Only the “Capable Ones” Are Making Sacrifices

A routine ritual at my company before leaving for the day.
“What time was the meeting tomorrow?”
“It’s at 2:00 PM, online with Mr./Ms. XX.”

The next morning.
“What was on the schedule for today again?”
“It’s at 2:00 PM, online with Mr./Ms. XX.”
“Oh, that’s right, that’s right. I wrote it down here.”

They mutter, looking at the memo stuck to the whiteboard.

(...Then don't ask, for heaven's sake.)

This is the routine for us staff members.

There is an elderly staff member at our company.
Because they have a title, they have to attend meetings with external parties.

They asked for support because they couldn't manage their own schedule, so we started helping.
Since we have our own primary duties,
multiple staff members share the load.

We share the schedule on a cloud calendar.
Even so, they say, “I don't understand it,”
so we ended up sticking memos on the whiteboard.

Every time a schedule is added,
someone registers it in the cloud and then sticks up a memo.
But,
the person forgets the daily habit of looking at that memo.

Since their sense of dates and days of the week is also unreliable,
we try lining them up like a calendar.
Even though we intend to make it easy to see,
in the end, it isn't understood.

Even though they can't grasp their own schedule,
they will go ahead and book appointments over the phone, sometimes causing double bookings.
To clean up that mess,
we make phone calls and send emails on their behalf again.

If we try to be thoughtful and stay one step ahead, they get grumpy.
There is no judgment of priority,
and whatever is right in front of them is always the top priority.
If their own requirements aren't prioritized, they get grumpy again.

A staff member mutters quietly.
“...Are they a child?”

Honestly, there are times I think they are at the level of a two- or three-year-old toddler.

Why are we,
in addition to our actual work, doing things like this?

Staying one step ahead,
cleaning up messes,
and running things on their behalf.

“I wish we could post a job opening for a secretary,”
someone says jokingly.

I feel anxious, wondering how long this will go on.
On the other hand, the staff members laugh self-deprecatingly with each other, saying, “It won't last forever.”

Because this is happening within a company organization,
these things look like “work,” but
what if this were inside a family?

“It's only natural to take care of your parents.”
Told that,
the “capable one” sacrifices themselves to provide care.

If that didn't happen, it would have collapsed long ago.

Ah, I see.
Because I can do it, I end up being made to do it.

“I can't do it. I have a life of my own, too.”
Maybe it would be good if I could say that.

But,
just like within a family,
no, even more so,
in a workplace, you can't say that easily.
So, the best we can do is
streamline the instructions that seem like a waste to the bare minimum to brush them off,
and secure time for the work we are actually supposed to be doing.

Perhaps it's because it's a workplace with many housewives, including myself,
that we are able to do it.

We are attentive.
We can stay one step ahead.
Even in situations without a clear right answer, we try to make things work somehow.

So that the burden doesn't fall on just one person.

Even though it's on the verge of collapse,
this company, which still maintains its form,
might unexpectedly be a microcosm of society.