木村：会社の景気はどうですか。
酒井：悪いんですよ。首にされるんじやないかと心配しているくらいでね。
Kubi ni suru/Kubi ni sareru
Kimura: Kaisha no keiki wa doo desu ka.
Sakai: Waruin desu yo. Kubi ni sareru'n janai ka to shinpai shite iru kurai de ne.
Kimura: How's business at your company?
Sakai: Not looking good. It's so bad that I'm afraid I might be made redundant.
In a country like Japan where most companies have a well-established system of life-time employment, keiki ga waruku te mo, kubi ni sareru koto wa hotondo nai (There are few cases of people being made redundant, even when business isn't going well). It is common among most employers to hold a view that nagai aida, kaisha no tame ni hataraite kureta hito wo kubi ni suru koto wa dekinai (we can't fire someone who has worked for the company for many years).
However, things have changed drastically. A friend of mine, who had worked at the files and records section of a company, was recently told that moo soko ni posuto wa nakunatta kara, kongetsu ippai de yamete hoshii. (We're discontinuing your position. We'd like you to leave by the end of the month).
But it's not easy for an 50-year-old single woman to carry on her life after losing her job. Her parents are too old to depend on. Sanjuu nen mo hataraite kita kaisha de masaka kubi ni sareru to wa omowanakatta. (After working for this company for 30 years, I never dreamed I'd be given the sack), she said.
In the past she might, say, not have been promoted, but at least the company would have kept her on till retirement.
The way she has been treated is not the result of the worsening economy, but it's part of a trend in our society toward a breakdown of the practice of lifetime employment. An outlook dominated by economic considerations, whereby yaku ni tatanai hito wa kubi ni suru (people who are no longer useful get the sack), is already commonplace,
Some may say watashi nado mo toshi desu kara, kubi ni sareru mae niyamemasu yo
(I'm getting old, so I'm going to quit before I'm made redundant). In a society where age dictates one's position in the hierarchy, the older you get the higher your salary becomes.
From the employer's point of view, they're better off with two low-paid younger employees than one high-paid older employee. Older members of staff get swept aside in a quiet corner of the office. The company's old hands are now treated as dead Weight. It makes you wonder where Japan, a country in which the concept of duty was once so vital, is headed next.