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by kanbankaren 5 hours ago
> many parts of the Japanese system of hiring for life

This is a terrible strategy. It encourages inefficiency to metastasize throughout the company.

No wonder Japan is stuck in a rut since the 90s and its debt-to-GDP ratio is 205% which is one of the highest in the world.

Your romantic idea of Japan would get destroyed by just browsing www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/

Japan has one of the worst work culture and low productivity in the world.
1 comments
Grombobulous 4 hours ago
That’s why I said “many parts” and not “all.” I wouldn’t want to pick up a good number of their practices, but I think a company seeing layoffs as an embarrassing last resort is a positive trait.

I also think that concepts like debt to GDP ratio are somewhat detached from corporate policies.

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kanbankaren 3 hours ago
> I also think that concepts like debt to GDP ratio are somewhat detached from corporate policies.

Corporate policies ultimately decide growth. More growth leads to higher profits and higher tax collected by the Government which in turn means they don't have to borrow more.

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andsoitis 4 hours ago
> but I think a company seeing layoffs as an embarrassing last resort is a positive trait.

Don’t most companies think of layoffs as a last resort? I don’t think one ought to be embarrassed about correcting course when you have made a mistake. It takes courage.

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NetMageSCW 2 hours ago
How many mistakes does it take to layoff 30% of your work force in a few months (Lucid)?

Embarrassment should always be warranted when you make mistake on a scale where you are laying off a percentage of your work force instead of a couple of people.

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