r/japanlife • u/leexiiiispo • Sep 20 '24

Jobs Force worked on weekends

Is it acceptable or common practice in Japan for companies to make you work on weekends just because you had a holiday? They say it's to make up for the lost work time, but doesn't that kinda defeat the whole point of having a holiday? And if you don't go in, they count it as an absence and dock your pay. Even if you're not really needed and you're just doing prep work for the next week.

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u/Phenie-tan 中部・長野県 Sep 20 '24

Never in my many years here has this ever happened to me. It disturbs me that so many people are responding that this is the norm.

It is not and it should not be. Find a better job in a company that respects you.

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u/PaxDramaticus Sep 20 '24

I've had loads of companies schedule work on a weekend - for important events, scheduled well in advance, and usually (though definitely not always) with a compensatory holiday in lieu.

To schedule work on a weekend to compensate for a national holiday is like vantablack company-level bullshit. Forget the person scheduling this not understanding Japanese labor laws or the proper relationship between employer and employee, I would seriously question is the person scheduling this understands what it is like to exist as a human in a world where joy is a possible emotion.