Part-time job terrorism (バイトテロ, baito tero) is a Japanese social phenomenon; part-time employees perform pranks and stunts, such as climbing into ice cream freezers or holding their body horizontally suspended, more colloquially termed 'planking', on the counter-tops at fast-food restaurants, usually with the sole purpose of gaining recognition from their peers through the photos and/or videos they later display on social media sites. This social phenomenon commonly involves people with high job dissatisfaction—a factor which is commonly cited by the media alongside low pay and arduously long working hours. Although pranks such as the aforementioned would not be seen as shocking by many other cultures, they are considered disgraceful in Japanese culture.
Japanese culture is often associated with long hours, some individuals working as many as 60 hours a week. Such working hours are associated with mental and physiological health complications, with Japanese newspapers citing rare cases of spontaneous death, informally known as Karōshi. To complicate matters further, Japanese offices are often noisy, smoke-filled (due to lack of smoking laws) environments and this may have further adverse effects on the health and well-being of employees. Part-time job terrorism might in this context be a form of escapism, disenchanted employees gaining support from their peers outside of work to compensate for the praise or reward their working life lacks.
The social phenomenon emerged around the summer of 2013, when internet-based Japanese news agencies such as Yukan-news recorded such an incident. with more traditional news agencies later following suit. In Japanese the social phenomenon is termed baito tero. The name stems from the Japanese word baito, which means "part-time job" and is a loan-word originating from the German arbeit, meaning "work".
Japanese employers are nonplussed by such shenanigans, and penalties and punishment can range from administrative tongue-lashings to termination of employment; employees can also, in some circumstances, be held financially accountable for loss of business due to the negative publicity.