Bandai Namco has reportedly turned to the unspoken Japanese tradition of layoff-by-boredom by stuffing unwanted employees into oidashi beya, or “expulsion rooms.”
Employees banished reassigned to oidashi beya are left to do nothing, or given menial tasks at best. According to Bloomberg’s unnamed insider sources, Bandai Namco has moved around 200 of its 1,300 person team to these rooms in recent months.
The goal of sticking someone in an expulsion room is to literally bore or shame them into quitting, and Bloomberg’s sources claim it has worked on around half the people Bandai Namco has stuck in there so far.
Yeah, I was in a similar position earlier this year. I barely made it a month. It’s soul sucking, especially for someone like myself (I work in IT) who’s used to staying active and engaged with my job. Felt like just waiting for time to pass so I could drive home. The fact that they made me drive to an office just to do nothing was like adding insult to injury.