Japan is known for its life-time employment and the image that you join a company right out of college at 22 and then stay there until you retire. However, that is not true for most companies anymore (and never was for all companies to begin with) and not only do most companies not offer life-time employment anymore, almost 40% of all employees are non-permanent. That leaves at least the majority of workers who have a safe workplace, right? Wrong! Let’s take a look at jinji ido (人事異動 ) or “reassigning employees”.

What is Jinji Ido or Employee Reassignment?

Ok, jinji ido or “reassigning employees” doesn’t sound too bad. Sounds like a good challenge if you get an opportunity to take on a new challenge within your organization. Internal mobility is a great thing, isn’t it? Well, as seishain (正社員) or permanent employees have their position secured. “Permanent” really means permanent and it is challenging for companies to let employees go*. it also means on the flip side that it is difficult for employers to adjust their workforce to the business needs – in case you are wondering, that’s a nice way of saying “they can’t hire and fire as management pleases”. However, companies have the flexibility to not only reassign employees to a new position within the same location but can send their employees to the other end of the country to fill a need there.

The Pros of Jinji Ido

Reassigning employees to new teams and locations brings a lot of pros with it. It provides professional development for the employee as well as a better understanding of the business. Employees also build better relationships with their coworkers which can lead to more empathy when working on bigger projects that include different teams and locations.

If utilized correctly, reassigning employees to new teams and locations brings a lot of pros with it. It provides professional development for the employee as well as a better understanding of the business. Employees also build better relationships with their coworkers which can lead to more empathy when working on bigger projects that include different teams and locations.

At the same time it helps avoid stagnation, break up teams that are not getting along and brings in new ideas. In theory, the new joiner can bring in ideas from other offices or teams and help the team find new solutions to move the business forward.

The long list of Cons of Jinji Ido

Now if all this was done in line with the employee’s preference and overall career plan, that would be fantastic. However, that is not the case.

The ability to reassign or relocate employees is unilateral. The employee doesn’t have to agree and even if they have to it’s more proforma. It’s seen as reasonable to expect this kind of loyalty in return for life-time employment (although that’s more of a fake promise these days). Just imagine any of the following situations:

• you got married to a co-worker (not uncommon) but only you get relocated
• you just bought a house
• you just had a baby
• you have a family member you have to look after
• your kids are in the middle of the school year

Of course companies would consider those situations, right? Turns out less than 20% of all companies actually consider the wishes of the affected employee. It would seem as though the majority of companies don’t even care.

That’s why there are about 1 million employees currently on tanshin funin (単身赴任) – relocating alone without partner and/or kids. The burden on the family is just too high. Being separated is not easy either but the smaller of the two evils. Of course bigger companies might even relocate employees overseas. However, different from American or European companies who usually relocate senior management and C-suite executives after mutual agreement with a generous package, Japanese companies often relocate less senior employees (again unilaterally) and don’t offer much.

You can add to that, that many companies, despite usually being very long term oriented and planning ahead, don’t necessarily give their employees a few months notice or at least tell them how long the relocation will last. While, yes, loyalty and dedication to your company is great, who would look back and say their careers are more valuable than their family?

Last but not least, let’s not forget that this is a very convenient way for employers to get rid of employees. If they cannot directly let someone go, they can relocate them to the other end of the country, put them into a pointless position and just wait for them to quit.

What does the future hold?

It’s really hard to say what the future holds. I personally hope that more and more Japanese employees understand that this kind of jinji ido is not in their best interest and that they vote with their feet. Lifetime employment is more than a myth from a past than an actual promise. In an economy with an unemployment rate of 2.4% it’s a seller’s market. Good professionals have options and don’t have to stick to companies that keep up these methods. With lifetime employment out of the picture, we also see a shift from generalists to specialists – which is common already with foreign companies in Japan but still not for the majority of the Japanese companies. Some companies have already started and are already reaping the benefits.

What are practices around reassignment like (if any) in your country? Employee driven or company drive? What is your experience with employee reassignment?

*Yes, of course, it is possible to let employees go but it is very different from for example the US where anyone can be let go more or less instantly.