Days 357 of writing every day.
The desperation to find a job can greatly affect your ability to make a good decision about a job offer. For me, the biggest fear was to secure my legal status to reside in Japan. Coming in second was to have income to be able to have a roof over my head and food to survive because I still had some savings. The perfect position at a reasonably fair workplace just wasn’t in my radar as anymore by the time I accepted my current job.
But it’s been three months since I joined and I still haven’t been paid a full salary because everything so far has been treated as being on standby where the company policy reduces pay to 60%, which is the legal minimum for workplaces that basically have some reason to put their employees on leave due to no work to do, or something along those lines.
I’ve read people’s articles about changing jobs that if you want to go into the industry I’m currently in, find a company that pays full wages even during standby. At the time I accepted the terms of my probationary contract, I was desperate enough to swallow the condition without too much thought, and bet my hopes on the belief that things will improve down the road.
The discussion for a permanent position is still a ways down the road, but my bank account is really feeling the hit from reduced wages that amount to below poverty level wages for a full-time employee living alone. You’d really have to pinch every penny and eat nothing but scraps if you’re trying to survive on only 110,000 yen a month when you got rent and phone bills on top of utilities to pay in Osaka. Maybe that leaves me with just around 50,000 yen a month for food and everything else.
My Aikido activities would easily reduce that to 35,000 yen a month left and that’s not including food for the month yet. And if I get sick unexpectedly and need medicine, that’s going to cut even more into my remainder.
Having experienced being underpaid, I’d say that I’ll need to discuss the issue of pay and make it quite clear that even if the company isn’t making much money, everyone needs to be paid full wages even when not on an assignment simply because no one should be expected to live in Osaka on just 110,000 yen a month. Anyone could find part-time work that pays more than that and also have more freedom over their shifts.
To think I’ve worked a month now doing kitting work but won’t see the actual pay of being on an assignment as opposed to stand by just really struck a nerve, and I’m pretty sure the colleagues I’ve actually had the opportunity to work with share the same feelings and thoughts.
Thanks for checking in!
One Chance Works 