Respawn at Your Desk

Picture it: you’re sitting in an open-plan office somewhere in Japan, and when your colleague finishes a report ahead of schedule, a fanfare plays. An actual level-up jingle, like something out of Dragon Quest. Their score—displayed in large numbers on a placard at their desk—ticks upward. They are, for all practical purposes, grinding XP.

A Japanese company made this happen. Every employee starts at Level 1. Fast, precise work earns experience points. So does overtime. Promotions, Amazon vouchers, higher pay—all convertible from accumulated XP. The leaderboard is public. The fanfare is real. I don’t know whether to find it dystopian or genuinely inspired, and that confusion feels significant.

I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time in RPGs—enough that the logic of experience points feels more intuitive to me than quarterly performance reviews. There’s something almost honest about this company’s approach. At least they’re not pretending the grind isn’t a grind. They just made it ring a little bell when it levels you up. Grab your sword. Castle Work awaits. Don’t forget Epona.