STRESS, SUCCESS AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN
The Highs and Lows of A Woman’s Journey in the Corporate World
CARE: This is Chapter 42 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 right from Chapter 01 onwards.
One fine morning, I received a telephone call from the Personnel
Department to come urgently to Head Office and meet the Personnel Manager. As
the information became public, my colleagues in the branch started speculating
why I had been summoned without any agenda. They forewarned me that the
Personnel Manager was a rude and heartless guy. All this talk was enough to
give me jitters, and I ensured to be at his office before the designated time.
As there was no place for waiting, I stood outside his room, rubbing my hands
anxiously. I wondered what could be the purpose of this meeting. Why was I
personally called? Is it possible that the rogue borrower of my previous branch
had lodged a complaint against me? Or maybe because I had retorted rudely to my
senior the other day in front of everybody, and he might have complained
against me. My mind was going into a tizzy.
I was finally called in. The Personnel Manager stared hard at me from
top to toe and blurted out brusquely that I was at the top of the list of
officers with overstay in Delhi. He added it was time for me to move out of
Delhi and condescended to inform me that he planned to transfer me to Roorkee.
It was like a bolt from the blue. How would I stay alone at Roorkee with two
small kids aged 8 and 4 years and perform effectively as a Branch Head? My
experience as Branch Manager in the two previous branches had not been too happy.
I pleaded if I could be accommodated in a nearby city instead of posting in a
far-off place, some 200 km away. A cynical expression on the face and a quick
wave of the hand conveyed that it was not an option. I knew what the transfer
policy for my grade was. It had a provision for posting an officer in a nearby
town like Gurgaon, Faridabad or Ghaziabad, and one had to stay there for five
years before becoming eligible to come back to Delhi. But would he listen?
Maybe it was my weakness, as I did not know how to sound helpless and beg and
plead.
I came out of his cabin with a long face, wondering how to handle this
new problem in my personal life. With great effort, we had admitted our
children to the prestigious Modern School. What would be the plight of their
education if they had to go to Roorkee with me? Will they start pronouncing "Boss" as "Bose" and "God" as "Goad" as most locals did? How am I going to handle them
alone?
I was restless and could not wait for the lift to arrive. I started
walking down the stairs. In the stairwell, I thought of stopping at the 11th
floor to say hi to a colleague I had befriended during my Head office days. She
was the Personal Secretary to the top boss, the Chief General Manager. When she
learnt of my worries, she shared that the Bank had decided to open a training
institute for the officers in Gurgaon. They were looking for an officer for the
post of a Research Officer, who was good in English and had completed the mandatory line assignment. My face lit up with a smile on hearing
this. I could manage to write in English and had completed the ordeal of working as a
Branch Manager for over three years. I quickly wrote down my bio-data and
handed it over to her.
The next few days were full of uncertainty and tension as I did not know
when I would be ordered to leave for Roorkee. A few weeks passed, but no
communication for my next posting came. I was tense and worried. The
uncertainty about my future was nibbling my mental peace away.
Finally, one day, I received a call from the Administrative Officer of
the Academy asking me why I had not reported there so far. I told him my branch
had not received any transfer orders for me. He confirmed that the orders had
indeed been issued a few weeks ago and that he had already received its
copy.
About half an hour passed before I was called by my Branch Head. He was
furious, “What strings have you pulled? The Personnel Manager is very
angry and has asked me to relieve you immediately. Please hand over the Locker
Keys to Ms AB and leave for Staff College immediately. Understand?”
The staff wanted to arrange a farewell for me, but they were told not
to. I picked up the relieving letter and left. But I was on top of the
world. "Yeah yeah, yippee yippee, yeah yeah yeah...!" I had escaped a
posting to Roorkee. This was the first time that I tasted the power of networking in the Bank.
***
PS
As I started my car and came onto the main road leading to Gurgaon, a genuinely serious thought came to my mind, “Why not meet the Personnel Manager and thank him
for changing my posting from Roorkee to Gurgaon!”
I turned the car towards the Head Office, reached the 13th floor and waited
to meet him. Upon seeing me, the Personnel Manager snarled, “What brings
you here?”
"I have been relieved today. Thought of informing you and
thanking you for changing my orders from Roorkee to Gurgaon." I tried
to be as polite as possible.
He stared at me and growled, “Why thank me? I had nothing to do with
it. You know it very well.” Wondering why he sounded so irritated
and not knowing what to say, I just smiled, “No sir, the credit goes to
you only. I was ignorant about my long stay. You only made me aware of it and
told me about the transfer to Roorkee. Therefore, thanks are due to you
only.” He gave me a dirty look and walked away.
In the subsequent years, whenever he saw me in the precincts of the
Staff College, he did not respond to my greeting and looked away when I wished him.
Looking back, I understand nothing could have been more foolish than my attempt to thank the Personnel Manager. It was a naïve move to mend fences, but it was my lack of understanding of office politics. Honestly, I had not gone there to tease him. I genuinely wanted to thank him but perhaps he took it as an insult. In due course, I understood the mechanisms and undercurrents of hierarchies better, and this incident became a valuable lesson for me in navigating the corporate world.
(To be continued...)
*****
7 comments:
As one moves on in life one learns about the nature of human beings. How to tackle them comes much later after many stumbles.
One normally assumes that everyone is helpful and genuinely nice. In reality many people are frustrated and release their frustration on innocent trusting people working with them.
This was one lesson you learnt on your journey in the bank.
Well written as usual.
Networking is Networking. It works wonders as it did in your case. Chapter 42 is so light hearted banter, particularly last para of first part. (V Gupta)
Still think that you should have simultaneously screwed the personnel manager when you had access to PS to CGM…. That’s the only way they learn and hopefully don’t misbehave with others. -- Rakesh Govil
.....Today when I read the above story, I thought how nature uses people as her playthings.
'There is a divinity that shapes our ends
Rough hue them how we will',
sang the Bard.
Ranjana Bharij I am waiting - with bated breath - for the portion of your reminiscences of that period....KBS Bedi
Another example of seemingly simple events/actions - in this case your casually dropping in on your friend , the PS - turning the course of our lives, as happened to most of us during our careers. But kudos to you for narrating them so well. (KBS Bedi)
वही होता है जो मंजूरे ईश्वर होता है।
प्रबिसि नगर कीजे सब काजा। हृदयँ राखि कोसलपुर राजा॥
गरल सुधा रिपु करहिं मिताई। गोपद सिंधु अनल सितलाई ।। --Dinesh Kumar Jain
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