No, Really, I Am an American

On Thursday, we were informed that there would be a meeting today (Saturday) at the MM center for all employees. This seemed to us to be a formal announcement, so we all attended. Some of us dressed like we were going to work (myself included), others not-so-much. I was seriously wishing that I was less inclined to follow the rules because when we were brought to the 17th Floor, there were no chairs, so we all had to sit on the floor. It was a bad start to the meeting.

They were using the Ginganet (the one I use to teach) system to do the conference. First, we heard from G.communication, the company that has more or less taken over the Nova name. I can’t say they were overly informative since most of what they talked about was stuff we already knew from the newspaper. What many of us really wanted to know about was our unpaid wages, unemployment insurance, and about jobs.

The guy started to talk about something to do with the Ginganet system, but unfortunately for us, the sound cut out and we have no idea what was said. When sound finally returned, we totally missed what was being discussed. Again, not a good sign.

To be fair, they did talk about the job prospect. From what we understood, G.communication wants to give employment to all those seeking it. At one point, they said “Of course, we will not hire anyone who does not want t job.” (The literal translation sounded a lot funnier to us.) At the time, I was thinking it better to just cut my losses and go. (I would later reconsider this — mostly ‘cuz I’m inconsistent like that.) They also said that some official type person would explain to us about how to get these unpaid wages. They also spend a lot of time telling us how difficult this time has been for them, too. All three of the men who spoke talked about it. Seriously not helping.

That was one hour of our lives.

When the official-type people put in their appearance, it was closer to 11:30 or so. The poor girl they got to be the translator was incredibly difficult to understand. She was not a strong English speaker and she was too soft-spoken to be heard. I freely admit that I couldn’t help thinking, “What happened to the other guy?” (He had been clear to understand and seemingly quick to translate.) Lucky for us, we were sitting by Junko (probably the nicest, friendliest, and most adorable LS staff memeber!) and we asked her what was going on. For the most part, they were just reading us the form they handed to us. Herein lay (honestly, not sure about this one, I’m going for past tense) our frustration in that we’re all literate individuals; they didn’t really need to read it to us word for word when they could have been telling us about information not on the sheet. To be fair, I admit to not understanding legalese, but they really weren’t answering any of our questions, if that makes any sense.

When it got time for Q&A, one teacher flat out said he had trouble understanding the interpreter and asked some clarification questions. This back and forth resulted in one of the other instructors (our guess was Spanish from the accent) to stand up and answer for the official-types. Again, we couldn’t help but think, “Why not get one of the LS girls to interpret for us?”

What it all comes down to is that we need to officially resign from Nova to get a job at the new place, which is essentially the same only with a different company backing it. They seemed to stress that they wanted to make this transition as easy as possible for us. In terms of the unpaid wages, we will not see any of that money until Nova officially declares bankruptcy, we’d only see about 80% of that money, and it could take anywhere from four to six months, or possible one year. Again, not the most encouraging information.

Rob, Katrina, and I (Mike and Anna left about half an hour before us) left the meeting in cynical moods. I submitted my resignation paper, or the paper requesting the resignation paper or some such, but not the paper saying I wanted a position at the new place. I was really just wanting to get out of there.

Three hours of our lives that didn’t really help us much. Admittedly, there were a few things that were helpful, but the majority of the time just felt wasted. It was great to see Junko, though. She’s always fun.

The three of us ate Hawaiian burgers to make ourselves feel better and then hung out in the sun sitting on benches in Namba Parks afterwards. Mike and Anna ended up joining us later for coffee (seriously, been drinking Chocolate Mint Mochas like there’s no tomorrow!) and they relayed more information to us. They had both gone up to the 19th Floor (kind of like the admin part of our building) to ask more questions.

I ended up going back to the building to submit the other forms ‘cuz they made a good point in that at least we’d have a job and a paycheck again. According to the information they were given, the new company (provided we are employed by them) would have a paycheck for us by the end of the month, and pay us for twenty days regardless of if we worked those days.

All of this however, could have been lost in translation.

The company people said they hope to start interviews as soon as Wednesday. I’m not holding my breath about anything, though. For as much as having income again would be great, I’ve been just as jaded as everyone else about this whole mess. I know this may sound petty, but I want my money. I worked for it, it would be nice to have it. I know I’ve said I’m not in dire straits or anything, and this is true, but that doesn’t mean I lack financial needs.

It’s times like this I wish my Japanese was a bit better.