it just gets worse

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3 Comments

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see the story here. Are those people close enough to the issue that it matters what they were doing? It sounds like they are unrelated people. JR West is a huge company. I wouldn't expect the entire company personal to drop everything they are doing when they are in no way in a position to do anything about it.

From everything the article said, these employees were under no obligation to do anything other than carry on with thier lives. They are part of the tennoji service district which is in Osaka, which is a not insignificant distance away from Amagasaki. Perhaps there are social expectations I'm not familiar with under this situation? In such a situation are employees generally socially expected to rush to the scene from wherever they are at? I'm not sure what the protocol is, but my guess is that JR West has a team of people setup for emergencies, so my guess would be that normal JR staff would possibly obstruct the rescue operation.

Perhaps this is a cultural misunderstanding on my part.

Gen, this is not "seriously messed up". It's a bunch of people who were out and stayed out - but they had no involvement, nor likely even any ability to contribute to the rescue efforts in any meaningful way.

This isn't so much a story as someone trying to create a story.

Usualy corporate policy, as far as I've seen in my career anyway, would likely PROHIBIT those folks from doing anything to help, even if they were so inclined. The point being, they aren't trained rescue workes, and if the company put them out to help as part of the company, then the corporation would be liable for their incompetence, however well meaning it might have been.

cdg