16. LAWLESSNESS GALORE (YEAR 1972)

STRESS, SUCCESS AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN

The Highs and Lows of A Woman’s Journey in the Corporate World

CARE: This is Chapter 16 of my book Stress, Success and Everything In-Between. These are individual anecdotes but to understand the professional journey in totality, I would recommend reading the book from Chapter 01 onwards.

Soon, it was time to move over to the next branch for on-the-job training, and I landed up at a Branch located in a posh residential colony in Kanpur, where I had the first-hand experience of the lawlessness of the employees. 

As soon as I reported there, the Branch Manager instructed the messenger to set up a table and a chair in his chamber for my use. I objected to this decision, saying I needed to do on-the-job training by working at the counters like everyone else. He then told me seriously that Head Office had made a mistake in posting me in that branch as this branch was not the right choice for a female employee. He further added I was the only woman in the set-up, and the environment in the banking hall wasn't congenial for me. He assured me that everything I was to learn would come to my table in his room. It was yet another reminder that women were weak and needed special treatment. Unfortunately, this branch also had a reputation for extremely poor industrial relations.

I wasn't happy with this patronising but was compelled to accept his decision. Like the Lucknow branch staff, employees here also had the habit of leaving work incomplete in the evening, and no officer dared to confront them. They would hold on to the registers and the ledgers till 5pm, gossip and sip tea, but would not complete the work. And then at 5pm sharp, they left the office citing work to rule. It is then that all the half-written account books were piled on my table for completion. It seemed I was there to do all the work maliciously left  unfinished. The positive side was that I got to write all the books, ledgers and registers of the Bank and learnt a lot in the process.

At the beginning of the next month, the Charges Clerk at the branch prepared overtime payments for all the employees despite explicit instructions from the Head Office for not making any overtime payments. The Branch Manager refused to pass the voucher. It was already 2 p.m., the time to stop transactions. Suddenly, all the employees stormed into the Branch Manager's room, surrounded him and tried to pressurise him to sign the Overtime Register and pass the payment, which he declined. He locked his arms on the chest and sat tight, firmly refusing to budge. They tried to bully him and used abusive language. While some kept thumping his desk threateningly, others sat atop the table. Two of them even settled on the arms of his chair. There were three more officers in the branch but nobody came to the rescue of the poor man. I noticed they were stealthily peeping in from the side of the curtain.

The tension escalated and the staff wouldn't allow the poor Branch Manager to even use the restroom. Desperate, he wanted to call the Head Office, but they had already disconnected the phone lines. As evening approached, all the incomplete books and ledgers were dumped on my desk for completion. After finishing this unexpectedly heavy workload, I got up from my desk around 9 p.m., ready to leave. But they stopped me, stating that the room was still under siege. I reluctantly sat back, and the chaos continued. They prevented me from leaving until 10.30 p.m. 

At 10.30 p.m., when I was finally allowed to go, I immediately drove to the Head Office. To my dismay, the guards on duty couldn't provide me with the contact information of any senior officer.

The following morning, I received an anonymous phone call in a threatening tone, conveying that I should not come to the office that day and should keep my mouth shut about the Branch Manager's gherao. But I paid no heed to it and landed up at the Branch as usual. By 11am, a high-level team from the Head Office arrived at the branch to investigate the shameful incident of the previous day.

To my utter astonishment, there were no witnesses to the gherao that took place the previous day. Even the officers were unwilling to recount what had transpired in the bank. I was shocked as they feigned complete ignorance of the incident, although I had noticed them peeking into the room from behind the curtains. With straight faces, they informed the Regional Manager that they were not aware of any such incident to have taken place in the branch. They also added that I was the sole eye-witness to it, if something had occurred as I sat in that very room. Consequently, it was left to me to provide to the investigating team, a detailed account of this horrible episode. 

When the Investigating Officer asked me whether I was willing to document the event in writing, I promptly agreed to do so. Now the officers who were watching this ugly drama from behind the curtains the previous day, and had denied any knowledge of the gherao, started prodding me to add in the statement that I had been verbally abused by the staff and even physically molested by some of them, as this would strengthen the Bank's case against the rogue employees.  I refused to add what had not happened, signed the statement, and handed it over to the Investigating Officer. 

The result of my refusal was that the Branch Manager and the officers were upset with me that I did not listen to their wise counsel and did not make the false allegations, as suggested by them. The Branch Manager and the officers started to cold-shoulder me. The clerical staff was angry with me because I had given a written statement against them. This action of reporting the incident in writing led to retaliation by the staff in the form of the tyres of my Vespa two-wheeler being punctured frequently.  

All this  caused immense stress to me and I kept wondering if I had done something wrong. The fear of finding a flat tyre in the late hours and pushing the two-wheeler on foot was a fear which haunted me every day. I wondered whether I should I have given a false statement? Was I tactless in this entire episode? I thought and thought and finally decided that I had done the right thing and all this mental torture was a small price to pay for being upright. 

This incident helped me understand why the interview board had asked me how I would tackle a batch of goons in the branch, not willing to work. 

 (To be continued....)

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