Super Duper annoying day at work.
My female colleague sent a message to everyone in our office today who are around 20-30 years old.
'Hello everyone.
As you all know Ms. O in the general affairs department always come thirty minutes earlier than working hour to clean around the office. We are always taking advantage of her kindness and therefore I thought we shall clean in her stead and help her! From now on, I'll make a paper card on who is coming on what day to clean. For each person it will be two times a week.
Do you agree?'
Everyone other than me sent they agree. Why? Because that's typical Japanese behavior. If you don't agree to help someone in need of help, you're going to be thought as a heartless ass.
As for me? I ignored the message. There's no way I'm going to send "I disagree" when everyone can watch my move. But there's no way I'll send agree either to this message asking for people to make a choice when there actually isn't any choice. That manipulative kitten made a situation no one can refuse.
So I ignored and wished those "volunteers" who agreed good luck.
The next day I found out I was in the cleaning person's list and that I had to come to office thirty minutes early to clean up two times a week.
So I sent a message PERSONALLY to this manipulative kitten.
My message:
"Dear A-San,
Hi, this is ramenanmitsu.
Sorry, since I really didn't follow up with your e-mail message, I don't understand about this cleaning list. Could you please make it clear for me? What time should I come? Since I live one hour and a half from office, early morning is a bit hard for me, can't I clean during work hours? And how much overtime pay do we receive for this?"
A-San's message
"Dear ramenanmitsu,
Clean up is something we should do as volunteering. It's not something we ask for overtime pay......
But until now, Ms. O has always worked hard for us. So we should help her instead of taking advantage of her!
And you cannot clean during the office hours. It will be noisy for people. "
My message
"Dear A
Thank you very much for your reply!
Sorry, I thought of this as one of the tasks.
You are right. Cleaning is what people should actively volunteer instead of being forced. In this case, since I didn't say that I will do it, please take me off the cleaning list.
Also regarding to Ms. O coming before office hours to clean, have you talked to the president about this? Did you ask him to hire a cleaning lady? According to the labor law, coming to office early for cleaning is counted as labor time and therefore it's usual to receive overtime pay. Making other people also work overtime without payment is not the the way to help Ms. O and solve this problem.
Thank you and best regards"
A's message
"Alright.
But since everyone is actively going to clean and they will wonder why you're not doing it, please send a message to everyone writing the reason why you're not cleaning."
Me: *ignores message to assess the situation"
2 hours later
A's message to everyone
"Dear everyone,
Since ramenanmitsu doesn't want to clean I am very sorry but I had to change the cleaning list.
Again, I'm very sorry for this everyone."
Me: .......She said it's voluntary work and yet when I refuse she's trying to shame me in front of everyone........*writing message to my lawyer friend asking for advise. Once I receive it I'll send it to the human resources department.
Edited by ramenanmitsu, 27 January 2015 - 12:54 PM.