How Japanese black companies oppress workers (2014)

Funny seeing a post about these as that's what I was recently reminded of when reading this post:

https://x.com/DOGE/status/1857076831104434289

("80+ hours per week" ... what kind of a psycho even writes this down and puts it out there as if it was normal in any way...)

pretty normal in banking/consulting fields. not sure they write it in the job listing though.

This is what every employee of Musk's companies should look forward to

That's what their ideal compensation and workload be if their boss would have their way

That's slavery. Except we call it nowadays: "over performance, over working, over time ... and a free coffee in our office as a reward"

Reads like a job ad for the worst startup in the world:

  super high-IQ

  +

  small-government revolutionaries

  +

  80+ hours per week

  + 

  on unglamorous cost-cutting

  (salary TDB)

80 hours is mostly a lie for folks experienced enough to have families. What becomes more common is 80+ hours of “I’m responsive whenever I’m asked.”

You have worked for Musk?

+1

80 hours - if a low experience employee completed the work, but only 30 hours since I did.

Work hard, play hard, we are like a family — uttered by several YC companies at various recruiting events

> unglamorous cost-cutting

If they ever decide "we will make it glamorous", be very afraid: Whatever destructive idiocy arises, the entertainment won't outweigh the harm.

Ah yes, the good old family/friends angle. And it's true... well, kind of. What they don't tell you is that what they expect from YOU is that you'll behave like TheBiz is your second family (loyalty, sacrifice, forgiveness...), but of course for TheBiz you'll still be just an easily replaceable cog in the machine... anything more would be WEIRD, right?

Off the charts levels cringe.

Just be professional and treat employment like any other business transaction. Why is it so hard for founders and HRs to not be full of shit and treat their employees with dignity and respect?

Like, come on, TheBiz and I are not family, we're not friends and we will never be anything of the sort. We have a somewhat common goal (of making money), but that's about it. It's a giant red flag to (pretend to) expect anything more.

I did not realise that this is the new Department Of Government Efficiency’s twitter account. What a wild reality.

Don't need to, he literally demands that in his tweet.

The thing is, Musk claims to work that hard himself (or more), but the difference is that he is a direct beneficiary and earns millions per hour. Whereas a regular employee earns X amount per month, that's it. Maybe some scraps in stock market value, but one of Musk's tweets has more of an impact on those than a career of 80 hour work weeks would of any employee.

To my ears, there is nothing more cringe than “work hard, play hard”

The advert will perfectly select for the type of person they actually want: an obsessive crank who is already independently wealthy and posting about government waste on Twitter 24/7. I'm surprised they haven't offered catturd2 a cabinet post yet.

Matt Levine covered what was an absolutte banger of a press release from JPMorgan

> JPMorgan Chase & Co. will limit junior banker hours to 80 per week in most cases, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Exceptions may include extra work to complete live deals, the person said.

My favorite part if the analysis was by far

> If there is nothing particularly urgent for you to do, it’s fine for you to come in at 9 a.m. and leave at midnight Monday through Friday and work just one afternoon per weekend, but obviously if you’re on a deal you’ll need to do more.

https://archive.ph/2DI49

Also, one might be forgiven for doubting him on that; unless he's counting 'painfully stupid tweets' as 'work', the sheer volume of them would call the _possibility_ of this into question.

I think you wouldn't be forgiven if you don't cast doubt.

The guy runs 6 independent companies (at least their stock is!). There aren't 6*80 hours in a week.

> mostly a lie for folks experienced enough to have families

Surviving to that level is HARD. Most Junior Analysts in the IB and Consulting World flame out and exit the industry within 2-3 years.

Aye - it’s similar across most high end tech work. At the same time, most people in those positions have 5+ years of experience. Most studies show that such people maintain a lie about how much they are working.

> most high end tech work

It isn't. New Grad SWEs work at most 50 hours a week and VPs tend to work around 50-60 hours a week tops.

IB and Consulting have notoriously horrid work cultures because there are few roles but plenty of demand.

Oh, it's even worse than that. See that "DM this account with your CV" part? You currently need to pay for X Premium to send a DM to an account that does not follow you, meaning that you have to pay Elon for the privilege of applying to this job.