Two bosses

Have you ever been in a situation where two people fought over you??? I tell you, it’s funny because at one moment, you feel pity for the two, and at the same time, you feel a sense of pride for being sought after. But it’s weighty on the pathetic side indeed!

It’s when I felt being caught up in ‘the tug of war’ when this funny conspiracy of destiny was waiting for me at my office which I joined just last year…

One day, when I carry a project file to my boss, (I would nickname this cat-eyed personality as ‘tiger’) to discuss about the on-going projects. After we sort the things out, I feel elated because the minor task is nudging completion. Another senior official (whom I have nicknamed ‘Jackal’ to do justice to his cunning character, and who is the villain of the story) sits adjacent to his table.

In midst of a brief chit-chat with him, my boss offers him pleasantly,”Kya lenge sir, chai ya coffee? ” He replies, “not tea”. On this, the tiger says, “Ok, let me summon up the office boy for Coffee”. This is the point at which I realize that I have been just sleeping in the eye of the tornado when Jackal mutters looking at me, “Ise mujhe de do”. Oh heck! Startled, I throw a furtive glance at him in perplexion and he looks back at me with a hint of mischief.

And what makes me laugh a little is when my boss replies sarcastically,”Arre kuchh aur kaam ni hai aapko?

I deride this incident for it resembles a typical scenario in old hindi movies ‘Some rich mischievous guy visits the poverty-stricken home in village when the conservative innocent girl appears to serve tea, saying nothing out of discomfort. Unknowingly, she is caught by the wicked fellow, and he demands her from the family almost authoritatively while the poor family smiles out of courtesy and fear trying to deviate his mind towards TEA or anything else to dump the topic cleverly.

The next day when I arrive at my office, I get called by the AGM (Additional Gen. Mgr) who I find sitting with the ‘Jackal’. After enquiring about the ongoing work which I handle under my boss, he says to me squarely "From now on, you would work under ‘him’ and no one else would give you work without our permission and if that happens, you simply refuse".

‘A clear example of hackneyed tactics of politics at office’

It is a terrific blow to me for two reasons that I even fail to muster up an artificial smile. First, Tiger is on leave today, so I am not sure if he is aware of this silly mishap. And second, I don’t like Jackal (both because of his obnoxious appearance and the stingy air with which he breaks in on people, specially me). As the conversation gets over, I pull away my chair and on the way to my seat, I throw a furtive glance at the people who I recently started accepting as a nice team. Anyways I need to swallow all personal remarks which this new malicious boss is going to pepper me with.

The jackal -

I feel little hesitant to approach the ‘Jackal’ to show him my work as he seems like a typical 'mother in law' because of his characteristic taunting nature. I talk to him in the safest way I can. The office hours get spent in getting the PC repaired and supervising a junior’s work (I recollect my new boss has nothing to do at all except for updating vague work status reports as a showcase of busyness).  In the evening, when I muster up enough courage to report him about this silly work, he offers me to sit down. Now, as a usual sign of courtesy, when I say, “Thanks, I am ok”, he reprimands, “sit down, because it feels as if you are standing over my head”. and chuckles.  Honestly, in my life, I have never seen a way of ‘hospitality’ more respectful than this!

Once, I went to him to ask some doubt. He replies, “idhar baitho abhi batata hu tumhe”. And the next moment, he hands over a purely non-technical work to me. Not only this, despite of being the concerned person  to give training to few college interns, he asks me to do that job too (for 4-6 weeks) though I am myself  in the probationary training period!

 I wish if he were not this lazy.

When I said, “my computer is not working because of the faulty UPS, he states, “UPS is not a part of computer”.

I went speechless after this but I really wanted to say to him, “I wish if you had atleast a little common sense, let alone other things” .

The tiger - 

Next day, my former teammate, Sanjay has a lot to tell me,

“He(the Tiger) is very disturbed and distressed. He did not have a single person to get the work done so he was really frustrated by this conspiracy of not even intimating him. This is so unfair with him…

You should go to the AGM and ask him to clear out this confusion....because the catch is you are still officially under the tiger as per office order...so all your performance appraisal, leave sanction, reporting is officially  supposed to be under him but you are working under the Jackal at the same time...Now you think..How can a person appraise a person’ who is working under another person...

So beware...because of all this mess, your appraisal would suffer”. He also taunts me for Jackal’s non-technical boring work (which I am intentionally doing at slow pace), “Keep updating the project status, you will learn a lot from this.”

Then I look at my old team...feel a kinship....they were discussing about the technical stuff I liked..I recall I also started studying about relays...I miss my old boss’ cute and hesitant smile, his tiger like eyes.., his lion like anger and his horse like hardwork...who has now turned into a fraidy cat...lol

Tiger vs Jackal:

When 2 days have passed away under the claws of the cunning Jackal, Tiger rises to his roar!!!  He stormed to the AGM describing him about the need of resources (at job, people are nothing more than resources of the company) to accomplish the targets. And at the same time, Jackal also appears. They end up in a diplomatic wrangle, which confuses the AGM, who seems like an umpire now. I rush to the spot hearing the cacophony which has already turned many heads.

When, Jackal presents a list of anonymous pending projects, I interject tactfully, “Sir, I have completed everything and have mailed you also. I guess you have not checked it out yet”. And the ball is thrown in tiger’s court.

Poor jackal moves away saying, “No one wants to work under me”.

Oh God! Was it this easy?

That moment, I let out a deep sigh of relief as if I have just been rescued from a decoit.

At the next tea session -

Jackal:  “Toh fir Sanjay de do”.

And the tiger, just like a victor who has recently emerged from a battle field, unscathed instead of saying anything laughs out loudly. Murmuring, they are on their way to having tea unfolding a new chapter of the story...lol