They had disagreed over a political post on social media
A manager at Panasonic China is being investigated for allegedly threatening to fire an employee for posting political content on social media.
The employee claimed the manager asked if the worker wanted to quit their job after making a post on September 18 commemorating the anniversary of the ‘war of resistance’ between China and Japan.
The employee eventually resigned as they found the manager’s reaction and company culture “unacceptable”, according to local media.
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The war anniversary is typically commemorated by the Chinese with activities or social media posts. Knowing this, the manager instructed employees to avoid posting “patriotic” content on their social media accounts that day to avoid “unnecessary trouble”, reported Global Times.
The employee had retorted that Panasonic shouldn’t interfere with such posts.
In a media statement, the electronics company said that they would “seriously handle” the case as the employee had posted “justifiable content”.
Many young Chinese employees have been turning to social media lately to complain about their managers and controversial company practices. These posts have sent netizens debating about issues like employee rights as well as work culture at Chinese companies.
Recently, a social media post got two senior executives punished for slapping a new employee after he refused to drink with the boss. The company only learnt of the incident following the viral post online.