Never Make Decisions When Angry

The period before the New Year is peak season for liquor sales, and every packaging supplier’s production schedule is stretched to the limit. Yesterday, one supplier delayed a batch of bottle labels that should have been delivered to us by one day. My boss tore into me over the phone, warning that if the distributor refused the goods, I’d be held jointly liable and would have to compensate the company out of my own pocket. This wasn’t the first time he’d said something like this. At the end of 2014, he unilaterally changed the 400-number on a batch of distributor-customized products to the company’s number. The distributor didn’t notice the change during text review and approved printing. When the goods were delivered, the distributor was furious. My boss called me and demanded I pay for it. Fortunately, to guard against sleazy behavior, I’d been recording all my calls for the entire year and regularly backing them up to Dropbox. Hearing the baseless accusation, I told him not to judge me so rashly — let me check the archives first. An hour later, I sent both him and the distributor a phone recording and message log from when the distributor confirmed the production, which completely shut them up. After that incident, I gained a clear understanding of our boss’s character: he’s the kind of selfish person who, when things get urgent, doesn’t bother figuring out what happened, washes his hands of his own responsibility, and dumps everything on someone else.

But I didn’t quit. First, I needed to earn his money. Second, I didn’t believe that simply leaving one place would lead to paradise — every place has its own frustrations.

So when I received a phone call with the exact same tone yesterday, ten thousand curse words ran through my mind. But I said nothing. Perhaps I was too angry to speak — I just hung up after he finished his tirade. Afterward, just like last time, I pulled up the production contract for the customer’s custom products. The contract clearly stated: “Goods must be shipped within 35 days after the advance payment is received, otherwise Party B shall compensate Party A 3% of the total payment amount per day.” Even with the one-day delay, we were still well within 23 days — no breach of contract whatsoever. If they pushed me, I could delay shipment until after the New Year and still not be in violation!

Right there in the office, in front of my colleagues, I secretly cursed out my boss for not following the contract and falsely reporting shipments to the client. But I still didn’t feel satisfied. Talking behind someone’s back isn’t honorable — I had to confront him directly. So I pulled out my phone, found his number, and called. Today he’d better explain to me, point by point, exactly why I should pay. Worst case, I quit!

At that moment, Teacher Wei was standing behind me and said slowly: “Why call? You’re both still angry…”

Suddenly it felt like someone had pointed out the way through the darkness. I hung up the phone immediately. He was fundamentally a person with that kind of deeply ingrained, gutter-level character and worldview. And I needed my year-end bonus in ten days…

So, never make decisions when you’re angry. Or, go to 51job.com.