This time, we have Murakami Isao, nicknamed Maro, the leader of the quality control check team.
At first glance, he appears to be a quiet person, but when you actually talk to him, he is indeed quiet.
He's so quiet that you often find him there without even realizing it. However, I want to find out more about him, who has been a part of the check team since he first joined the company, with such passion.
A man born to check things out
"Marocheck" doesn't miss even a 1px misalignment. It compares the design and coding pages with a keen eye.
I remember meeting him way back in 2008. At that time, I was also working on the check team, and my boss told me,
"I think there'll be a boring guy sitting next to you this Saturday who you don't know, Kato-chan, but don't worry about it. He knows Hayashi-san, though."
I had heard the rumor before.
I was a little nervous when I arrived at work, wondering if he knew the president. The man was quietly sitting next to me and greeted me with a kind smile.
We exchanged greetings, but I remember that I had a hard time understanding what he was saying because he spoke so quickly and slurred speech.
Initially, he had planned to study to become a coder, but he was assigned to the department that was the forerunner of the current checking team, and now he has been working solely in checking for eight years.
The members of the checking team at that time, including myself, expanded their sphere of activity to include directors, sales, and other departments, but he was the only one who remained in checking.
Although he felt sad when the members left, he remained on his path, thinking, "I'm the one best suited to checking. Now that the original members are gone, there are things that only I can do."
Monosus' checks wouldn't be possible without Murakami! His checks are so detailed that they are feared and known as "Maro Checks."
He doesn't miss even a single pixel of misalignment, and even he himself says that he is "nitpicking every little detail," but it seems that checking is his calling.
When I asked her why she likes checks so much, she said,
"I've always loved playing pranks and finding differences. I'm overflowing with determination to find something."
Several years have passed since then, and now I spend my days supporting my team members as a leader of about 10 members.
Tracing the origins of Maro
He was born in Kumamoto and is the eldest of four siblings. As a child, he was shy and would cry easily, and had a hard time leaving his mother.
People around her said she looked half-Japanese, and she actually had a reputation for being cute.
He has no memory of ever studying hard, and was an intelligent boy who would say that "studying is my hobby." After graduating from an all-boys school, he took a year off before entering a university in Kyoto.
Murakami has a strong desire for knowledge and loves books. He is currently the chairman of the Monosus Library.
There, for better or worse, I met the company's president, Hayashi, who would change my life forever.
As he began to talk about that time, he suddenly became quite talkative, albeit in a somewhat pompous tone, and began to describe what it was like back then.
Normally, Hayashi and Murakami would be classmates. Unfortunately, Murakami had taken a year off, so Hayashi reigned supreme as a senior in the glee club (male choir) that they belonged to.
The club practices five days a week and is a male-dominated club with strict hierarchical relationships. After one of the frequent serious meetings, a senior member of the club spoke these words to lighten the mood.
That
"You look like Maro."
Maro was a name used as a male name by nobles and others in the past, and Maro is certainly "Maro".
Thus was born the nickname "Maro," which is familiar to everyone from newcomers to veterans.
An interesting story about Hayashi from that time.
The first thing he said was, "Hayashi-san made me cry a lot."
Apparently he was really in tears.
At auditions to perform in regular concerts, despite high expectations, she was unable to sing well and was scolded by Hayashi again and again.
However, at that time, Hayashi stayed at the boarding house where he was living, and he practiced with him until he passed, and even cooked pasta for him.
Even in such a strict environment, a loving relationship between seniors and juniors was forged that continues to this day.
Time passed, and after graduating from college, he was still drifting around for a few years.
It was Hayashi who asked me, "Why don't you come to Tokyo?" I can't thank him enough.
Murakami (right) shows off his beautiful voice at Christmas . He also sings birthday songs for members on their birthdays.
The most appreciated man
At Monosus, a morning assembly is held every morning.
Each member takes turns hosting the show, and during the show there is a segment called "This Month's Gratitude" where the host expresses gratitude to the person they most want to thank at the moment.
In a special edition of the Monosus Awards ( article published 12/28/2015 ) held at last year's year-end party, the person who had been most thanked over the past year was announced, and it turns out that Murakami was the person who was thanked the most over the years.
Murakami, the most appreciated man of 2015. Red roses look great on him.
Especially last year, he was often seen giving all his effort to support team members who were struggling to cope.
When a member is in trouble, he quietly stands behind them and whispers to them.
I think most of the team members thanked me for this.
But on the other hand, he says he receives a lot of help from his fellow members.
Sometimes, when there is a lot of work to do, he will sacrifice sleep, stay up all night and even come in on weekends, so much so that not a day goes by when we don't see Murakami, it almost seems like he lives in the office.
When he gets busy, the PC monitor is lined with post-it notes with tasks written on them, making him look like an animal spying on the grass.
Seeing Murakami's beard growing and him losing weight because he isn't eating, his team members are always concerned about their leader's health and always provide support.
"You're too kind."
The members support Murakami, who is often teased by those around him, to the point that even Murakami himself says,
There we see a team that comes together and demonstrates its power when the time comes.
This could be seen as a new image of leadership that has been implicitly created.
The future of Murakami is,
"I want to have more interaction with my team members and be more proactive.
I also want to make this a check team that can take on projects with even more autonomy than it does now."
He told me:
In Monosus, Murakami and I have an established relationship as the funny man and the straight man, but by talking to him for a long time for the first time in a while, I was able to get to know different sides of him.
lastly,
"The truth is, I'm originally a person who likes to be the center of attention."
Although I couldn't hide my surprise at what he said, there were many parts that made me think, "I see," and I would like to convey that, strangely, it all made sense to me.
If you have the opportunity, please consider ordering a birthday song for him.
I'm sure she'll practice properly beforehand and deliver a beautiful voice to you.