I just moved 2 months ago from Indonesia to work in Japan as caretaker.
99% of Japanese I met, whether at work or outside work, are very nice and understanding.
My supervisors are patient but can be firm when I made mistakes (which is very logical).
But there’s this one old woman (also a caretaker) that is very emotionally unstable, manipulative, rude, and really loves to exaggerate mistake and complain, even shouted at me in front of clients.
She could change from very nice and very rude in seconds.
With clients she is mostly being friendly (in manic ways) but there’s one time I saw directly when she shouted to one of the client when playing time because one of them couldn’t follow the instructions.
With supervisors or other Japanese, she will be very polite and bowing herself so often.
With me, when it’s only just the 2 of us (emphasising on that), she often shouts when I mad mistakes.
I know I’m still far from good and tend to forget things. But even my supervisors or Senpai can remind me humanely. She’s just a caretaker and acting like the owner (btw the real owner is even nicer than my direct supervisor).
She’s manipulative in a way that sometimes she will do my job so early and when I wanted to do it, she will say, “that’s ok. I’ll do it.”
But then when other colleagues come, she will complain about me not doing anything.
And weirdly everytime we meet in the same shift, she would say that I did some mistakes that I felt I didn’t do. Well she can easily “make” that mistake without anyone knowing and I couldn’t prove it either.
And after she corrected me she will keep blabbering to herself (before telling others) about how bad my performance is.
She would complain how I couldn’t understand her Japanese language as well as if I have to be fluent in 2 months in Japan. My agent and employer know exactly how my Japanese was and they accepted me so it’s not her right to complain about my Japanese.
I’m afraid If I keep being with her in the same shift, I would someday talk back to her in also a rude manner. I don’t wanna be like her.
My Indonesian colleagues also said that others also don’t like her but nothing was done because they probably lack of staffs
I don’t wanna say anything to my supervisors because I’m afraid they will defend her as fellow Japanese.
If she keeps doing it, maybe I will gather some evidence and report it to my country embassy…
There. Thanks for reading.
よろしくお願いします。
9 comments
Japan’s work environment is very amateurish. They have little in the way of official work place policies. guidelines or practices. Day-to-day is run on the emotions of the boss. Also, there is a strong tendency to look down on lower tier employees which stems strongly from Japan’s history as a feudal state. Workers are seen more as possessions of the company than individuals. Your best bet is to utilize this job as a potential stepping stone by rapidly improving your Japanese skills and just avoid the crazy woman as much as possible.
Finally, posters on here tend to be extremely “patriotic” about Japan and resent anything negative said about the country so don’t expect much help.
Definitely sounds like someone with certain issues. I’d try to ask one of your superiors or supervisors to not put you in shifts with her. You don’t necessarily have to accuse her of anything but you could say something like you feel more comfortable working with someone else (I don’t know if there are many more Indonesians working at your company but you could ask to work with them instead?). I don’t know if they would try to accommodate you but I think it’s worth trying.
I’m sorry you have to put up with that. This isn’t fair to you. Hang in there. Ganbatte.
Hopefully, others see that she is manipulative and a problem maker. Some people take pleasure in making others feel miserable.
I’ve worked with many people like that, minus the yelling. Since you are new, I would suggest keeping a notebook and documenting these instances when they happen. Keep the notebook at your home.
Your best bet, if you plan to stay with the company for a while, is to become friendly with the other managerial staff. If your supervisors are friendly with you, they will be more likely to watch out for you. That will make it harder for her to isolate and target you. Likewise, make an effort to get to know the other people you work with, too.
This behavior is easy for her to continue because she’s counting on you making yourself small and avoiding others. If you make the effort to talk with other people, they will notice how she is unfairly targeting you.
This won’t guarantee that things clear up, but speaking from experience, the more people who you are friendly with, especially higher ranking ones, the harder it gets for her to assault your character.
Imagine how good the world would be if only one percent of people were assholes.
In your situation, the good news is that most people aren’t stupid, and they probably know she’s an asshole.
Best bet might be to get your fellow workers together and approach management. You don’t have to form it up as a protest or strike. You can even tell management you know nothing will be done about it, just that you all want them to know about the situation. How she acts to you. Passing off her mistakes as yours, doing your job and claiming you’re lazy, and on and on.
Simply tell them about the situation so they’re aware of it.
Sounds like an average japanese who’s working low paid jobs for me. I’ve had multiple part-time jobs here and it really doesn’t matter. Even in the occasions where my boss and my superiors were nice and understanding but firm when correcting my mistakes, there’s **always** someone exactly like the coworker you mentioned: screams and freaks out when it’s just the two of us, but suddenly becomes an angel when the boss/manager is present.
Yes, they are manipulative too.
I’d like to say there’s nothing you can do other than looking for a new job, but it’s very likely that the new job will have other people like her because that’s how these people are.
The best thing to remember is that it’s not about you, it’s about them. They’re screaming and freaking out because they feel frustrated and miserable. The way people interact with others always tells us more about them than it tells about the others.
Hi. Welcome to Japan! Enjoy and good luck!
Senpai Kouhai culture, she believes she has to haze you as a senpai.
It seems like every workplace has a person like that (not just in Japan). Only in small startups where a person like this brings down the company you may avoid this type of person. Try to move away or bush it off. Do not make it a problem with supervisors, but mention it. After a couple of mentions they will know what it going on and are not going to penalize you as they know replacing you with someone else will have the same result.