| Inventor: The Shredder | |
March 8, 2015
|
|
| A man in his middle forties came to the inventor's office and started to tell his concerns: He was a skillful business man (he said so) and very busy every day. Recently he feared that he would die early because of his hard work. He had dark marks under his eyes. The inventor asked, "Are your co-workers also busy like you?" The guy replied, "No. It's one of the reason I am busy. I don't like to say this, but, they don't work hard so I have to fill the gap. They look to be satisfied with their present positions." The inventor asked, "How is your boss?" He replied, "My boss is a good person. He is also a hard worker. I respect him. But, I have to say he is a little bit lenient to my colleagues. I'm working hard because I like my company. Am I a bad worker?" The inventor replied, "I'm sorry but I'm not a counselor, so I don't know." He told him he would try to make something for him so come back again one week later. One week later, he came back to the inventor's office. The inventor showed him a gadget that he invented. The man looked suspicious. It looked just like a paper shredding machine. With a smirk, he said, "I hope you don't want me to simply shred my office documents so that I can't work. In that case, I will be fired!" The inventor looked uneasy but started to explain how to use this machine. The next day, early in the morning, the guy was at his company. There were no other
But, this time, he took the paper shredder-like machine from his bag and put it on his desk. He switched it on and inserted the paper into the opening slot, soon, the paper went in and was shredded. Then, another A4 paper came out from the bottom of the machine. He took it and started to read. Surprisingly, there were only 8 jobs on the piece of paper. Amazingly, it was in the same handwriting as he wrote a minute ago. The difference being that 8 jobs were omitted, and the other 8 were rearranged on the paper. So he couldn't easily tell which were omitted, although the machine judged which were more important than the others. He put the paper on the wall. He happily went to the coffee maker for a break. Thanks to this machine, on this day, he didn't do any over-time work for the first time in a year. He stopped by the bookstore and bought some books which he had wanted to read in his free time. One week passed. Early one morning at his office, before starting to write the day's schedule, he pushed the 'omitting data' button on the machine. Soon, a printed paper appeared. He read, "'The list of the jobs that were omitted this week.'" He read over the list. All the omitted jobs looked totally unimportant. He was satisfied with the results. The tasks may have been done; but, maybe, may not have been done. But more importantly, the machine gratefully reduced his workload. Another one week past. When he checked his 'omitting data', he became pale. There was a very important meeting with an important customer. As soon as his boss came to the office, he fearfully asked, "Did the meeting on Friday go well? I might have skipped it …" The boss showed an uneasy look for a second but made a slight smile and said, "You looked busy at the time so I asked John to attend it instead. He managed to treat the meeting well… making up your place. To tell the truth, I hadn't had any idea he could do this good." The guy apologized to his boss, but the boss said, "This might have been a good chance. We might have been depending on you too much. I need to say sorry to you. You can take any day off for refreshment. You probably haven't taken vacation for more than a half year." After work, he was driving to the inventor's office. He was furious. He was even thinking to sue the inventor. His company almost lost an important customer. He thought, "My boss said, John successfully filled in for me. It means my boss won't need me anymore and John might be promoted before me?" When he got to the inventor's office and parked his car in the parking lot, he remembered that his boss said that he may take any day off, even for a week or two for refreshment. He had thought at first it was sarcastic. "But, was it gratitude to me? Was my boss caring for my health?" After all, he didn't go to the inventor's office; but, instead, went to the travel agency. |
|
| |
*skillful 優れた
*mark あざ
*fill 埋める
*satisfy 満足する
*lenient 甘い
*shred シュレッドする
*routine 日課
*task 仕事
*amazingly 立派に
*omit 省く
*break 一休み
*which ~の
*result 結果
*pale 蒼白の
*fearfully おそるおそる
*skip 飛ばす
*uneasy 困った
*to tell you the truth 実をいうと
*depend on 頼る
*promote 昇進する
*sarcastic 皮肉の
*gratitude 感謝
*care 気にする
*agency 会社