For $450, a Japanese Company Will Quit Your Job for You
I&#x27;m sure this is similar in other cultures but Japan still has a strong attitude that you&#x27;re lucky to have a job. Contrast that to us (myself included) spoiled Silicon Valley type engineer who gets job offers often and companies trying to entice us with free food, game rooms, etc...<p>From that, people who have a job in Japan often feel obligated as in &quot;You gave my a job and made it possible to live my life. You invested N years in training me. I&#x27;m now responsible for various parts of your business. If I leave it will feel like not paying you back for all you&#x27;ve given me. It will also put you out for weeks to months.&quot;.<p>Japanese have an acute sense of obligation as well. There&#x27;s a reason why you say &quot;Don&#x27;t worry this is really nothing&quot; when you give a gift in Japan as you&#x27;re trying to avoid adding to the receiver&#x27;s obligation to reciprocate.<p>Of course as a westerner that attitude used to bug the crap out of me. I knew a person who wanted to quit, their boss said &quot;no, you can&#x27;t quit&quot;, and they stayed on for several more months. At some point in my life my attitude would have probably been something along the lines of &quot;If it&#x27;s that important I stick around what&#x27;s it worth to you?&quot;<p>The longer I&#x27;m in Japan the more I&#x27;m mellowing on some of my western and spoiled engineer attitudes. Of course not totally but I feel like the it&#x27;s &quot;me vs them&quot; attitude I see so much on HN leads to worse outcomes than the &quot;we&#x27;re all in this together&quot; attitude or the &quot;it takes a village&quot; attitude I see more of in Japan. I think both extremes are bad but if my meter was pointing at the 100% me side before it&#x27;s now around the 75% me side, 25% us side, now.