Why does this kind of thing always happen to me… Sigh.
A typical day for that site supervisor (branch manager) begins with a sigh and ends with a sigh.
When I say, “Good morning,” I get a negative response like, “Ugh, here we go again.” During the morning meeting, they participate while sighing.
Above all, what stressed me out the most was when I was preparing documents. This person sits directly across from me, and sighs about once every 30 seconds. I’m not exaggerating. To make matters worse, they do it while complaining.
"Why does this always happen to me? Sigh."
"This isn't really my job, is it? Sigh."
"It's Saturday today. Sigh."
As for that last complaint, I’m tempted to retort, “You’ve been in the industry for so long—it’s about time you got used to it,” but given my position, I’ll hold my tongue.
The director sighs while being yelled at
Since I had become accustomed to the on-site environment, I was assigned to conduct site inspections.
We conducted regular patrols at the start of the workday, at 10:00 a.m., at 3:00 p.m., and at the end of the workday, and those times were my only chance to take a breather.
When I go out to the job site, the friendly people there cheerfully strike up conversations with me. Sometimes they’ll joke around, asking things like, ”How’s ”Sighing Uncle’ (the branch manager) in the mood today?” while showing their concern for me.
So, I was somehow getting by day by day, but then one day, something happened.
While working at a desk in the site office, the office manager’s cell phone rang. The caller’s voice could be faintly heard coming through the speaker. It seemed to be a complaint. The caller was saying, “The road is getting dirty when the dump trucks drive by, so please clean it up.”
At first, the branch manager responded calmly to the complaint, but he couldn’t help letting out a sigh over the phone—a habit of his. This angered the caller, who then rushed over to the field office. There, right in front of me, the branch manager was being yelled at. Yet even while being yelled at, he couldn’t stop sighing—"Haa," as if it were second nature.
It was such a bizarre sight that I actually found it a little amusing.
Do you even know what kind of stress the director is under?
From there, the negative comments escalated even further. “If you have time to call me, why don’t you clean up yourself?” he began, venting in a way that was utterly childish.
After being told things like that over and over again, I’d been putting up with it for so long, but I’ve finally reached my limit.
"If you hate your job that much and are always sighing, why don't you just find a new one? At the very least, your comments are making the people you work with feel negative too, so could you please stop saying things like that?" I said firmly.
When the director heard this from me—someone younger than him—he snapped back, “How could you possibly understand the stress a director goes through?” However, an employee from a partner company who had witnessed the exchange stepped in to mediate and offered a helping hand.
"This young person listened to your sighs and complaints day in and day out, yet never said a word and always stayed cheerful on the job. Isn’t creating a pleasant work environment where everyone can work comfortably together one of the most fundamental qualities expected of a branch manager?"
With those words, I felt all the stress I’d been carrying just melt away. The director seemed at a loss for words and simply said, “I’ll reflect on this.”
Three years have passed since then. The other day, I had a reason to visit that director’s worksite for the first time in a long while. She was still sighing, “Haa,” just as always, but she now had the composure to laugh it off, saying, “Oh, there goes that bad habit of mine.”
Now, the two of us can look back on that time and laugh about it. What the person from the partner company told me back then has been a source of strength for me ever since.
*Reprinted from "The God of Construction."
