Monday, March 30, 2009

Bosses are a pain in a particular part of the anatomy - Part 1

Bosses!! The word itself can make people wake up late in the night and curse. I have been fortunate enough to have good bosses in my career but there have been exceptions. I remember this boss a few years back - you know the kind of guy who makes you so angry that you don't like coming to the office. What did you say? You know such a guy? What? You ARE such a guy? Oh well - I guess you can't help it.

Now where was I? Ah yes - talking about my boss a few years back. This is when I was much younger with just one kid (Badu) and Bhagyawaan. Those were the days when I and Bhagyawaan used to have real conversations like - The movie was really good or Lets make pizzas at home today or Lets not wake up till 11 am.

Nowadays of course, our conversations go like this - Badu has lost his books in school or the tap is leaking or the bank called - they have increased their EMI. In summary, boring and full of ennui. But again, I digress. I must get out of this bad habit..

Coming back to his boss - we used to call him Dakkan. Dakkan was one of the guys who thought that the world revolved around him so most of the conversation had his personal pronoun "I". The side effect of thinking that the w. revolved around h. was that he felt he was the center of it.
His idea of fun was to work late in the night and then come back early in the morning - not him - it was you. He would play golf on a Sunday. What did you say? You are not THAT bad? I knew it.

Well, this happened on a Friday evening - I was just about to go home when Dakkan called me in to his office. I gave him a glare which had no effect. It was like throwing water on a buffalo, come to think of it, he looked like one but again I digress.

"Bhagwaan - remember that vacation of yours? Well, its cancelled. You would need to be here since I am going to a conference in Singapore around the same time. One of us needs to be in office to take charge, if required" - he said these words without a by-your-leave.

I spluttered in rage "What? I had planned it quite some time back - it will be too late to cancel now".

He said "I am sorry" (although he did not look like he was sorry at all, in fact I think I saw a smirk on his face. "This conference invite came up suddenly and of course, someone who could represent the company had to go..."

I guess I had no choice and give the bad news to Bhagyawaan although I shuddered to think of the consequences. Bhagyawaan was looking forward to it from a long time and I knew I would be the target. I WAS the target - she gave me a glare and some choice words which I cannot repeat on this blog. Also, a few kitchen utensils were thrown around - some of them colliding with me.

1 week to go - how was I get out of this mess? If you know me well by now, you would have guessed that I would turn to one person who always helped me - Ganesha. You are right, that's what I did...we discussed our usual terms and conditions and I gave HIM 7 days to get me out of this mess...

To be continued

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