I have no idea how many times I have been asked to ‘trust’ my bosses at the English Village ‘just one last time.’ And I tardedly continue to give them multiple last times. I know I have mentioned in the past about how our driver thinks he is racing Honda 2000s on the streets of Tokyo. Most of the commute on my way to work is spent praying that the demons possessing our driver leave his body. And I also ask that when we do get into an accident that the driver get seriously injured and I not get hurt too badly. Yesterday during our meeting our boss ultimately said that our driver drives like Mario Andretti on crack because we are late to the bus stop some days. Then this morning the driver was literally at his worst. In spite he would accelerate quickly then slam on the brakes for no reason. And he was weaving in-and-out of traffic going 160km. It truly is terrifying. And to make it worse, it was raining. The old Korean ladies (affectionately called, ‘agimas’) make the foreigners sit in the back of the van and so when the dude goes over speed bumps he is going so fast we spring up and hit our heads on the roof. After doing that a couple of times one of our Irish yelled at him to slow down. After a couple of uplifting exchanges in Korean then Irish-English, the driver pulls over and tries to pull the Irish out of the back of the van. Luckily, the agimas red-rovered up a barricade blocking the insane driver from the Irish. Then when we finally got to the English Village the driver tried to fight the Irish guy again. He even took off his glasses! I couldn’t help but giggle at the Korean man with three Korean agima ordainment hanging onto him attempting to hold him back from our sturdy Irishman. We went to our main boss’ office and told him what happened and threatened not to come into work if he is driving. I felt like I was part of a Yankee’s union. But at least our threats weren’t ungrounded or our demands selfishly motivated. The best part was that our boss tried to defend the driver saying he was under a lot of stress. And to top it off, the stress was coming from having to drive… also called doing his job?
In .love.
Jp
I'm an Emergency Room Nurse & can definitely empathize. I give, give, give of myself and often get nothing in return. I tell newbies entering the profession - in order to survive, YOU must be the one to give YOURSELF a pat on the back. At the end of the day, you have to know that you made a difference and helped change lives. Most of what you do will go unrecognized. Here is a little saying a friend of mine posted on facebook. It's a bit exaggerated, but I like it none the less. "We the willing led by the unknowing are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."
ReplyDeleteWhoops, I meant to enter this on your last post. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was hard for me not to laugh. What an entertaining morning! Bring the driver cookies? Worth a try.
ReplyDeleteGood thing the old ladies were there to protect you, Powers...the driver may have been able to do harm :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a rough way to start a day! Try the whole "nice matters" thing...like Amanda said...bribery may work. It may win him over to your way of thinking:) Miss you, Justin!!!
ReplyDelete