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Microsoft Lays Off 34 Japanese Xbox Employees
Thanks to GameSpot for their article discussing the layoff of 34 Microsoft employees from its Japanese Xbox division. This accounts for just 17 percent of their Xbox workforce in Japan, but apparently the March 20th layoffs, documented in Nikkei BizTech, "..caused a commotion among the workers because of differences in business practices between Japan and the United States." The harsh 'escorted from premises' style of layoffs is not so common in Japan, according to the article, and so "..according to one of the employees who was cut, it felt as though they were treated like criminals." Needless to say, the layoffs, according to division head Par Singh, were because "sales of the Xbox in Japan had been extremely disappointing."
I was escorted from the premises after having performed what I thought a rather amicable resignation. Quite simply I was moving from the area and the company unfortunately had no offices where I was moving to.
The way the company handled it though came across as if they trusted me about as much as they trusted a potential disgruntled employee. It comes across as a lack of respect for the person leaving and their level of responsibility. The best part of it was the companies core values and beliefs touted the fact that they believed firmly in giving individuals respect and that individuals treated with respect acted accordingly. But their treatment of those is another story.
To strive, to seek, but not to yield
There is a term, I forget the Japanese spelling, but the translation is 'the beside the window tribe.' It refers to one who is given and office, with a window, where the individual will then sit, quietly, until retirement, looking out the window, never again given anything useful or important to do.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
This was -exactly- the way the company I used to work for did their layoffs. The first round of layoffs wasn't too bad. The CEO explained exactly what was happening and why they were doing what they were doing. Then asked everybody to go back to their desks and those who were effected would be receiving an email. Those people were to assemble in such-and-such conference room for more information.
Our second CEO wasn't so nice. He said "We're laying off # people. You know the drill." That was pretty disgusting.
I was effected by the second round of layoffs. Got transfered to a company that then laid everybody else off for them.
I disagree. Implementing this kind of draconian solution to a fear of reprisal just invites the employee to create security holes he can later use to extract revenge.
.com I worked at even had a ritual of employees who thought their jobs were on the line madly trying to copy sensitive documents onto CDâ(TM)s that they then carried off-site.
A large
A better way to do things is to work with IT and have access to systems turned off when the employee is terminated. That way the employee can still recover personal data and his effects without the potential to damage production machines.
One place I worked at actually removed the cat 5 cable from workstations of terminated employees to solve this problem in a rather low-tech fashion.
Right, because less consoles mean no monopoly? Sony would love you for PR.
----- "Blame the guy who doesn't speak English." -- Homer J. Simpson
As an aside, I feel really sympathetic to all employees of Xbox Japan. They are basically trying to sell ice to Eskimos (the Xbox is *that* unsuited to the Japanese market), and it's not their fault they can't. It's the boneheads at Redmond designed the stupid thing, and yet these guys are taking the fall for it. How maddening that must be.