October 7, 2023: Bosses I disliked (嫌いだった上司)

In my career, I had a number of bosses I disliked. Two of them were the ones who annoyed me all the time while I had to work with them. I still feel ill when I think of them. But I had another boss who was not like those two. I disliked him at first but learned a lot from him. In other words, he helped me a lot to build what I am now. He was not in Japan but in the US office. I had to communicate with him by fax every day. As I had a lot of requests from him, I had to reply to him a lot. And that, I was not allowed to answer in Japanese but only in English as he was with an American colleague who did not understand Japanese. In the beginning, my English was so poor that he could not understand my messages. So I saw a lot of his complaints to me in his messages. I also made a lot of mistakes at work. I was also blamed by my boss in Japan. He would read the messages from the US office every day and found that my boss in the US blamed me a lot. It was as if I was having nightmares.
However, I never gave up. That was what I wanted to do and I knew that I had no chance of going abroad on business without overcoming this. So I was desperate to improve my English and the way I worked. Then my English and the way I worked began to improve and I gradually gained some confidence in both. One day after a year and a half, I noticed that my bosses began to respect me and had no complaints about what I was doing. That was my great joy and the moment I found that I could continue the job.
About three years after I began to communicate with my boss in the US, he came back to Japan and worked with me in the same office. Then, I had a lot of time to talk with him and could know how he was. Contrary to the image I had of him before he came back, he was very open and gave me a lot of advice
Looking back, I could not be what I am today without him, and I still appreciate what he did for me. But unfortunately, I have had no chance to see him for about 35 years. I miss him.

　仕事で嫌いだった上司が数人います。その内の二人は、一緒に仕事をしている間、ずっと嫌いでした。彼らのことを考えると、今でも気分が悪くなります。もう一人嫌いな上司がいます。でも、その人は、他の二人とは違いました。最初は嫌いだったのですが、沢山のことを教えてくれました。今のボクの礎を築いてくれた方です。この方は、日本ではなく、米国の事務所にいた方です。この方と毎日、ファックスでやり取りするのが仕事でした。毎日たくさんの要求が来るので、沢山返事をしなければなりませんでした。しかも、返事は日本語ではなく、上司には米国人の同僚がいたため、英語で返事をしなければなりませんでした。最初は、ボクは英語が下手だったので、上司はボクが何を言っているのか理解できず、苦情の嵐でした。また、仕事でも沢山失敗しました。そのため、日本の上司にも叱られました。この上司が、毎日、米国からのファックスを読んで、ボクが米国の上司に叱られるのを知っていたのです。そのころは、悪夢を見ているような状況でした。
　でも、あきらめることはありませんでした。この仕事を続けたかったし、これを乗り越えないと、海外へ行くチャンスはないと思っていたからです。なので、必死に英語を磨き、仕事のやり方も改善しました。そしたら、徐々に良くなりました。そして、１年半後のある日、上司がボクに気を遣うようになったのです。その時は、すごくうれしかったです。そして、この仕事を続けられると思った瞬間でした。
　米国の上司とやり取りを初めて３年くらいたったころ、上司が日本に帰国しました。帰国前にボクが持っていたい上司のイメージとは大違いで、非常に気さくな方で、沢山アドバイスしてくれました。
振り返ると、今日のボクがあるのは、この方のお陰で、今でも、大変感謝しています。でも、この35年、お会いする機会がありません。寂しい限りです。