of thing but not knowing makes it harder. You may not get a direct response but it’s no harm to ask.
They probably shut down your access to the work email so you can’t delete/tamper with anything, in case they need it for legal reasons
You will almost 100% certainly get paid for the time you were at the company, but yeah look for another job.
sorry this happened to you
Damn they full on exiled your ass. GG. Better luck next time. Obviously don’t list it on your resume lol.
I am not going to be careful how I word this:
Single/unmarried women are very spiteful and vindictive to happily married men in their age group or younger.
As soon as word got out that I was engaged, I was ghosted and excommunicated by most of the women at the office at the company I worked at.
What saved me was I picked up on it and was immediately cold and uninvolved with them from that point forward. No more “how is your day?” Or “oh the weather is nice”. Just pure oats and curry.
They are absolutely going to pay you for wasting your time. They are in the process of firing you for cause and they will want to ensure they make no misteps so you can’t fight back via labor board or lawyer. You will have your final pay within the week period after official notification of termination, or on your regularly scheduled pay day, which ever is first.
Yes, that’s quite normal when the company made a decision to fire you.
The way you described it in your previous post, it sounds like a series of misunderstandings, the kind that you can expect to see in Curb Your Enthusiasm, except less funny. Nobody should be fired over an innocent misunderstanding.
Didn’t HR talk with you after each incident was reported? That’s what they should have done. In a decent company, HR should work to resolve conflicts between employees. If they just wrote down all the incidents without telling you about it, until they had enough to fire you, well, that seems it was their intent all along.
The more I think about this, the more I’m convinced that HR is partly to blame for this outcome.
The question is, do you want to keep working in a company where you already have this reputation? Just find a new job, and forget this ever happened.
For all the mean comments here, let me be contrarian. You should definitely contact the company and find out what is happening.
You should remind them that you have not had any warnings or process. Do not threaten them, but you can ask them if they think you should bring in the labor bureau or a lawyer, because the situation has become very strange and not really fair to you. Being accused of harassment 2-3 times is not a good start, but you didn’t break any laws here. Getting into someone’s personal life and tapping someone’s shoulder break cultural norms, but these are not firing offenses.
At the end of the day, they hired you and you want to work. That’s a big point to make here. You can commit to keeping things strictly professional.
You obviously are horrible at taking social cues
Here an advice for future. Stick to guy friends at work and don’t talk about personal issues or attempt office romance. If you are ikemen enough the women will approach you but you shouldnt initiate anything.
Listen,
It’s hard to fire people in Japan. Really hard. Usually, a company can’t just pile up a bunch of evidence and fire someone. A company has to show that it made an attempt to resolve the issue. Whatever you did must have been pretty serious.
I’m in IT, and have dealt with these situations while coordinating with HR in the past.
While the likely scenario is termination, it’s also pretty common to disable the accounts of employees who will be on extended leave / suspension. There still may be a chance that you’ll be reassigned, but it’s somewhat slim.
Otherwise, what was your contract classification? Are you seishain?
Whether OPs story is truthful or not, at least he now knows what isn’t acceptable in the workplace.
I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’re being honest and didn’t mean to make anyone feel uncomfortable. I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I’m sure with three little ones it’s got to be stressful. Hopefully you can keep it together and help your wife with the kids and the house until you find a new job.
Most likely it means you are in the process of being terminated. Hopefully they will contact you on the next business day. It’s okay to reach out to HR to ask them about the situation if you want. It’s up to you if you want to give them a few days, but I wouldn’t wait more than a few days unless you have documentation clearly stating you are on paid leave and the length of time you will be on that leave. If you were working at a major company then most likely they are preparing to end things legally and within the contract. They should pay you per the contract and the labor laws.
I have to agree with others that winking usually comes off as creepy. Honestly this could have been the catalyst for everything. The starring/monitor issue could have been addressed (requested to move seats, put up a barrier, move monitor, get another monitor). Talking to a woman about her relationship might not have been related, unless you invited yourself into a “private” conversation (aka a conversation everyone can hear, but we all have to pretend like we don’t). As for the other things it’s difficult to say. I can see how it could have been taken the wrong way. People in general all have different comfort levels and things you see as normal can be uncomfortable with others. Please don’t let this situation make you jaded towards working with women in the future. Some of these actions could make men feel uncomfortable too. I wish you would have been given a warning, but even if you did the damage was done and no one would be comfortable working together. Even though you didn’t mean to make someone feel uncomfortable it’s important to understand where they are coming from rather than labeling them as just being sensitive. That will help you in the future.
Best of luck to finding a new job or by some chance they find another assignment for you.