It’s April, so that means a fresh batch of new recruits has arrived at the office. And here at PG, it is customary for the newcomers to be trained in a variety of subjects over the course of roughly a week.

On the first day, they were instructed on the rules of work attendance, and how to manage confidential information, as well as business manners, organization, and general ways of working.

On the second day, they learned how to write business documents and mails, how to behave during visits or when attending conferences, and where to sit during meetings (an important part of Japanese culture, where the order of seating is related to the attendee’s status at the company!). There was also a lecture on the history and recent trends of the video game industry, and on the process (production/sales) involved in making video games. This is a valuable opportunity for fledgling workers to learn from management and their seniors* about what’s important when working in this industry (*Relationships between “juniors” and “seniors,” or kōhai and senpai are an integral part of Japanese society. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senpai_and_kōhai).

The third day offered a lecture on”Basic Rules for New Recruits” by two third-year employees (Ryu Hashimoto and Tadanari Takahashi, both graphic designers). This is an important first step when becoming part of an organization!

It’s a very basic (but important) question, but the new recruits wondered how they were supposed to know whether the people they passed in the Umeda Sky Building (where PlatinumGames is located) and its surroundings are their colleagues or completely unrelated people.

Of course, staff members carry a card key with the PlatinumGames logo on it around their necks, so that makes it easy to recognize them most of the time, but what if they’re not wearing it yet, because they just arrived at work for the day? There’s not much else you can do but to remember everyone’s faces, but there’s 170 of them!!

The answer their seniors provided was: “No one is going to be offended if you say hello, so when we were new, we just greeted everyone in plain clothing (contrary to many Japanese companies, the staff at PG does not wear suits at the office) that we came across!” (Never mind that there are lots of students and tourists in the neighborhood as well 😉 )

It’s not likely that any PG staff member will go “Hey newbie, don’t you know how to greet your senior!?” but there’s no one who doesn’t appreciate a clear and energetic greeting either, so it’s better to be safe than sorry!

They shared another nugget of wisdom: “Of course, if you run into someone from outside the company, you will be a representative of PG in their eyes, even if you’re new, so you have to be especially careful in those cases, and always strive to come across as friendly and motivated.”

The next topic was ”staff attitude”

“Immediately respond when people address you > always take notes > swiftly take care of your duties!”
“Regardless of whether the task is big or small, always be responsible until the very end!”

“Report, communicate, and consult” etc.
Of course, understanding all of this is an important part of joining a company, but the most strongly conveyed message of the day was “Whatever you do, be passionate (about your job)!”

It is also customary for new recruits to take charge of collecting garbage, watering the plants, and keeping the various tea/coffee pots filled for a year. “You may think that these chores have nothing to do with game development, but they’re actually directly related to the improvement of the development environment, and, as such, the image of the company!”

This year, the lectures were held by two third-year employees, but future support for the newcomers will be handled by second-year employees (probably because they’re a bit easier to talk to), who will provide them with advice and counseling. Apparently there will also be a big drinking party between all first-to-third-year employees (oops, perhaps that was supposed to be a secret), so, yeah, we’re all actually pretty jealous… :S

There was another lecture after this, about copyrights and the rules regarding logo usage, but we’ll stop here for today!

<A lecture on copyrights by executive director Kenichi Sato>