Office lady

An office lady (Japanese: オフィスレディー, romanized: Ofisuredī), often abbreviated OL (Japanese: オーエル, romanized: Ōeru, pronounced [o̞ːe̞ɾɯ̟ᵝ]), is a female office worker in Japan who performs generally pink-collar tasks such as secretarial or clerical work.

[citation needed] Due to some Japanese pop culture influence in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the term is also in common usage there.

They were first known as "BGs" (for "Business Girls"), but it was later found that English-speakers used a similar acronym, B-girls, to refer to "bargirls".

[1] OL stock characters are frequently found in josei manga and anime, often portrayed as attractive, clever, and wistful individuals bored with their jobs, over-pressured by their families, and facing psychological issues.

[citation needed] Especially in the late 20th century, OLs were often depicted as passive and submissive because they did not seem to care about strong sex discrimination against them in the workplace.

[citation needed] However, many OLs are content with their position and wages in the company because a great number of them live with their parents and do not have to worry about their daily expenses.

Similarly, senpai (one's senior) and kohai (one's junior) are also commonly used to show the hierarchy in Japanese companies.

A junior female employee has to use polite terms such as desu and masu when she speaks to her senpai.