What do Japanese people do if they are late to work?

Wouldn’t stopping to buy doughnuts make you even later?

well it depends on the reason for why they’re late….

They run.

@EmpressPixie: lol, yes but I live 3 minutes from work, and the Donut place is between my house and my work.

well like said it depends, if you go to work and you tell your boss you just broke up with your girlfriend or got a divorce he will give you a month off, with pay, while you pull yourself together, if it’s for a stupid reason, well disciplinary actions will be bestowed, I know cause I’ve been there once.

But appereantly you sit on fluther all day anyway.

not really, well i do have a laptop.

Seppuku

Yeano,no the are extreme but not that extreme.

@battle – Hah! Precisely.

Lateness is what keeps the population steady.

The Japanese are never late.

The japanese are work maniac. THey live in the office so they will never be late.

Japanese people are never late. My boyfriend is part Japanese and he is on time for everything. I don’t know if anyone has read the new David Sedaris book but the part about Japan is pretty funny.

yes…but what IF a Japanese person is late…what…if

Generally it’s done with as little ceremony as possible, the person comes in apologises curtly and begins work rightaway. Any grander gesture would probably be seen as counterproductive and disrespectful of the work enviroment.

This is because Japanese people are almost never late so it’s assumed there’s a valid reason, thus no reparations need to be made.

Lived there:
Depends on the company, some places are very western but generally: They bow low and quickly get to work. If your boss comes up, one would say GOMENASAI (sorry), MOUSHIWAKEGOZAIMASEN (so terrible, I have no excuse-words that could be used) but saying something like ‘it’s not my fault…’ is to avoid (should have left earlier – that’s all).
In old fashion companies, one could try catching up by staying late (eg. those using time cards), some will take away 1 hour pay off even if it’s 3 min…
If the subway is late, they give out excuse papers (1min is worth millions, if you kill yourself by jumping in the railway, your family has to pay. – it was fashion at one time, that’s why they put those glass security walls)
Some southern islands are… like every southern island: slow and being late ~30min is custom.

@ycc2106 Wait… Some people kill themselves by jumping on the tracks because they’re one minute late? And railways started handing out excuse papers if subways are late and building glass walls to prevent this?

@shadling21 Not some… So many… Hard to believe. When I was living in Tokyo trains were late atleast once in a week due to “Human related accidents” (it means someone has jumped in front of the train). During that time, the JR (Japan Railways) apologize to you and give you a certificate kind (a bit of paper though) of thing to show your boss / whoever. Recently they have online “Train delayed certificate (?)”, which you can print to show your boss. See the following link to check todays delay.

http://traininfo.jreast.co.jp/train_info/e/kanto.aspx
http://traininfo.jreast.co.jp/train_info/kanto.aspx (Japanese)