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“I overdid it.” – Man in Japan fired after ditching work 633 times to go to the gym

But he wasn’t there to pump iron.

Having a gym near your workplace is handy. If you’re an early riser, you can probably sneak in a workout before clocking in at the office, and as long as you don’t get hung up with overtime, hitting the gym on your way home from work is an option too.

However, the convenience of a nearby gym proved to be too great a temptation for Kazushi Kono, a 55-year-old civil servant in the city of Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. Well, technically he’s now a former civil servant, as he was fired late last month for skipping out of work in the middle of his shift to go the gym.

Outright axing someone just for that might seem like overkill, but this wasn’t a one-time transgression. Following an anonymous tip in August that Kono was routinely ditching work, the city launched an investigation and found that between April of 2021 and November of 2024, Kono had snuck off to the gym a total of 633 times. Assuming 20 working days in a month, that would be 633 unauthorized trips in 820 days, meaning that on any given day he was working, there was nearly an 80 percent chance that he’d be headed to the gym during working hours.

The investigation was also able to determine the total time Kono had spent at the gym while ditching work, right down to the minute: 658 hours, 36 minutes, making his sessions an average of approximately one hour each.

This might have you thinking that Kono is some sort of extreme fitness maniac, who simply can’t make it through a workday without pumping iron. Actually, though, Kono, who was a member of the city’s Parks Department, went to the gym to stretch and soak in its hot spring-water bath, saying that it helped alleviate numbness in his arms which he suffers from.

Nevertheless, the city didn’t take kindly to Kono building a paid near-daily rest and recuperation break into his work schedule without permission, and he admits the error of his conduct, saying “I overdid it, and I regret that.” He’s still been sacked, though, and four of his supervisors have also been officially reprimanded for not noticing his absences. The city is also insisting that Kono pay back 1.768 million yen (roughly US$11,300), the calculated amount of money he was paid for working during the 658 hours, 36 minutes he was actually at the gym, so while his gym sessions may have made his arms feel better, it looks like they’re going to hurt him in his wallet.

Source: NHK, Yomiuri Shimbun
Top image: Pakutaso
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