Japanese employee fired for being out of frame in video call

You might want to make sure you are not out of frame for your next video conference call as one employee in Japan was fired for that reason.

A graduate of Hosei University, who wishes to be known under the pseudonym “Yota Yoshida”, took up a job with a major IT firm and had to attend an online training course from April to July because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employees were instructed to wear a dress shirt and log onto the company chat rooms from home every day. And Yoshida did so through the month of April, which turned out to be his first and last one with the company.

Yoshida was asked to make a physical visit to the office at the end of April and that was when he was informed of his termination. An HR representative told him that his chin was out of frame and his knee was seen on screen. He was also wearing a cardigan during one of the video meetings.

“We are an IT company that attaches great importance to manners over technology,” the representative said.

Explaining his side of the story to the media, Yoshida said, “I wore a cardigan because I was cold. But because I didn’t inform them beforehand, I was wrong. I didn’t put my knee up at all, it was a complete misunderstanding.”

On the bright side, Yoshida will still be paid for May if he voluntarily resigned at the end of that month, but he could no longer attend training.