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Spend a shift working in a terrible, soul-crushing Japanese company at this “special” Tokyo event

Casey Baseel Nov 4, 2018
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And for extra authenticity, they’ll even make you work on a national holiday!

Labor Day in Japan falls on Friday, November 23 this year, giving people across the infamously hard-working country a much-needed three-day weekend. But while some people will choose to enjoy three days of uninterrupted leisure, there’s also the opportunity to spend part of the holiday experiencing what it’s like to work in a mercilessly soul-crushing company.

Somewhere in the last few years, Japanese society settled on the term “black companies” to describe organizations with little to no concern for employees’ well-being. As you can imagine in a country where one study showed 25 percent of surveyed workers wanted to kill their boss, there are a lot of black companies in Japan, but for those who’ve been lucky enough to avoid working in one and feel like there’s something missing from their lives, the fictitious Super Miracle Happy Corporation is recruiting one-day employees to work in its temporary office in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood.

Super Miracle Happy is in the medical devices sector, and says that its products are so high-quality that working in its sales department for a day will be a snap. But then you get a little further down the want ad, and tings start to seem a bit more ominous when it mentions the ideal candidates are people who “Have stamina, endurance, and never complain.” Then there’s the main promotional image for the event, titled Black Holiday, showing a sinisterly shadowy manager welcoming you to “the company that people most want to quit from in all the world.”

The preexisting staff of Super Miracle Happy are actually actors from the Kodomo Kyojin acting troupe, who are basing their performances on true stories from people who have worked in Japanese companies in Japan. While the exact nature of the harsh treatment Black Holiday participants can expect is still under wraps, some of the stories the organizers came across during their research were:
● “If my boss didn’t like you, he’d make you stand by his desk while he ignored you and fiddled with his PC for four to six hours.”
● “For a required ‘development retreat,’ we were confined in a tiny one-room apartment near our office for several hours.”
● “One of the members of the board of directors (the president’s son) took me to a private room at a bar where he spent two hours trying to convince me to go on a travel date to Okinawa with him, then got angry at me for being indecisive when I tried to dodge the question of whether or not I would go with him.”

Super Miracle Happy is looking for a total of 30 employees to work two shift, one starting at 1 p.m., and the other at 6 p.m. Each session is scheduled to last 90 minutes, but, in keeping with standard operating procedure for black companies, unannounced overtime is possible. The organizers also stress that while one-day employees may find themselves becoming extremely angry at their Super Miracle Happy bosses, they should remember that they’re just actors playing a role, and rather than taking a swing at them, participants are welcome to offer a letter of resignation and go home early at any time.

While the target market for the event might initially appear to be masochists, there are actually two other groups Black Holiday, which is being produced in cooperation with job-hunting service Tenshoku and Career Up, is designed for instead. The first is employees who’re dissatisfied with their jobs, yet hesitant to cut ties with their current company and look for something better. Tenshoku and Career Up hopes that the event will help to crystalize their complaints about their present working environments and encourage them to start searching for something better. The second group is managers and executives, who the organizers hope will gain an increased empathy for their employees after spending some time in the shoes of a lower-run worker with a demoralizing job.

Applications can be made online here, and there’s no participation fee for those who are chosen. There’s no payment for your holiday shift either, but really, that’s to be expected with a black company, right?

Source: The Black Holiday via IT Media
Images: The Black Holiday