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The other day, the president of a construction company told me a story about a young employee who resigned. It was quite an interesting story, so I\u2019d like to share it here. I\u2019ve edited it slightly, but it\u2019s, of course, a true story.<\/p>\n
The employee who quit was Employee A, who had been with the company for about five years and was around 24 years old. He had originally joined as a laborer, but we had entrusted him with ICT duties and site supervision.<\/p>\n
He was a \u201chigh-achiever\u201d who worked with enthusiasm, always looking things up on his own when he didn\u2019t understand something. He even served as an instructor for the prefecture\u2019s ICT implementation training program. As a young person skilled in both on-site work and ICT, he was a special asset to our company.<\/p>\n
However, there was a problem. He was a chronic latecomer and truant. It was so bad that I decided to keep track of just how often A-kun was late. As a result, I found that over a four-month period, he had been late for three months and three weeks.<\/p>\n
In other words, there was only one week during which he didn't arrive late or miss work.<\/p>\n
It just kept getting wild from there. A-kun said, \u201cI\u2019m not feeling well,\u201d and took a week off. Right after that, he skipped work for another week without permission.<\/p>\n
Thinking, \u201cThis won\u2019t do,\u201d I called both A and his mother into the office. His mother knew that A had been absent from work, but she didn\u2019t know he had been coming in late.<\/p>\n
So, we talked about all sorts of things, but then A said something that made me think I was hearing things.<\/p>\n
\"I don't want to be a laborer or a supervisor. If I can just work on the computer, I'd be willing to stay at the company and do that,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Hearing those words, I was convinced that he believed, \u201cIf I were to leave, the company would be in trouble, so they\u2019ll never let me quit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even my mom was stunned by those words. When I asked her, \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d she said, \u201cIf it were me, I\u2019d fire him.\u201d \u201cExactly,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
The moment he heard this exchange, A\u2019s expression changed. He looked as if to say, \u201cWait, are you seriously thinking of quitting?\u201d<\/p>\n
So I asked A, \u201cAre you going to actually come to work?\u201d His mother tried to persuade him, saying, \u201cThe boss isn\u2019t a monster. If you tell him you\u2019ll actually come to work, he\u2019ll keep you on. Just tell him, \u2018I\u2019ll actually come to work.\u2019\u201d However, when he heard that, A replied, \u201cForget it. I\u2019m quitting. I\u2019m done with this.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I quit.<\/p>\n
Besides being late and missing work, there were other problems. A-kun also lied a lot. Plus, he had a bad attitude. Even when he skipped work for three days without permission, he acted as if nothing had happened. Naturally, he never apologized.<\/p>\n
He never showed up at the worksite, told lies, and had a bad attitude, so he was disliked by the people there.<\/p>\n
Looking back now, what I regret is that \u201cI led A-kun to misunderstand.\u201d<\/p>\n
That concludes the president's remarks.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a saying out there: \u201cTurn what you love into your job.\u201d A probably had moments when he felt he\u2019d succeeded in doing just that. However, if there was one misconception A had, it was likely that he tried to \u201cmake only the things he loved his job.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a saying that \u201cthe world is built on misunderstandings,\u201d so you can\u2019t say that misunderstandings are always a bad thing. However, even in this day and age when diverse work styles are being celebrated, as a salaried employee, I don\u2019t think this excuse would fly.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure if A-kun himself was just a special case or if young people these days are more or less like this, but I think it\u2019s important for the civil engineering industry to keep in the back of their minds that \u201cthere might be young people like this out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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