Kids these days, amiright?

In Japan, even large companies often employ graduates straight out of college, and in fact, many college students secure a job long before they’re scheduled to graduate. This usually means means that, after graduating in March, these fresh-out-of-school adults have a job lined up and waiting for them to start in April.

New employees who are also new graduates are known as “shinjin”, which means “new people” but carries a connotation simmilar to “newbie.” It’s somewhat expected that most shinjin won’t have much knowledge of the world, and most bosses are willing to make some allowances. But it’s also expected that newbies have some semblance of professionalism and common sense, and so, some of the behavior that older Japanese employees have observed in their younger counterparts, like stealing property or scolding their bosses, is hard for veteran workers to accept.

Twitter user @rsgomashio, known as RinRin on her account, is the latest to share her experience with a new hire. This office lady in her 40s observed the following behavior in a new employee:

“The newbie today:
They didn’t come into to work until 10:30 today and didn’t contact anyone beforehand. That means they were an hour and a half late. When asked why, they replied, “Mama wasn’t feeling well this morning so she didn’t wake me up” and immediately everyone in the office started buzzing about the excuse. Not only that, but as soon as they arrived they went straight to the break room and started cutting up some fruit. When their supervisor tried to talk to them about it they replied, “Isn’t it power harassment to tell a subordinate not to eat breakfast?” That caused another uproar in the office.
*True story.”

So not only was this individual late and did not tell anyone, they also had the nerve to tell their supervisor that they didn’t have the right to scold them. Furthermore, they didn’t seem to see anything funny about telling the office that they have to be woken up by their mother every morning, and that’s to say nothing of the fact that their mother’s health and well-being is obviously second to their own mundane needs.

RinRin’s followers seemed to agree with her feelings of incomprehension. Most offered similar examples, while some tried to offer viable reasons for such conduct:

“If they still refer to their mother as “Mama” at work, they’re not much of an adult.”

“This must be the result of the low-pressure education system. We’ve got someone just like this in our office too, and they’ve been a headache for months.”

“We have someone that often falls asleep in meetings. Once when she was scolded about it, she replied, ‘I have to get eight hours of sleep to be functional, and I only got six hours last night, so…’ She’s not my subordinate so it didn’t bother me but it was still unfortunate…”

“That’s terrifying! I think it’s less about them being a newbie and more due to them being a terrible person. I wonder if they even have any friends?”

But wait, there’s more!

In a follow-up tweet, RinRin explains that apparently the newbie thought that they should get to work as soon as possible, and not waste time with calling or eating. Solid logic, but questionable execution. And her reasoning for eating breakfast right away? “Why should I work while I’m dizzy with an empty stomach, when you all have already eaten breakfast before coming in?”

And lunch was only an hour away.

Oh dear. Hopefully all new hires are not this bad. Maybe they just won’t put up with Japanese companies’ rigid old-man rules anymore, and companies are going to have to change their ways in the next decade. Or perhaps shinjin really are just lacking a bit of common sense. Either way, the generation gap is giving people of all ages an extra challenge in the workplace.

Source: Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso