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The story
A former employee of Hiroshima Prefecture sued the prefecture for damages, saying she developed an adjustment disorder after being forced to listen to her boss badmouth her coworkers almost every single day. The Hiroshima High Court overturned the lower court’s ruling and ordered the prefecture to pay her 220,000 yen. The Hiroshima District Court had dismissed her claim at first instance, but the High Court found that the boss’s conduct amounted to harassment that “drew on a position of superiority and continued over a long period in a manner that grossly exceeded what is socially acceptable.” On the forum, reactions split between shock (“just listening to badmouthing is enough to break someone?”) and sympathy (“of course you’d get sick if it happened every day and you had nowhere to escape”), with plenty of attention also going to how the claimed 3.3 million yen shrank all the way down to 220,000 yen.
The Hiroshima High Court recently issued its appellate ruling in a lawsuit in which a former Hiroshima Prefecture employee sought 3.3 million yen in damages from the prefecture, claiming she suffered psychological distress from being continually forced to listen to her boss badmouth her coworkers.
Presiding Judge Masayuki Suenaga ruled that the badmouthing “constitutes unlawful workplace harassment.” He overturned the Hiroshima District Court’s first-instance ruling, which had dismissed the woman’s claim, and ordered the prefecture to pay her 220,000 yen.
Judge Suenaga noted that the boss’s badmouthing “must be described as unilaterally venting frustration and anger of the moment onto a subordinate close at hand.” He concluded it amounted to workplace harassment because the boss, “drawing on a position of superiority, continued for a long period to voice criticism and complaints that served no business purpose, in a manner that grossly exceeded what is socially acceptable, inflicting significant psychological burden.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That's not even a boss, though?
There are plenty of women who hate badmouthing others too, you know — the more mature someone is mentally and as a person, the more they know how stupid and embarrassing badmouthing and one-upping people is, so they don't do it. You pick one nasty woman and lump everyone into the same personality — if you swapped the genders and said that, people would complain about applying one individual to the whole group.
Hospitals are nothing but badmouthing patients and bullying coworkers, honestly
Lol, low tolerance (lmao)
Nah, there are people who'd call this "kasuhara" (customer harassment)-level stuff these days. If you're tough you can just tell them to shut up and be done with it, but…
You've never had to listen to this stuff every single day, have you. In my case it wasn't even a boss — it was the full-time middle-aged women and men who'd occasionally hit me with badmouthing and gossip, and even that was unpleasant. Seriously, badmouth-lovers are a nuisance whether you're a working adult or back in school. Worst case, you even risk being seen as part of the same gossip clique.
If you have to listen to it right next to you every day, you'll get sick. Especially if you're not in a position of power to make them stop.
Meanwhile the people who actually got badmouthed are left in the dust, huh
Even at messy companies with men too, there were places where the women would just sigh at each other and say "let's make sure we don't end up like that." Funny how they'd get mad if you generalized about them though.
I don't think there's really a gender difference there. Personally, in all my years working, most men and women alike were decent, a few had angelic personalities, and only a tiny few were genuinely nasty. As for actual criminals (embezzlement, attempted rape), there were two, both men.
Regardless of gender, there are people who think complaining and badmouthing is just how you communicate. Whether that type is actually liked is another question — but they probably hit it off fine with others just like them.
You never know. Maybe when this woman wasn't around, they were badmouthing her instead
Worst case, the boss could flip it around and say "she's the one who was spreading it around." (´・ω・`)
If you so much as agree with him, you're in danger too lol
Guess the claim just wasn't worth that much
Probably because you're coming into contact with malice that exists within a 10-meter radius of you. I think it's an instinctive aversion
Chronic persecution-complex type. I'd avoid dealing with them if I could
Women badmouth people so casually, it really is a problem. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the person who has to listen to it
District and high courts are places where second-tier judges like to stand out by handing down surprising rulings. So even though people call it a "precedent," rulings at the district/high court level aren't treated as binding precedent. It only gets scary if the Supreme Court comes out with some ridiculous conclusion.
Some people only have folders for "like/dislike" and "friend/enemy," nothing in between. I think life would be a bit easier if they made a folder for "don't want to get involved, but don't want to be enemies either." Though I don't have any friends myself
This exactly. Every time I offered "well, maybe it could be seen this way too," things got incredibly twisted
Had that happen at a part-time job back in college. The person I was paired with spent the entire shift nonstop badmouthing another part-timer. I kept giving wishy-washy responses like "come on now" or "maybe they have their reasons," and suddenly they screamed at me, "THAT'S NOT IT, I SAID!!!!" Scared the hell out of me since they'd been grinning while badmouthing just moments before
Scary — good thing it was "just" a part-time job. People learn to snap like that somewhere, you know. My guess is that as a kid, their toxic parent was always badmouthing people, and when little them tried to calm them down with "come on now," the parent snapped at them exactly like that. And now they're doing the same thing to other people.
Guess you just don't have much luck with women
Background and Key Points of This Story
Workplace harassment (“power harassment”) is defined under the revised Act on Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Measures, which took effect in 2020, as “conduct based on a position of superiority that exceeds what is necessary and appropriate for business and that harms the work environment.” The key point in this case is that the badmouthing targeted not the plaintiff herself but third parties — her coworkers. The Hiroshima District Court had dismissed her claim at first instance, ruling that this didn’t qualify as workplace harassment in a business sense. The Hiroshima High Court overturned that, placing weight on the fact that she was forced to listen to it unilaterally, over a long period and at high frequency, and found it unlawful. On the forum, opinions split between surprise (“just listening to badmouthing causes an adjustment disorder?”) and sympathy (“of course you’d get sick if it happened daily and you couldn’t escape your boss”). The fact that the awarded amount dropped sharply from the claimed 3.3 million yen to just 220,000 yen also fed a sense that “in the end, the court didn’t treat it as that serious after all.”
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “[Hiroshima High Court] Forced to listen to her boss badmouth coworkers almost daily, she developed an adjustment disorder… Woman who argued “badmouthing others is still harassment” wins reversal in court.”
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