(A little over a year after I started working there, the nature of my job changed, and I was no longer satisfied with it. I decided that working for Japanese companies was no longer for me and set my sights on becoming a secretary at a foreign-owned company.)
I could never fully understand, with my limited human mind, the plans God had for me. I believe that every Christian is led through different experiences and trained by God in different ways. In my case, I feel that most of my breaking and learning took place through my work and relationships with people in the workplace.
At that time, all I could think about was advancing my career. Perhaps, without even realizing it, I was trying to find my identity in my work. As I grew older and remained single, there were moments when I suddenly wondered what I existed for and for whom I was living. I was still running constantly, unable to stop and look around me.
When I first joined the company as a sales assistant, I was responsible for the American market. I handled international trade operations, including a moderate amount of shipping work, as well as translation and business correspondence in English.
I had never formally studied business correspondence, but at my previous company, I had learned by borrowing expressions from letters written by the secretary and other people, and that experience proved very useful.
When the company was preparing to launch a new game, I translated the proposal into English, and an American colleague used my translation as the basis for an English-language leaflet. When the game was unveiled to the public for the first time at a trade show, I felt almost as if I were sending my own child out into the world.
But those fulfilling days changed completely after about a year.
A woman who was responsible for the European market suddenly decided to leave the company, and the division manager told me about it only three days before her departure. After just a few hours of handover, I found myself responsible for all of her work as well.
Shipments to Europe were almost nonstop. Until then, I had found my work rewarding and had been able to work at a relatively comfortable pace, but suddenly every day became as hectic as a storm. The company decided not to hire anyone to replace her, so my workload tripled overnight. Even if I had ballpoint pen marks on my face or my hair was a mess, I had no time to look in the mirror. I spent my days almost as if I had given up being a woman altogether! 😅
One evening, I came home and said, “I’m home, Jesus. I’m exhausted!” I sat down, somehow ended up lying down, and fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up on the tatami mats, still exactly as I had been when I came home. This happened three days in a row.
The first two or three months, while I was getting used to the workload, were extremely demanding. Yet even during that time, Jesus was faithfully guiding me.
At the time, I had been deeply hurt by a personal matter. Under other circumstances, I might have spent my days crying, so in a way, it was good that my mind was completely occupied with work. Before I knew it, my wounded heart had healed.
After a while, I found various ways to streamline my work and was able to reduce the workload.
I had left my first company because an organizational restructuring had divided the work into smaller tasks and made my job monotonous. Now the same thing happened at this company.
Japanese companies tend to organize work so that it does not depend on one particular person and can continue smoothly no matter who takes over. As a result of another organizational change, the company decided to eliminate the sales assistant position.
My job was reduced to typing away like a machine gun, producing shipping documents one after another. I had worked in international trade for many years, and I was deeply disappointed—and my pride was hurt—to find myself sharing exactly the same work, side by side, with a young woman who knew nothing about international trade. If I ended up doing less challenging work, I felt there was no point in having changed jobs at all.
However, through my experience as a sales assistant, I had discovered something important about myself: I enjoyed supporting other people in their work, and I was good at it.
Without hesitation, I secretly made up my mind: I’m going to become a secretary—and I’m going back to a foreign-owned company.
I realized once again that, even if the environment was more demanding, a foreign-owned company would give me better opportunities to make use of my abilities than a comfortable Japanese company.
I may take a long time to think things over, but once I make up my mind, I act quickly. Without telling anyone at work, I enrolled in an evening secretarial school. I told my boss and colleagues that I was studying “to prepare for my old age.” 😅
I felt I was starting rather late to pursue a career as a secretary, but looking back, moving from international trade to sales support and then to secretarial work seems like a very natural progression.
Sometimes I sighed and wondered in the back of my mind, Why do I have to keep changing jobs? But all the while, God’s plan—a plan I could not yet see—was steadily unfolding.
(It was through the severe training God gave me at my next workplace that my wavering faith finally became firm. Amen.)
※これは30年以上前の出来事です。当時は現在とは転職事情も異なり、外資系秘書を養成する「秘書学校」もありました。私もそのような学校で秘書実務を学び、転職の準備をしました。
------ to be continued -----
p.s.
These testimonies are written in chronological order. Testimonies ①–④ tell how I came to faith in Christ, and the testimonies that follow describe my walk with Him. Please see the link below.
にほんブログ村
にほんブログ村
多言語学習ランキング
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