Asking to leave work on time or taking some time off can be tricky enough. Even trickier is tendering a resignation, which can be seen as the ultimate form of disrespect in the world’s fourth-biggest economy, where workers traditionally stick with one employer for decades, if not for a lifetime.
In the most extreme cases, grumpy bosses rip up resignation letters and harass employees to force them to stay.
Yuki Watanabe was unhappy at her previous job, saying her former supervisor often ignored her, making her feel bad. But she didn’t dare resign.
“I didn’t want my ex-employer to deny my resignation and keep me working for longer,” she told CNN during a recent interview.
The boss tearing up a resignation letter is not legally binding in any way and the employee is not obliged to stay beyond the legally mandated notice period (two weeks in the vast majority of cases). There are many reasons the birth rate here isn’t going up, but that’s not one of them (though it is an example of power harassment which has recently gained more penalties and legal recognition, though there’s a ways to go on that).