Hello, everyone.

This is Enta.

It seems like Halloween is today and tomorrow, and the streets are bustling with energy.

We might not be able to avoid a surge in COVID-19 cases as the year comes to a close, but this lively atmosphere is definitely nice!

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To be honest, since the vaccination rate has already exceeded 70 percent, I find myself wondering if this liveliness is actually normal—as long as any infections that do occur result in only mild symptoms.

Well, when people talk about “variants,” it’s hard to say for sure, but when I think about the economy dying out, I can’t help but wonder if economic activity really is that important after all.

Our company is engaged in this type of economic activity as a slope stabilization and anchoring contractor, but the other day, we had a dispute with a Vietnamese worker over whether or not his wages had been paid.

To be honest, it was just a misunderstanding on the part of the Vietnamese person, but Japan’s salary systems do vary from company to company and can be quite complicated, can’t they?

So, no matter how many times I explain it, after a few months or so, the technical interns get the wrong idea and contact me, totally pissed off lol.

It's a hassle every time, but I end up talking through the union's interpreter, and when that happens, they understand and it ends with, "I'm sorry. It was a misunderstanding."

But a few months later, I was furious again lol

How many times do I have to do this???

That's the gist of it.

Is payroll processing overseas really that simple?

In our case, we pay all overtime wages in full and on time (as we should), so even if we were to face a lawsuit or an inspection by the Labor Standards Office, I don’t think there’s anything they could possibly find fault with. Plus, whenever we have questions about labor matters, we go to the Labor Standards Office to ask, so I’d say we’re pretty much perfect?

So, I’ve told the technical interns that if they really, really don’t like it, they’re free to sue, lol.

Even if the interns aren’t quite that extreme, I’d be happy if they saw us as a company where they can firmly express their opinions and engage in constructive discussions. But when they show up completely livid for the slightest thing, I just end up thinking, “Here we go again…” lol.

I get the feeling that this kind of thing probably happens quite often at companies that employ technical interns.

Since language barriers like this could very well be complicating the logic behind the numbers, I’m wondering if it might become necessary to include Vietnamese and other languages on pay stubs as well.

Since this is the most important aspect of hiring technical interns, we’d like to make it even clearer going forward.

If there's anything at your company that you think is really great, please let me know. I'd like to use it as a reference.

See you later.