Capcom Faces Bullying Accusation

[Lunar Templar]

*sighs*

crap like this makes me sorry i ever like them

 

[The Wooster]

Since we only have one side, I can't make a judgement, and really, it's not up to me anyway.

I will say however, that:

Back in January of this year, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released a definition of the term "power harassment." Unacceptable behavior included: "asking junior employees to perform impossible tasks, committing acts of violence and other physical offenses, causing emotional stress, isolating or ignoring individuals, asking personal questions, and giving an employee nothing or very little to do."

Two of these actually appeal to me: "isolating or ignoring individuals" and "giving an employee nothing or very little to do".

Then again, I'm not Japanese. Though harassment, however any culture defines it, shouldn't be tolerated.

Yeah, the Japanese workplace is hyper-competitive right now, so every employee is going out of their way to prove how valuable they are. So being given nothing to do makes it more likely a higher up will see you slacking and fire you.

 

[doublenix]

Even -if- she was bad at her job, that is now way to treat co-workers. If someones shite you sack them and leave it at that, not go on a protracted campaign of abuse. Fuck those guys with a 2X4 right up the rear end.

True, but again we don't know exactly what the situation was. Hopefully whatever the situation turns out to be justice will be done.

Agreed. Either way it goes based on the evidence, I hope justice gets served.

Unless you're some all-knowing god or a brilliant psychoanalyst that can do a full evaluations based on a few paragraphs not even written by the woman herself

Of course he can do such an evaluation. Didn't you know that as soon as anyone logs onto the Internet they become an expert on every subject ever.

I watched a 2 minute video about Freud on YouTube so now I'm awesome at this stuff.

Captcha: that's hot

 

[bluegate]

Wouldn't put this past the Japanese.
Worked there myself for a while and heard a few of these stories.

Capcha: cheese burger.... could go for one of those right about now

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Ive said it once, I'll say it again, Capcom: The EA and Activision of Japan.

EA and Activision?

I dunno.

Capcom seems like the stupid sidekick who always messes up.

I mean come on, spelling mistakes on game packaging?

and ignoring the pleases of a lady that is getting screwed over to the point where she tries to pill herself to death is sidekick tier?

We don't know both sides yet, so I'm not willing to throw around accusations.

I see your point, but these are the same people that tease us with Megaman Legends 3 and other trolltastic stuff, i would not put this past them either.

Capcom are the biggest trolls in the industry.

No EU Monster Hunter titles in a long time, no Megaman, releasing 'Ultimate' versions of fighting games, less than a year after the release of the original.

They need to change their logo to this.

You're just having a laugh, (I assume), but is it possible that these things are maybe related to each other at least a little bit?

What I mean is if Copcom really does have this kind of work environment, (key word "if"), then couldn't some of their more "trollish" actions be related to, or even because of how the employees treat each other? A bad work environment leading to bad business decisions.

Just a thought. Probably not right, but something they may want to change/prevent just in case.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Ive said it once, I'll say it again, Capcom: The EA and Activision of Japan.

EA and Activision?

I dunno.

Capcom seems like the stupid sidekick who always messes up.

I mean come on, spelling mistakes on game packaging?

and ignoring the pleases of a lady that is getting screwed over to the point where she tries to pill herself to death is sidekick tier?

We don't know both sides yet, so I'm not willing to throw around accusations.

I see your point, but these are the same people that tease us with Megaman Legends 3 and other trolltastic stuff, i would not put this past them either.

Capcom are the biggest trolls in the industry.

No EU Monster Hunter titles in a long time, no Megaman, releasing 'Ultimate' versions of fighting games, less than a year after the release of the original.

They need to change their logo to this.

You're just having a laugh, (I assume), but is it possible that these things are maybe related to each other at least a little bit?

What I mean is if Copcom really does have this kind of work environment, (key word "if"), then couldn't some of their more "trollish" actions be related to, or even because of how the employees treat each other? A bad work environment leading to bad business decisions.

Just a thought. Probably not right, but something they may want to change/prevent just in case.

Actually a very interesting point.

It would make more sense than Capcom just being composed of incompetents .

 

[Voltano]

I'd like to know more information on this case myself before I pass judgement, however I'm more disturbed that this might be a norm in the working culture of Japan. Bullying is bad enough in high school, but having to go to a (possibly) crap job so you can live while being harassed by your managers and/or employees? If that is a norm in Japan, that's just depressing.

Could a victim in this situation record or document evidence of this in some way, like saving emails with offensive words or security footage?

 

[Stu35]

In a rare display of me having nothing better to do on the internet, I've actually read every response so far on this thread, instead of simply picking two I disagree with and starting an argument, or one I agree with and saying 'this' followed by some additional opinions.

...

I've come to several conclusions:

1. Japan is a fucked up country with a fucked up culture. I appreciate that, as a modern western man I'm supposed to be able to look at foreign cultures and go "Ah, they do things differently there. I shall respect our differences and simply accept that they do things differently over there, after all: we're not so perfect ourselves here in Blighty; consider XFactor, Chavs, Economy and all that gubbins." ... Yeah, that's not my style - Japanese culture is weird, and aside from delicious sushi, the original Power Rangers, and Transformers, I don't want any part of it.

2. People will jump to conclusions on either side of something, no matter how much or little information they are given. They will then argue that they have not jumped to a conclusion but are waiting for more information, whilst insisting that the conclusion they jumped to has merit based on the information they already have. (Confused? Me too).

3. I find comparisons of CAPCOM, EA, Activision, etc. to supervillians (and their sidekicks) as being a really, really funny concept, and I intend to spend the next 45 minutes that I should be getting ready to go out drinking on finding webcomics depicting this. If there are none then I'm going to email my comic-drawing mate, and demand he draws me some.#

4. Whilst doing this, I'm getting Pinky and the Brain going in another tab, because it's awesome.

5. ???

6. Profit.

 

[Zydrate]

I would indeed like to hear the other side of the story.

I'm sorry for the girl's mental issues (My family being plagued by a few) but if she wasn't doing her job, maybe she needs to find something more suitable for her?

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Ive said it once, I'll say it again, Capcom: The EA and Activision of Japan.

EA and Activision?

I dunno.

Capcom seems like the stupid sidekick who always messes up.

I mean come on, spelling mistakes on game packaging?

and ignoring the pleases of a lady that is getting screwed over to the point where she tries to pill herself to death is sidekick tier?

We don't know both sides yet, so I'm not willing to throw around accusations.

I see your point, but these are the same people that tease us with Megaman Legends 3 and other trolltastic stuff, i would not put this past them either.

Capcom are the biggest trolls in the industry.

No EU Monster Hunter titles in a long time, no Megaman, releasing 'Ultimate' versions of fighting games, less than a year after the release of the original.

They need to change their logo to this.

You're just having a laugh, (I assume), but is it possible that these things are maybe related to each other at least a little bit?

What I mean is if Copcom really does have this kind of work environment, (key word "if"), then couldn't some of their more "trollish" actions be related to, or even because of how the employees treat each other? A bad work environment leading to bad business decisions.

Just a thought. Probably not right, but something they may want to change/prevent just in case.

Actually a very interesting point.

It would make more sense than Capcom just being composed of incompetents .

Well I'm not say that being incompetent doesn't have anything to do with it either. That is again IF they have such a deplorable work environment. Though even if they don't, working on making sure they never will can only be good in the long run.

If they really have it so bad there that an employee may try to kill themselves, and they know it is that bad but do nothing about it, that's just dumb. Dumb on a moral level, and a business level.

Especially if businesses in Japan work by the philosophy "group before the individual". I mean even if this whole thing is true, but only one part of the company was like that it's still very bad for the company as a whole. It be like if you or me got cancer in a part of our bodies, found out, and just said, "Well, it's only in that part. No need to worry."

All that said I hope Copcom, it's current employees, and former employees can all recover from this for the better.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Part of me wants to feel sympathetic towards this young woman, but at the same time every time I see any reference to a lawsuit in the news I want to facepalm hard.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

*snip*

I have to agree with you, the entire time I was reading this I couldn't help but wonder if she was just bad at her job and couldn't cope with that fact. It sounds a lot more reasonable than her superiors banding together to pretend her ideas suck just to spite her

 

[Farther than stars]

I agree with everything that was just said, except: "and giving an employee nothing or very little to do." Who is going to be upset with a boss giving them a very light work load?!

 

[Ultimatecalibur]

I agree with everything that was just said, except: "and giving an employee nothing or very little to do." Who is going to be upset with a boss giving them a very light work load?!

Any employee who understands that said light work load can be used during their yearly performance review to determine if they get a promotion, pay raise or even if they continue working for the company.

 

[Casey Goddard]

I work for a Japanese company and I can confidently say this kind of thing is not at all uncommon. Of course that doesn't mean it's okay. Actually, I would go so far to say this is an opportunity for gamers to let Japanese business culture know that they need treat their female workforce with more profession courtesy.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

@Grey Carter

The fact that the employee was female needed to be mentioned in the title why? If they were male, would you have said Male Employee Sues Capcom Over Bullying? Somehow I doubt it.

Up to your usual standards, I guess.

ITT: lots of people reading an internet forum post with the supposed single sided account of an alleged incident and believing every word of it.

 

[Leadfinger]

Always sounds worse when you only hear one side. A suicide attempt seems a little out of place, unless that was her only means of getting by at the time. A stupid jury will soak up that suicide attempt like a sponge, she will probably win.

There are no juries for civil cases in Japan. The case will go before a judge. Also, Japanese labor law gives employees stronger protections than in the U.S. or U.K. The company will have to prove they had a good reason to fire her and that they followed the legal procedures.

 

[Ogargd]

Always sounds worse when you only hear one side. A suicide attempt seems a little out of place, unless that was her only means of getting by at the time. A stupid jury will soak up that suicide attempt like a sponge, she will probably win.

Sorry if someone has already replied, but in Japan they don't have Juries I'm pretty sure (unless things have changed since I was last there).

OT: Personally I think this is horrible and sadly typical in large companies.