Wife Says”Thank You For Quitting!” To Me,laid Off At 59.later, Many Clients Contracts At The Company
Breaking the News
What should I tell my wife? I have to tell her anyway. My mind was racing as I drove home, wondering what I was going to tell my wife and whether I would cause her unnecessary worry.
“I’m home.”
“Welcome home. I’ve made dinner. I’ll get changed and be there right away.”
I returned home with a heavy heart and decided to talk to my wife about my firing during dinner.
“I have something important to tell you,” I explained.
“Has it anything to do with you feeling down when you got home today?”
“Yes. I have been laid off from my job.”
I couldn’t look my wife in the eyes as I spoke. I couldn’t help but look down, worried about how much I would disappoint her, when I heard a surprising response.
“I’m so happy you have left your company at last!”
I expected my wife to be worried about me, so I looked up in surprise when I heard her reply full of happiness.
“You’ve put in so much effort. Let’s take it easy from now on.”
When I looked at my wife’s face, she was smiling and seemed to be in a good mood, and my wife held no grudge against me for being fired.
Chaos at the Office
“Well, I’m off to work,” she said.
“Have a safe journey. I’m just going to get my stuff, and we’ll return early.”
I went to the office the next day to gather my belongings. The atmosphere in the office was unusual when I entered as usual. What is its identity? Who did it?
“What’s wrong with this client?”
“There’s a phone call for you, sir.”
“Another phone call!”
In these circumstances, when I arrived on my floor, the manager was in a panic.
“Um, what’s happened this morning?” I asked. “Why is the manager in a panic?”
“Well, I just heard that our major clients are calling to cancel their contracts one by one, and we don’t know why,” my colleague explained.
When I asked my colleague what was causing the brawl, he told me that there had been a string of cancellations by large clients today.
As a result, the person in charge of each major client was in constant contact, and the manager was frustrated because he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Even after noon, things had not improved. The number of contracts canceled had increased since the morning, and the general manager’s face was pale.
Despite the situation, I felt I had to make a final speech, so I approached the manager, but he said:
“I’m not in the mood for this right now. Can we finish this later?”
He brushed me aside, so I said my goodbyes to the other employees. While I was greeting them, the manager’s voice could still be heard echoing around the room.
“Are you in contact with them? There will be a significant loss if we get any more cancellations. Do you realize that if that happens, the first people to be fired will be those below you?”
“But I’ve been trying to contact my clients since this morning.”
“Then consider going directly to the company to apologize! You are completely useless. This is why you can’t get promoted. Please be more considerate in your work. If you are supposed to be in charge, you don’t need to be so harsh.”
“What is a problem? Are you going to talk back to me? Do it after you have solved this problem!”
The general manager continued cursing at his subordinates, switching targets one after the other. I couldn’t even say goodbye in such circumstances, so I quickly packed my belongings and returned home.
The Truth Revealed
“Well, since I’ve already been fired, there’s nothing I can do to find out why.”
When I told my wife about the situation at work, she laughed and said:
“Oh, your company? They actually had a lot of contracts with our group companies. My company, you see, owns a number of restaurants, so I had contracts with the company you worked for, but I canceled them all.”
“Why would you do such a thing? Are you sure it’s because I was laid off?”
“Well, that’s one reason, but I didn’t think much of your company in the first place. The salesmen were polite and nice, but when I went to the company for meetings, I got the impression that the company was not very open and the salesmen were only polite at first.”
“Oh, really?”
“So when I heard you were being laid off, I thought it would be a good opportunity. As a result, I canceled everything.”
In fact, my wife is the chairman of a holding company that owns and operates a number of well-known restaurants. The restaurants she manages had signed contracts with my company, but she didn’t think well of my company and took advantage of the opportunity to cancel them all at once.
I couldn’t conceal my surprise, but to be honest, I was relieved.
“It’s unfortunate that you had to leave your job due to the restructuring, but let’s take it easy from now on,” she said.
“I agree. It’s a little early for me, but I’ll take it easy.”
“Yes. You’ve worked so hard all along, and I’d like to spend some time with you. Now that I’m stepping down as chairman, I’ve already chosen my replacement.”
Despite being laid off, I had been with the company for 29 years and had enough savings, and my wife said that due to my early retirement, she will hand over the chairmanship to her successor. We entered into an early retirement and started spending our days leisurely.
