Do you think I am too strict?

» 2015/01/29

There is an expression in Japan that originally came from China 「画竜点睛を欠く」meaning, "the painted dragon that is missing irises and pupils." A beautifully drawn picture of a dragon without irises and pupils, is used as an idiom to mean a lousy finish can ruin everything.

At e-Jan, we have a reporting system called the Daily Report (DR), and the people who work here are supposed to write up a report and send it via email, following a certain structure. It is required to have the subject of the DR in a certain form such as "DR20150121Shiro", showing the date and the name of the issuer.

If the structure of the DR email subject is not followed properly, the automated DR gathering system will not collect the email. The automated system is used to help me create the morning mail, so the next morning, the corresponding DR would be overlooked. It means the person's work day was not reported properly and therefore will not get any comments from me. I have brought the mistakes to the workers' attention so many people who used to fail to issue it properly, have managed to pay attention to the right structure.

I personally think being strict is necessary since this is an educational process, to put irises and pupils in the painted dragon, or to finish things up precisely. It is a simple lesson to learn that even a single mistake might ruin something very important. It is a matter of making it a habit to do something right from start to finish, and not "slack off" near the end.