I Quit My Job in Japan Because My Boss Expected Me to Work When I Was Dead Sick
Inside Japan’s absurd work culture
Imagine getting 10 frantic calls at 5 a.m. from your furious boss, insisting you drag yourself to work immediately — while you’re hunched over the toilet, battling food poisoning.
As grotesquely comical and almost unrealistic as that scene was, I wanted my resignation to be just as absurd.
This is the (comic, or not?) story of how I handed my resignation letter to that same furious boss, making sure she knew something was seriously wrong with her.
I was working in corporate Japan when Miss Kaneda became my direct manager.
In order to handle me better, she assigned me to a new desk, far away from the rest of the team, in what looked like a storage room.
In her eyes, I was the troublesome foreigner who was too noisy. I could notice the spiteful look when I passed by her desk.
Miss Kaneda had developed the habit of scheduling very long and boring meetings at 7 a.m.
One day, I had to call off after getting food poisoning from some ancient sushi I’d scavenged from the fridge the night before. I had finished work around midnight the night before and being too exhausted to cook, I…
