THE AUTHOR, THE AFTERWORD, AND YOU!

I think the manager at a part-time job is, to a lot of people, the first real grown-up you encounter in your life apart from parents and teachers. For many students taking jobs, I’d say the “manager” is the first person who gives you orders from above that you generally can’t rebel against, unlike parents or teachers—and even worse, they usually don’t even attempt to get on your good side. Seeing a manager working as the main person at a store or business, perhaps my parents thought to themselves, “Maybe this is what working at an office is like,” or “Will it be like this for me when I get a job?” or “I want to/don’t want to be like that.”

To me, Wagahara, there are three “managers” in my life I’ll never forget.

One was the manager at a big izakaya chain located in a busy neighborhood. Managers at chains like these have really gone through a gauntlet, some of them completely worn down by it, but this one still had his natural freshness and friendliness intact. Clearly, he had talent, head and shoulders above the rest. He was good at remembering the names of management executives and part-timers, and even when he had to work a kitchen and a 300-seat space two days in a row with a staff of just six people, he simply said:

“Okay, let’s kick this track meet off!”

…and that was enough to motivate you to join him. You could say he was a natural-born con man along those lines.

The second one was the manager of a diner I worked at during college. “If you want a career, stay out of restaurants” was a favorite phrase of his; he constantly bitched about his pay and treatment. But strangely enough, he was always thorough in his work, good with customers, and had a great staff retention rate. Sometimes he’d be so exhausted that I’d find him lying upside down, asleep in the broom closet–sized changing room we had. I am thus pretty sure he really did hate his job, but he was definitely suited for the industry. Your talents and your preferences really can exist in different dimensions, and this was my first case study in that.

The third is the manager of an izakaya that I’m still in touch with. He’s an ex–rugby player with the most solid body I’ve ever seen on a man. The kind of man who can catch types A and B influenza without noticing; the type of man who can eat a roasted mackerel and leave absolutely nothing on the plate. In other words, a man with really weird superpowers.

The way he lives has really taught me that in the end, your body is the greatest asset you have in life. Mine could never be as robust as his, but another reason I put him in the top three most unforgettable managers is that we just get along so well. I honestly see myself being him in another twenty years.

This book is all about people working hard around their managers, a presence many people never forget their whole lives.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is now at Volume 18. I think we’re starting to see a climax coming, but not even I know what that will look like until I’m done writing it. What kind of conclusion is awaiting us? Is it really good for a book’s theme to be “The Manager at My Part-Time Job” when we’re talking about the ending to the series? Only the author (and his readers) of the future will know!

Regardless, I’ll see you in the next volume!