WTF

REALLY　 There are allot of things that are a little difficult to deal with about Japan and especially working for a large company in Japan but this is really to much. I work with a bunch of skilled technicians and my bosses are not bad either. From time to time we have our differences but, we all have getting the job done and running a good service as a core principles. So it is easy to chalk any problems up as WORK. But there was one guy who had some problems and he would not show up to work from time to time (I haven't personally seen him in over 5 months.) and he would also not follow thru and finish his work, even the most simplest of tasks. He was initially on my team and when I arrived he was out "sick". Around the time I finished my 3 months probation and was told I was a full time employee I saw MR. S. for the first time. Then he spent a week reading his old mail that he had from his previous absence for about a WEEK. We worked on a couple of problems together and he made things worse by freaking out all the time and telling every one things that didn't matter and when a resolution was reached forgetting to tell everyone how it was resolved. It was a nightmare working with him. I tried to keep my frustration to myself cause it is really helpful to have a native Japanese speaker on my team. I didn't do a good enough job. He stopped coming again about a week later. 3 months later he showed for another couple of days worth of e-mail reading and shoddy non accomplished work. When he left the last time I thought well OK, he probably wont come back. Today I was told at the beginning of the year.... he will be on my team again and we are expected to work together. WTF　really?　Some people here do things that would definitely get them fired anywhere else (in USA especially). But I really think we have a good team and they all try ... but what does it say about our leaders if they can not take the pain of firing some one and loosing 3 or 4 months of his salary for the employment insurance. Sorry but I posted this out of total fustration.