Employees taking their managers hostage … literally
Would you ever consider putting a limit on employees’ bathroom breaks? Don’t.
It may sound crazy, but after a Japanese electronics manufacturer imposed a two-minute limit on bathroom breaks – complete with an $8 charge for being late – employees had enough.
About 1,000 workers at the Shanghai plant held eight Chinese managers and 10 Japanese nationals hostage for a day and a half starting Friday morning and ending Saturday night in protest against the ridiculously strict rule. The rule stated that workers would be fined $8 for the first violation of the rule. If they did it again, they’d be fired.
To put things in perspective, the workers make about $320 a month – so $8 is pretty significant.
The employees eventually freed the hostages after 300 policemen intervened and management agreed to reconsider the strict policy.
The real cherry of this story? This hostage situation broke out on the day the company’s president, Hideaki Tamura, was touring the facility.
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