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.
In the immortal words of that dumbo from Blizz “do you guys not have phones?”
If you leave me in a room and give me no tasks while still paying me, you’ve got me on salary to slack. And I will outperform everyone. Or no one, I’m not sure which one.
And honestly figuring that out is probably not in my job description anymore.
Seems nice at first, but having worked jobs with nothing to do, time passes so slow. It’s painful.
Yep. There is a reason why “layoff-by-boredom” exists and works. It’s uncomfortable for most us to be bored.
I’d take slow and nothing to do over getting worked to the bone daily every time, I’ve had both. I have an active imagination, I manage.
You don’t have to choose between the two evils though. There are just normal jobs.
Yup. I used to work at a toy store in my local mall that was just not doing business. Anytime I worked, I’d get maybe 5 customers a shift, and these were like 10-6 shifts.
I was so bored I felt like I could cry just to pass the time. There were a couple times where I straight up took a nap behind the counter because I was so tired and bored.
If you know they are just trying to get you to quit and don’t actually want you to do anything, I imagine it’s easier than a job where you have to worry about how you appear to bosses and others. The facade of being productive itself can be taxing.
But it also depends how much leeway they give to do whatever. If you know you can just stay up all night and come in to sleep 8 hours, the time could pass pretty quickly…
Not for me. I can zone out for hours like it’s nothing.
Used to work security. Even when on a street corner observing for state legislature meetings (no phone allowed), I played games of rearranging letters on billboards or vehicles to make new words. (They have cameras and police, I was just there as a deterrent). Wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t 18 degrees F and 32mph winds…
Pick up a hobby, read a book. Not sure how Japan or other countries are living, but one thing we still have in the USA are public libraries. We can download an app and check out books. For free. There is a lot more stuff at the actual library, but downloading books and reading them for money sounds like something I can retire doing. I take book reading days at my current job. As long as I put in “8 hours” of work they don’t care how I spend my 8 hours.
And company has cameras. Where I live, most monitor workers 24/7. So they would that especially while trying to get rid of you.
Of course, they say it’s for security and that’s what you sign for, so they can’t simply grab screen of you on phone and throw you out…however, suddenly management gets super instinct.
Time to work on my screenplay/book/stand-up routine/music!