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A Circus Behind Me

I wrote a strongly worded email to my boss this morning regarding one of my team members, who I strongly feel is being treated unfairly. I know that technically he’s being treated according to the rules of his contract, but I think the rules are unfair and I expressed that to my department manager.

I’ve always been strongly adverse to confrontation and tend to avoid it at all costs. But these days I find myself welcoming it more and more. Maybe part of it is age and maybe it could be late blooming maturity. One thing that I do know for sure is that when it comes to protecting and advocating for my team members my fear of confrontation starts to diminish.

Just like anyone, I’ve had confrontation thrust upon me over the years. My previous boss of over 10 years was particularly crotchety and regularly and randomly decided to start beefs with me. I think all those years of enduring her scolding and ranting and complaining toughened me up a little bit.

Fast forward to now and I have a boss who is very old school in his way of thinking about Japanese business culture. He’s only one year older than me though. It’s not like he’s some super old stubborn guy. He’s very by the book but also fair and reasonable. And it’s that by the book way that he does things that has resulted in one of my teammates being singled out for unfair treatment.

So I constructed a clear and concise paragraph in Japanese that stated my case. I ended by saying I don’t expect a response but I just wanted him to know what I think because it’s my duty to my teammates as their manager and team leader and also my responsibility to make sure my direct superior knows what kind of person I am through the way I think about these kinds of things.

As expected, less than an hour later my boss texted me and asked if he could call. We ended up talking for over an hour and a half, well into lunchtime. But it was worth it. Somehow I was able to negotiate a slightly better deal for my teammate and even got a win-win for my team as well as for my boss and our organization as a whole.

Osamu had a short day at kindergarten because it was the closing ceremony for the school year. Eri and Kenzo were out for the morning and picked up Osamu on their way home and arrived back as I was nearing the end of my negotiations with my boss upstairs in my office. As is often the case the boys were galactically hyper and Eri was pretty exhausted and a teeny bit irritated.

So there was a lot of laughing and yelling and screaming and other noises coming from downstairs and it was pretty loud. I fumbled with the mute button on my video call but it was pretty obvious to my boss that I had a circus going on behind me.

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