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Life

23rd Jun 2018

Man gets fined for starting his lunch 3 minutes early

Paul Moore

When lunch is life.

In the immortal words of Chris Rock: “Do you know how you can tell when you’ve got a real bad job? It’s when they give you a half hour lunch break. There’s nothing worse than a half hour lunch break for a grown person. By the time you put on your jacket, walk around the corner, go to the sandwich spot, order a sandwich, wait for them to make it, then get in another line to pay….28 minutes have passed! By the time you get back to work, your boss then has the nerve to say ‘Hey, you’re 8 minutes late!’ FUCK YOU!”

He speaks the truth.

Clip via – Matthew Longfellow

Well, this 64-year-old Japanese man can definitely relate to Rock’s line of logic because he was fined and reprimanded after he was found to have left his desk just three minutes before the start of his designated lunch break on 26 occasions over a seven-month period.

Japan has a fairly dismal record when it comes to balancing work-life commitments and this particular case has highlighted that further.

The treatment of this civil servant was so severe that it actually resulted in a press conference being called.

During this briefing, senior officials at the bureau described the man’s conduct as “deeply regrettable” and bowed in apology.

As reported by The Guardian, they explained their actions by saying: “The lunch break is from noon to 1pm. He left his desk before the break.”

In their view, this worker had violated a public service law which required workers to “concentrate on their jobs.”

Last month, the lower house in Japan had passed a bill that caps overtime at 100 hours a month. This was a direct response to a rise in the number of employees dying from overwork.

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