An increasing number of new hires this spring are revealing accounts of being pushed around at companies' convenience -- getting abrupt dismissal notices or having their pay reduced --against the backdrop of the novel coronavirus.
Consultations with labor experts detail these young people's frustrations of stumbling at the start of their new lives.
One of these is a 22-year-old woman who started work at bridal services company in Tokyo at the beginning of April, only to be told at the end of the month her employment was ending. She had joined full of desire to help future brides and grooms start wedded life in happy surroundings, then received a notice from the human resources department with the explanation, "We want to dismiss you because our sales have significantly dropped."
"I was in shock and couldn't understand the situation for a while," she said.
During her job search, the company showed enthusiasm to hire her, which made being let go even more disappointing.
She consulted with a labor standards inspection office after she was asked to decide whether she should "quit in May or July within three days." After a discussion with the company, it was decided that she could look for a new job while remaining in her position.
Because all of the company's wedding reservations were postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus, she never experienced a wedding and was relegated to doing paperwork. But she is now trying to be positive.
"Staying at this company will only add to the uncertainty of my future," she said.
Another woman, 23, who longed to create games, got a job as a systems engineer at an information technology company in Tokyo. But soon after she joined the company, she started working from home. The company announced that it would be closed until the end of May, during which time her salary would be reduced to 60%, and she would be allowed to work part-time outside the company.
The women took this to mean that if employees "did not have enough money to live on, they should earn their own money."
She was reluctant to work outside the home amid the calls for self-restraint on going out, but she could not make ends meet on 90,000 yen in take-home pay. During the long holiday period in May, she took a part-time job delivering food. She was dismayed to find that the reality of working life was so different from what she had envisioned and wondered what she was doing.
After the holidays, she was told by the company, "If you don't perform your work as an engineer for a certain period of time, we will ask you to leave."
She could not wipe away her distrust of the company, which was now talking about the possibility of making her quit, even though she had not been given the opportunity to show up for work. She resigned and is now searching for a new job.
"I was looking forward to my working life, and I feel so betrayed," she said.
One 22-year-old man had been offered a full-time position at a staffing service company in the Kansai region, but just before he joined the company, his status was changed to part-time. He believed this was only temporary, but in mid-April, the president hinted to him that the company had no intention of giving him a full-time position, saying, "It's hard to join the company if you're halfway prepared."
The young man quit shortly thereafter. "I had just left my parents home and started living on my own. Now I can't get anything done," he said.
Uzuz, a Tokyo-based staffing agency that assists young people in finding jobs and changing careers, saw a nearly 10% increase in registrations between March and May this year compared with the same period last year.
Uzuz's Senior Managing Director Shotaro Kawabata said, "Now it is common that struggling companies don't strongly discourage newcomers from changing jobs, even if they want to."
Keiko Hirano, chief researcher at the Bunkahoso Career Partners' job information research center, wants the government to take action.
"Young people were cherished during job hunting due to the seller's market trend, and they are facing job uncertainty since the beginning of the year. The gap between the two is too huge.
"The government should take a strong stance such as identifying problematic cases and demanding that companies take corrective action," Hirano said.
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