Saturday, April 2, 2011

Goldman Sachs to Tokyo Employees: "Leave Tokyo and You're Fired!"

This is a story that broke over a week ago, but I think it holds a great lesson for everyone even in hindsight...
JOHNNY PAYCHECK - TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT
Everything in this world today revolves around technology or the economy. It doesn't revolve around sensationalism or hyperbole. As I quoted Tech Crunch in News for Intelligent People Criticize Japan Nuclear Sensationalist Reporting:


The news from Japan is both awful and appalling. Awful: 23,000 confirmed dead or missing, and counting. Appalling: pretty much anything to do with the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Nuclear meltdown like Chernobyl! Deadly contaminated milk and radioactive tap water! Tokyo a postapocalyptic ghost town! A plume of radiation that threatens America’s West Coast!

Where do they get these morons? Again, twenty thousand people are dead, and the drooling dimwits of the media can’t stop babbling about Fukushima, where exactly one person died – a crane operator who had the misfortune to be up in the cab of his vehicle when the fifth largest earthquake in recorded history hit – and fewer than 30 were injured, only a handful of whom required treatment for radiation exposure.
If you want to know the reality on the ground, you need to look at tech issues and economics. Take Goldman Sachs for example... (Please!) Even though I think Goldman Sachs are scum, I think it must be admitted that big, world-wide blood-sucking corporations don't screw around. Need a measurement of how dangerous Tokyo was during the height of the so-called "nuclear crisis" was?


Goldman Sachs told their Tokyo employees that if they left, they'd be out of a job. Flyjin.com reports:


When four executives from Goldman Sachs visited their Tokyo subsidiary last week, they told foreign employees in no uncertain terms that if they left Tokyo they would not have a job when they returned, according to a report by John Carney of CNBC.com.


Nah.... Do you think that one of the biggest companies in the world that is involved with finance and risk mitigation would be taking unnecessary risks? I don't. Do you? Why should they?


Nope. They just don't do that. They don't screw around with nonsense. From what I hear, their employees get paid over $200,000 US dollars a year.


They'd better not be running away with poop in their pants at that price.


The lesson here is that some of the world's top professionals at risk management and assessment judged the facts and concluded that there never was a huge enough risk to evacuate. This is important because, as a company operating out of the USA, if Goldman Sachs were wrong, they would be liable in US courts for hundreds of millions of dollars - if not more - in damages and liability claims from injured or sick employees.


I don't think it is difficult to deduce what this boils down to: Media hype and sensationalism is just that. The facts on the ground told a far different story.

11 comments:

  1. This blog is becoming more idiotic with each post. First of all, Goldman Sachs is a reckless, belligerent juggernaut that has helped usher in the global recession. They are a portrait of the horrible corporate culture that holds the economy captive and have helped redistribute wealth from the middle class to the top 1%. So what if they have no compassion and give their workers unfair ultimatums? You want to hold them up as a standardbearer of common sense?

    Nike, H&M, other multinationals and most embassies have relocated from Tokyo to Osaka. But you say, 'sensationalism!' Why not say 'prudence?' Because self-righteous dogs must have their day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here's another example of someone who has poor comprehension and reading skills - his math skills are horrible too as I will show.
    I never said that Goldman Sachs wasn't the devil. In fact, I wrote, "Even though I think Goldman Sachs are scum, I think it must be admitted that big, world-wide blood-sucking corporations don't screw around." I never held them up as the standard bearer of common sense. I said they make decisions based on economics.

    You wrote, "Nike, H&M, other multinationals and most embassies have relocated from Tokyo to Osaka." Wrong and a complete fabrication by you. You named two multi-nationals that moved. There are thousands that didn't move… "most embassies have relocated?" That's simply not true. Where do you pull these nonsense statements from?

    You also are guilty of another error in your comprehension here. Sensationalism is reserved for the media - that should be obvious to anyone with a elementary school education who read the article. The facts are that out of 177 foreign embassies located in Tokyo, 25 closed or relocated during this time. I don't know how in the world you come to the conclusion that "most embassies have relocated from Tokyo to Osaka." It's simply not true and people like you would do yourself a favor to check your facts before you bleat out idiotic nonsense.

    You are wrong! You are arguing with a professional, you better have your facts straight before you write nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with Anon at 9:07 AM.

    Goldman Sux can give and get away with such nasty orders over its slaves is because they bought and own whatever soul is left in the type of people who join GS.

    The only thing I agree with Mike about this article is that Goldman is scum.

    You seem to be having a field day now about the choices others made but it is mostly hindsight rationalization of what you so stubbornly refused to see+hear+think and wouldn't, didn't and couldn't do.

    For the sake of those poor souls you are knocking as well as your own, how about politely toning it down a level because what goes around comes around. Just like Goldman will get one day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You said, "You are arguing with a professional, you better have your facts straight before you write nonsense."

    I said, " self-righteous dogs must have their day!"

    I stand confirmed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You stand confirmed that I am a self-righteous dog? I've been called much worse. Attack the messenger when you can't attack the message. The facts remain that what you wrote is false and self-serving. I think the word for that is liar.

    I'll take self-righteous dog any day especially when I am right. I don't need to toss false data around like a spoiled 6 year old girl like Anon 9:07 does or the fool that "Agrees" with someone who lies and exaggerates.

    Rationalization + hindsight? Hardly. From day one I was telling people to: Calm down, be rational, judge the facts, do not believe the government or mass media, make intelligent decisions based on facts - not fear.

    ReplyDelete
  6. PS: I have no ulterior motive besides getting the truth out and trying to get foreigners in Japan to understand the truth. I certainly am not pro-nuclear power.

    You guys can blame me all you want, but as Flyjin.com aptly points out in: Why the Flyjin Flew: The 8 Factors That Led Them Astray ( http://flyjin.com/why-the-flyjin-flew-factors/): Flyjin made poor decisions, and in the process shirked responsibilities, upended their lives, cooled relationships, wasted money (however insignificant it may have been to them given their circumstances), contributed to an unnecessary panic, and set themselves up for a well-deserved ribbing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mike,
    You don't need to defend yourself against these jerks. Everyone who reads this can see right through their motivations... Just like littles kids lying to mommy and trying to convince themselves... We don't want these types of foreigners coming back to Japan. Stay away!
    S. Takahashi

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ha! I hate Goldman too but the facts are that they hire the highest educated people from the best universities and pay these people almost a quarter million dollars a year! and then you tell me that a bunch of loser foreigners getting paid squat think their management is bad... Money talks - bullshit walks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. FYI, I haven't left Tokyo. I just loathe judgmental people (and that includes you Mr S. Takahashi!!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, and I'm supposed to be scared because some unnamed wimpus weirdo that doesn't have the balls to even sign his own name loathe's me?... Excellent.

    Listen, clowny, this is my blog. If you don't like it, go somewhere else... You won't get sympathy and people feeling sorry for you here... By the way, if the insults and profanity (both ways) doesn't stop, I will block all comments...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ugh, I hate the media! They always tend to exaggerate. It's almost as if they WANT to start a panic! Newsflash, life isn't some movie in which you can just overact like you a six-year-old just to entertain your parents, it's a little more complicated than that.

    ReplyDelete

Comments must be succinct & relevant to the story. Comments are checked frequently and abusive, rude or profane comments will be deleted. I’m just one of many bloggers who answer questions online and sometimes for the press. I usually handle questions about Japan, marketing or the economy, so in those areas I’m more likely to make sense and less likely to say something really stupid. If I post something here that you find helpful or interesting, that’s wonderful. This is my personal blog. If you don't like what you have read here then, just like when you go into a restaurant or bar that allows smoking, if you don't like it, there's something at the front that has hinges on it and it is called a "door."