We met in early spring a few years ago. A petite woman was sitting next to the leader who had interviewed me. She had straight hair reminiscent of a Japanese doll, and was dressed in a natural but not too casual outfit. She had her hands folded on her lap and was smiling lightly as she listened to the explanation of who I would be joining the company.
(So this cute girl is my senior...)
That was my first impression of Matsubara.
On the first day, I was given a tour of the company while also visiting each floor to say hello.
"This is the main conference room."
The room I was shown to on the second floor had a waist-high window covering an entire wall, from which I could see people working in the neighboring building.
"This is the roof."
Yes, the view that was shown was of the roof of the first floor.
"You'll understand if you see it."
If it were now, I would have immediately said so, but it was our first meeting. There was just an awkward atmosphere between the two of us. I heard later that it was her first time having a junior, and she was nervous.
The roof was introduced in the introduction when I joined the company. There is nothing special about it except that it is covered in glass. I sometimes encounter cats through the window.
In fact, this episode may (or may not) represent her character, which is to do each thing carefully and in an orderly manner.
Many of the tools that we coders use on a daily basis are the result of her hard work. These include the "Responsive Site Submission Guide" for customers, training tools for new employees, and coding tool collections. These are still in use today.
But it's not just tools. Her abilities are also fully demonstrated in terms of human resource development. Until now, new employees were trained one-on-one by senior employees, but for the past few years, she has been the "New Employee Training Committee Chairperson" and has been looking after multiple employees at once. New coders cannot make their debut on a project unless they receive the "Matsubara Seal" seal of approval.
He also has the wonderful quality of being good at finding the good in people. However, sometimes he says too much, and it seems that the high reviews he receives can become a hurdle for him...
Answering questions from new employees.
Neat
"I want to be neat" and "I'm a serious person."
This is a word that Matsubara often uses when talking about himself.
For example, although employees are free to drink as much coffee as they like at work, he only drinks one cup a day because he feels it would be too polite.
He always participates in the monthly reading group held by volunteers within the company. Even if he is busy with projects, he rarely misses it. He often reads business books and self-help books. His book selection is said to be interesting among the reading group members.
When taking notes, rotate the paper 45 degrees and write horizontal characters vertically. This is apparently the trick to writing without crooked characters. By the way, I'm the type who scribbles notes on a simple notebook made from the back of a misprinted paper and throws it away when I'm done with it. I type things I want to keep, so it's not a problem, but even so, when I can't decipher what I've written, I follow Matsubara's example and realize the importance of putting my soul into each and every character.
Writing with the paper rotated 45 degrees. The hand gripping the pen is firm as the writer writes firmly.
[Proper Part 1] Matsubara's notebook. He keeps a record of his progress every day, as well as notes on the contents of meetings and things he wants to try in the future.
They also have a high ability to sense danger.
Even if I just slammed the bathroom door open and came out without thinking, Matsubara, who was looking for something on the shelf in front of the door, had anticipated this and positioned himself so as not to bump into me.
And when I spill coffee on my keyboard, he says, "I knew you would."
Why can I see so many different things?
The reason, he said, was "because I'm worried."
[Neatness #2] The inside of the drawer is also neatly organized. The round can in the foreground is my favorite Steam Cream.
[Neatness No. 3] Matsubara's neatly peeled mandarins. They are spread out like an exploded view, so you can pick out and eat one at a time.
worrier?
One evening, Matsubara-san was called into the conference room by his boss, but he took a long time to come out. When he finally returned, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Are you crying?!
I don't think she was crying. Her eyes were red and her nose was running, which was unkindly reminiscent of the White Rabbit.
There was no sound around her, just a murmur in the air. Without even a glance at the situation, she sat down at her desk, put on headphones, and began typing on her PC at a high speed. It was as if she embodied the idea of "working without looking back."
The reason for her tears was me. Worried about me being put in charge of multiple projects despite being a new employee, my mentor spoke directly to my boss. As a result, she was overcome with emotion and burst into tears. In the end, the matter was resolved as she was "overly worried," but I feel like I saw her crying a few times after that.
The Four Heavenly Kings, and...
Despite this, Matsubara holds an unexpected title within Monosus.
They are the "Four Heavenly Kings of Drunkards."
This is a story from when she was drinking with Nakaniwa-san, one of the four heavenly kings, at a bar. Apparently, the two of them fell asleep. The seats were in a tatami room that jutted out onto the road. Since she was lying down right next to people walking by, an unfamiliar man woke her up, saying, "You're in danger, lady."
This incident has become a legendary story, with people saying, "It's impossible for two people to be drinking together and fall asleep together."
Sometimes he drinks alone, not just with someone else. He also likes to drink alone at the counter of an izakaya.
There are many other heroic tales involving alcohol, but unfortunately I cannot write them all here, so I will leave it to your imagination.
Another surprising thing about him is that he's a huge gamer.
He is the person who made "Ingress" popular within the coding team.
"Ingress" is a smartphone game that uses Google Maps' location information technology. In a virtual space mapped to the real world, players are divided into two camps and battle for territory. It's like orienteering across the world. At one point, it was so popular that half of the coding team was hooked.
The monument to the "Place where Katai Tayama died" on the left side of the entrance to Monosus is also registered as an "Ingress" base. Of course, thanks to our dedicated defense and recapture, it was shining a beautiful blue at the time. (Because the team color of the "Resistance" camp to which I belonged was blue.)
Ingress screen from "The Place Where Katai Tayama Ended"
However, he quickly gets bored of games. He says he is "always chasing the latest trends," and Ingress is no exception. He said he could "play just this for the whole year," but by the time the seasons changed, he was no longer seen walking around the Yoyogi area during his lunch break.
"I can understand why Nasu would play games, but Matsubara is surprising."
I was once told this by someone at work. What those words meant was, in the end, the difference in feminine power.
She regularly reapplies hand cream while at work, her nails always have some sort of colour or pattern on them, and she cooks fancy meals to go with her drinks every night.
"Woman's intuition" and "a girl's wavering heart" are phrases that pop up regularly during meetings. It's not something she says herself, but rather it's how those around her interpret her words and actions.
A stylish snack created by Matsubara
And yet, he looks like a grown-up Zashiki-warashi or Chibi Maruko-chan. If you button up the shirt all the way to the top, you'll look even more like an elementary school kid.
This strange character, a mix of a "girl" and a "woman", is probably why they are called "maidens", but I affectionately call them "scheming maiden characters". In my heart, of course.
For example, when we decided on the team's policy together. The content of the plan, which we called "Operation Bishi Bashi," was that I, as the vice-team leader, would discipline my team members. When I announced this policy at a regular team meeting, I was told after the meeting that the plan was "If I'm kind to the team members who are treated harshly by Nasu-san, then I'll be more popular" (laughs).
By the way, the most recent sly phrase I heard was, "I can pretend to be a good person for a month." This was uttered by a colleague from Monosus Thailand when he came on a business trip.
To sum up:
In this way, while we have no shortage of material to introduce, my honest impression is that there are so many different elements mixed together that it's hard to keep track of. Mysterious? Natural? No, maybe it's all just clever self-branding.
But I want to believe that the tears you shed for me then were genuine.
Come to think of it, I haven't seen her cry recently. The new coders she trained have grown up quickly and become valuable assets, but in the same way, she too must be constantly shedding her old skin.
Even though I am his junior, I find myself thinking such things disrespectfully because Mr. Matsubara is a wonderful person. So, I feel like saying something rude to him.
And in the hopes of making comments that would be nothing but poisonous if made by someone else, I will spill my coffee again today or drop something in the same place multiple times.
I hope that you will continue to bring healing and prosperity to everyone as Monosus' Zashiki-warashi.
モノサスアーカイブ