Sachiko, a friend of mine, used to work for a Japanese bank. One day, she was told by the division manager to come to his office. It was at around 5 p.m. Five p.m. was still early for Japanese bankers working from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. or sometimes even to midnight.
Sachiko was told in his office to be in charge of the vault of the division from the following day and therefore would open and close it every day. She asked him who the other responsible person was because the company policy provided that two staff members must be responsible for a vault based on the maker-checker rule. Apparently, he did not expect her to retort so said that Sachiko, as the youngest staff member of that division, was the only responsible staff member and that there should be no problem as it had been like that for a long time.
They argued for a few minutes, which was pretty long for a talk between a bank manager and a young junior staff member, but didn't reach an agreement. For the manager, the rules could be bent as long as no problems had happened while for Sachiko, that was completely incomprehensible. Besides, she couldn't believe he assumed that no employees would ever steal anything, either. But obviously, no one had ever retorted to or asked him such questions. Of course, they must have been afraid of confronting the supervisor and being demoted or losing the opportunity to be promoted. Unconvinced, she insisted on appointing another person in charge, but in vain. Ultimately she refused to accept the job. She didn't know or didn't want to know who would assume the position...
Japanese often do "sontaku," i.e., perform preemptive acts to ingratiate themselves to their superiors not because of malicious intent, but because of their lack of imagination or their presumption that nothing serious would happen or the superiors would protect them. Of course they won't. They would protect themselves at any cost.
友人の圭子さんの昔話です。銀行に勤めてた頃、金庫番に任命されたとのこと。規定では正副2人が担当するのですが、なぜか彼女だけだったのでもう一人任命してくれと頼んだそうです。事故起きたら嫌ですからね。そしたら「これまでそうだったからいいんだ」の一点張りだったとのこと。彼女、結局断ってその上司とは気まずい関係に｡｡。
忖度しない（できない？）のが圭子さんのいいところ（？）かもしれません。
Sachiko was told in his office to be in charge of the vault of the division from the following day and therefore would open and close it every day. She asked him who the other responsible person was because the company policy provided that two staff members must be responsible for a vault based on the maker-checker rule. Apparently, he did not expect her to retort so said that Sachiko, as the youngest staff member of that division, was the only responsible staff member and that there should be no problem as it had been like that for a long time.
They argued for a few minutes, which was pretty long for a talk between a bank manager and a young junior staff member, but didn't reach an agreement. For the manager, the rules could be bent as long as no problems had happened while for Sachiko, that was completely incomprehensible. Besides, she couldn't believe he assumed that no employees would ever steal anything, either. But obviously, no one had ever retorted to or asked him such questions. Of course, they must have been afraid of confronting the supervisor and being demoted or losing the opportunity to be promoted. Unconvinced, she insisted on appointing another person in charge, but in vain. Ultimately she refused to accept the job. She didn't know or didn't want to know who would assume the position...
Japanese often do "sontaku," i.e., perform preemptive acts to ingratiate themselves to their superiors not because of malicious intent, but because of their lack of imagination or their presumption that nothing serious would happen or the superiors would protect them. Of course they won't. They would protect themselves at any cost.
友人の圭子さんの昔話です。銀行に勤めてた頃、金庫番に任命されたとのこと。規定では正副2人が担当するのですが、なぜか彼女だけだったのでもう一人任命してくれと頼んだそうです。事故起きたら嫌ですからね。そしたら「これまでそうだったからいいんだ」の一点張りだったとのこと。彼女、結局断ってその上司とは気まずい関係に｡｡。
忖度しない（できない？）のが圭子さんのいいところ（？）かもしれません。
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