Lost

Chapter 14 Isamu

Two months later...

"Make sure we are really motivating the employees before work, that's vital to the success of the company. The line will move much better if the employees are in a good mood and most importantly, they will work better together. If there is anything employees need we have to be granting it to the best of our ability. We've seen production increase exponentially since we've changed our approach to how factories are run. By combining the Japanese way and American way, we produced the best of both worlds."

"I agree. It's different and some of the employees are still hesitant to the change but so far so good. Our next line of business is taking care of any issues employees are dealing with, most of them are looking for places to take their children when they go to work", one employee said.

"That line of business is definitely a priority. Work shouldn't feel like work, especially when a large chunk of your day is taken away from your personal life. That's why I need all of your help in designing a way to make work feel like home. All ideas are welcome. I believe this will be one of the major attributes to building greater productivity."

"I'm on it", Stacy said as she shot up her hand. "I've had ideas for a long time of how to combine childcare and work, I'll just need everyone's help of course.

I hired her on board a while ago at Jackie's request. She is a phenomenal employee and leader. Any friend of Jackie's is a friend of mine so it was no problem for me to help her out taking her away from a job she didn't like. Here she feels more at home, I saw the difference right away. 

I could see smiles and excitement from all of my employees. It's something I never got to see from my parent's workspace. I swore to myself I would walk a different path, a better one. Just like they said, I am CEO material but I refuse to be the type why parents want me to be. 

Work hasn't been the only change in my life, I've also been working on myself too which is one of the most important things of all. I wish I could take it all back that night so Jackie could not have seen me like that but they do say things happen for a reason. I just hate the fact I scared her, I scared myself. I felt so sure I was ready to end things but deep down the real me knew I had something better out there, I just had to wait. I wish I was able to see the future, if I did then I would have never attempted such a thing, not that night or the previous times before that. It's hard though when your life is so bad. People always tell you things will get better with the best intentions but it's hard to see that when time and time again life feels like it's reminding you that you're forever stuck, that you'll always be lost. 

I felt lost for so many years that I gave up finding myself until I met Jackie. Even then I felt like I wasn't good enough or I might even turn into my parents and drag her down. I now know that's far from the truth, we've been working hard to lift each other. She really has lifted me up, I owe her the world for what she's done for me. I work hard to give her everything she wants but still, she reminds me how humble she is. I'm lucky. No, more than that, I'm truly blessed to have her in my life. When I come in to work she's right there working the front desk with such confidence. Everyone loves her. She always comes in with an optimistic attitude that's needed in any type of business setting. If anyone has any problems, she's the one to talk to and makes everyone feel like everything going to be okay. 

It's because of her that I made it the utmost importance to focus on mental health not only for myself but for my employees as well. Like I said, I don't want it to feel like a work atmosphere here, I want it to feel like family. No hiding your problems, stress, or anything like that. That's why we are one of the top companies to have zero turnover. Applications are constantly piling up from people all over to come to work for us. I hope to lead as an example of how to run any type of business, it's time for a major change. I'm just one of many who are the result of poor work environments, broken households, and stress.