The Worst Worker in the Office Who Neutralized an Abusive Boss

Years ago, there was an incredibly difficult person at my workplace.

He was extremely short-tempered. He was always in a bad mood, and whenever something displeased him, he immediately started shouting. He was a classic workplace bully.

Everyone treated him with extreme caution. I wanted as little to do with him as possible.

And yet there was one man who was strangely friendly with him.

The two of them would go out for meals together—and the boss would even pick up the bill.

How could he be so comfortable around that man?

At first, I was puzzled. But as I watched the way he normally worked, I gradually began to understand why.

A Man Who Was Spectacularly Bad at His Job

He was, quite simply, terrible at his job.

He arrived late. He made mistakes. No matter how many times people corrected him, he made the same mistakes again.

Naturally, the boss in question shouted at him almost every day.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Sorry about thaaat. Heh heh.”

And that was the end of it.

Most people would feel crushed after being shouted at that much. They would feel angry, too, and dread seeing the same person again the next day.

But he was different.

No matter how much he was scolded, he did not seem to care at all. Within minutes, he was completely back to normal.

Then he would casually start a conversation with the person who had just screamed at him.

“I’m getting hungry. Let’s go get something to eat!”

Come on—had he already forgotten what had just happened?

And for some reason, the boss would actually go out to eat with him.

The rest of us took extraordinary care to avoid being shouted at, yet the man who was shouted at every day ended up becoming the boss’s friend. The world is a strange place.

People Without Pride Are Strong

Watching him made me realize something.

This man had no pride that could be wounded.

Ordinary working adults do not want others to think they are incompetent, and they become angry when someone treats them like fools.

That is precisely why being shouted at unfairly hurts.

But he made no attempt to hide the fact that he was bad at his job.

When he made a mistake, he apologized. When someone shouted at him, he bowed his head. And once the moment had passed, he behaved as though nothing had happened.

Perhaps he simply did not care how other people evaluated him.

When you think about it, that is an almost frightening kind of strength.

An abusive boss asserts power by making other people shrink back or feel defeated.

But that did not work on him.

No matter how often the boss shouted, the man would greet him with a smile the next day.

It was like punching a pillow.

Perhaps the boss eventually lost his appetite for hostility because he could get no lasting reaction at all.

I Thought People Like Him Existed Only in Manga

Characters like this often appear in manga and television dramas.

They fail at everything. They grin foolishly even when the boss shouts at them. They exasperate everyone around them, yet somehow nobody can hate them, and in the end, even the terrifying boss becomes fond of them.

They are the classic lovable screwup.

But you almost never meet someone like that in a real workplace.

At least in all my years of working, he is the only real example I have ever encountered.

If he were a manga character, I would want to protest, “No one that convenient could possibly exist.” But he was standing right in front of me, so there was no arguing with reality.

And unlike in manga, he never suddenly awakened his hidden potential and grew into a competent worker.

He remained a magnificent screwup until the very end.

Do Conscientious People Lose Out?

The more competent people are, the more they tend to care about how others evaluate them.

When they fail, they reflect on it. When they are scolded, they become discouraged. When they are treated unfairly, they worry about it.

But he carried none of those burdens.

He was shouted at every day, yet he seemed happy every day.

The people who had to cover for his mistakes must have found it unbearable. Even so, I was a little envious of his psychological resilience.

I have worked for many years myself, but I am not confident that I could remain so unaffected after being shouted at that much.

He was completely useless as a worker, but when it came to dealing with an abusive boss, he was better than anyone else in the office.

I doubt he was even aware that he was using any special survival strategy.

His ability to do the job was at the lowest level. His ability to survive in the workplace was at the highest.

Watching him made me think about what abilities people truly need to survive working life.

Then again, if you asked whether I wanted to become like him, I would have difficulty saying yes.

If anyone knows how to copy only his mental resilience without copying his job performance, please tell me.