on Nostr: I’m starting to believe, that all this overnight work was not really necessary, and ...
I’m starting to believe, that all this overnight work was not really necessary, and was in fact just a company-provided way of entertainment for the workers. Like going to the bar, baths etc. Overnights may be used at a work place to intentionally shift the sleeping schedule and thus “shake up” the girls, preventing the day-by-day routine turning them into distressed perpetually moping harpies, that do no actual work.
One can even extend this thought and compare this technique to one used by sects: where they intentionally make victims do physical exercises while letting them have only the bare minimum of sleep. Exhaustion leads to lowered ability to think and focus. It can be used to “empty somebody’s head” (or your own). Then, when the victim is getting vigour back, their head remains empty, there appears a desire to do something, to get involved with something. And the sect will then happily use this desire and point at what the person should do.
To think from the point of view of the employer, that overtime was hardly necessary:
- if you’re breaking the sleeping schedule for the workers, expect that they will be like in a daze for some days after that. Their productivity goes down. Winning some hours for one day to lose multiple times more in the following days doesn’t sound like good management decision. Indeed, sometimes THE DEADLINE IS TOMORROW AND THE JOB IS NOT READY YET, in which case an overtime is the only possible solution, but see the other points;
- not everyone retains productivity in the overtime hours. And definitely not Aoba;
- if the time will soon be up, and the job is not done, it would be more reasonable to outsource a part of it beforehand. Considering, how the company in the anime hires testers from the street, it has no problem with that. And indeed there is work that only the art director herself (Kou Yagami) can do (be it for the reasons of quality, consistency or anything else), but surely they could leave some NPC modelling to a third party and let Aoba go home? Especially knowing that she’s not much of an overtime worker (there were several overtimes in the anime).
- the claim about “more than enough money” holds on the fact that in the end of the show the company has thrown a huge banquet – before knowing the sales, and that overtime is paid for with an extra (paying at the usual rate is a sort of bonus by itself, for this allows a worker to earn more this month than his usual paycheck).
What is the meaning in all of this? That for the company a worker’s effort doesn’t amount to anything. It can be better or worse – the project was set up on sail before the first line of code was put in and the first model created. Money were secured beforehand, and the worst possible result was accounted for. You can eat cookies, chat with the others or lay exhausted on two chairs (like one of the girls in the programming team did near the end of the show) – it’s okay as long as you do the bare minimum of work expected (by the project management team and directors, not by the art director in the case with Aoba).
I think that Toyama on these screenshots knows perfectly well, that the overtime is not necessary, that it’s just an entertainment feature, but she still asks other people to do work, even though it’s a lie. That’s why she’s portrayed this uneasy. Like, think again: shouldn’t she be putting on airs of liveliness instead, to motivate the girls? but she seems stressed. Also, overtime in Japan is all over the place. So nobody would be surprised – or especially annoyed – when asked to stay. Toyama is asking about something, that is commonplace, yet she feels uneasy doing this. What else may be the reason?
One can even extend this thought and compare this technique to one used by sects: where they intentionally make victims do physical exercises while letting them have only the bare minimum of sleep. Exhaustion leads to lowered ability to think and focus. It can be used to “empty somebody’s head” (or your own). Then, when the victim is getting vigour back, their head remains empty, there appears a desire to do something, to get involved with something. And the sect will then happily use this desire and point at what the person should do.
To think from the point of view of the employer, that overtime was hardly necessary:
- if you’re breaking the sleeping schedule for the workers, expect that they will be like in a daze for some days after that. Their productivity goes down. Winning some hours for one day to lose multiple times more in the following days doesn’t sound like good management decision. Indeed, sometimes THE DEADLINE IS TOMORROW AND THE JOB IS NOT READY YET, in which case an overtime is the only possible solution, but see the other points;
- not everyone retains productivity in the overtime hours. And definitely not Aoba;
- if the time will soon be up, and the job is not done, it would be more reasonable to outsource a part of it beforehand. Considering, how the company in the anime hires testers from the street, it has no problem with that. And indeed there is work that only the art director herself (Kou Yagami) can do (be it for the reasons of quality, consistency or anything else), but surely they could leave some NPC modelling to a third party and let Aoba go home? Especially knowing that she’s not much of an overtime worker (there were several overtimes in the anime).
- the claim about “more than enough money” holds on the fact that in the end of the show the company has thrown a huge banquet – before knowing the sales, and that overtime is paid for with an extra (paying at the usual rate is a sort of bonus by itself, for this allows a worker to earn more this month than his usual paycheck).
What is the meaning in all of this? That for the company a worker’s effort doesn’t amount to anything. It can be better or worse – the project was set up on sail before the first line of code was put in and the first model created. Money were secured beforehand, and the worst possible result was accounted for. You can eat cookies, chat with the others or lay exhausted on two chairs (like one of the girls in the programming team did near the end of the show) – it’s okay as long as you do the bare minimum of work expected (by the project management team and directors, not by the art director in the case with Aoba).
I think that Toyama on these screenshots knows perfectly well, that the overtime is not necessary, that it’s just an entertainment feature, but she still asks other people to do work, even though it’s a lie. That’s why she’s portrayed this uneasy. Like, think again: shouldn’t she be putting on airs of liveliness instead, to motivate the girls? but she seems stressed. Also, overtime in Japan is all over the place. So nobody would be surprised – or especially annoyed – when asked to stay. Toyama is asking about something, that is commonplace, yet she feels uneasy doing this. What else may be the reason?