Words from a Boss That Stayed in My Heart

I have changed jobs many times, so I have worked in various workplace environments and under many different bosses. I have encountered bosses with various management styles, but the two who had the greatest influence on my later life were the bosses I had when I was doing administrative work for a non-profit organization made up of company executives.

Both of them were prominent figures whose names were known to everyone in the local political and business circles. The more I got to know these people, the more I clearly understood why they reigned in their current positions. Beyond their decisiveness and ability to execute, they stood out among the many executives belonging to that non-profit organization for their consideration for others.

One of them was a person who had risen up and achieved success as an executive amidst the chaos of the post-war period. Since this person was elderly, it was one of my duties to take his handwritten speech drafts and retype them into a word processor. It was a task like arranging puzzle pieces one by one, with his drafts that could hardly be called neat and strings of unfamiliar kanji characters.
One day, when I went to deliver the draft I had typed on the word processor to this boss, he said to me,

"Thank you so much for always patiently dealing with my messy handwriting without making a sour face. I am grateful to you."

He said this to me. It was a time-consuming task, asking him repeatedly about characters I couldn't read and looking up the meanings of words, but I had just thought of it as work and hadn't paid it any particular mind. However, knowing that my boss felt this way made me very happy.

And before I left for Australia, this boss gave me a paper umbrella with a painting of a snowy landscape on it, and

"I want you to show this to your children when you tell them about the place where you grew up."

He said, and I still occasionally remember how my eyes welled up with tears at his words. He was a truly kind person.

The other gentleman was, above all, a bright and charismatic person. This boss remembered the birthdays of his staff and would give us wonderful presents, whether it was a wallet or a desk clock.

What left a strong impression on me regarding this boss was an incident when a member of the organization where I worked stormed into our office, complaining about the seating arrangement or the order of speakers for an upcoming seminar. Unfortunately, I was the only one in the office at the time. The member shouted at me for about 30 minutes using language bordering on intimidation before leaving the office. I couldn't help but cry because of the overwhelming situation. My boss happened to come by then and asked me why I was crying. When I told him what had just happened, he immediately picked up the phone and contacted the member who had been shouting.

"Did you just come to our office? My staff member is crying. If you have something you want to say, could you please tell us executives directly? Whatever the circumstances, yelling at my staff is absolutely unacceptable. Come and apologize to the staff member you shouted at right now."

He said this to the other party in a strong but polite tone. And after hanging up the phone,

"So, he's going to come here now. If I'm here, he'll probably feel awkward, so I'll go have some tea at the cafe downstairs. Call me right away if anything happens."

He said and walked away.

An hour later, the member in question came to apologize to me with a large bouquet of flowers, and the incident was resolved.

At that time, I was, of course, moved by the words the boss said to the other party, but I was also impressed by his words after hanging up the phone. This boss, who never forgot to be considerate to anyone, was truly a gentleman who made me realize why he was a great businessman.

Of course, there were times when he was strict, but I have never met people like these bosses before or since.