Super unfriendly right from the first impression
This is the story of an absolutely outrageous client I encountered at the construction site where I, then 28 years old, served as site manager for the first time.
It was the day we won the bid for the project and went with my boss to meet the person in charge. When we arrived at City Hall, the section chief and the person in charge from the relevant department were there to greet us. After exchanging business cards, we had a brief meeting to discuss the project, but I felt something was off at that moment.
Their attitude seems strange—but only toward me.
When talking to my boss, he nods along and seems friendly, but the moment I start speaking, his attitude changes completely. He stops nodding and just stares silently at the documents. The courtesy call ended amid this strange atmosphere.
Construction began, and relations deteriorated further
Once the construction work began, their attitude toward me got even worse.
First, when I called to arrange a site visit, I was told, “I’m busy right now, so I’ll check my schedule and call you back.” I didn’t hear from them for two or three days, and when I contacted them again, they hung up on me after saying, in a very annoyed tone, “I’ll be there tomorrow,” and that was it.
On another occasion, just because I arrived at the site a little late due to a prior commitment, I was told in a sarcastic tone, “If you don’t get to the site earlier, we have work to do, too.”
I was actually getting quite angry inside, but for the sake of the company, I held my tongue and kept the construction project moving forward.
An Unforgivable Incident Has Occurred
One day, a discrepancy between the actual conditions on site and the blueprints arose, and we found ourselves in a situation where construction could not proceed without confirmation from the client. Reluctantly, I contacted the client to ask them to come to the site to verify the situation and to provide instructions.
Then I was asked, “Are you drafting the agreement? Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?” I replied, “I will draft the agreement, but since I’m still new to this, I’d like to meet on-site first to discuss what should be included in the agreement.”
In the end, the caller hung up on me in a huff, and the client arrived at the site an hour later.
As soon as he saw me, he snapped, “You don’t even know that?” That was the last straw—I’d been holding back until then, but I’d finally reached my limit, so I fired back with this bold retort.
"With all due respect, I've been feeling uncomfortable with Mr./Ms. ○○'s attitude for some time now. I understand that, as someone with limited experience, I may have my shortcomings, but aren't on-site meetings part of the job? If you don't like me, why don't you speak directly to our supervisor and ask them to replace the site representative?"
Apparently, he hadn't expected to be challenged, so the person in charge was taken aback and stood there frozen.
Then, as if flipping a switch, he cheerfully said, “Let’s have a meeting.” I felt frustrated and angry, but since I’d been able to say what I wanted to say and felt relieved, I managed to hold back my emotions.
The client is the customer, but…
In the context of civil engineering projects, the client is certainly the customer. However, unlike construction projects where there is a private client, the underlying concept here is that we are working together to build and manage public infrastructure.
Unless we work together to move the construction project forward, we’ll never be able to produce a quality result.
I think this is a rare case (and I hope it remains so), but I realize in hindsight that if the relationship of trust with the client had already broken down, we should have had a proper discussion before work began on site.
If there’s something on your mind—even if it’s hard to bring up—it’s important to speak up and ask questions face-to-face. I believe we must never allow the workplace to be swayed solely by one person’s mood.
If something's wrong, it's wrong.
“I wonder if there are others out there who, just because they’re ”young,” have been treated unfairly the same way I was.
It’s not just this time—there have been other occasions when I reported such unreasonable incidents to my boss, only to be told, “Isn’t your attitude part of the problem?”
However, no matter how humble I am or how much I try to consider the other person’s feelings, there are still plenty of people who act unreasonably or aggressively toward me.
In that case, is it really us—who haven’t done anything wrong—who have to put up with it?
I don't think that's the case. Even if they're young or inexperienced, there are plenty of people who are working hard to contribute on the job.
People who haven’t done anything wrong don’t need to put up with it. Sometimes, it takes courage to speak up and say, “What’s wrong is wrong.”
