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B for Boss

"In the morning I had to drive with him to the tax office. Through out the way he lectured me on value addition, increasing knowledge bla bla bla...it was such a torture..."

“You have had to listen to him only for an hour. I have to sit just next to him and listen to all these crap all through the day...”

"Hey I have heard he was to be transferred to another position. But till now there's no symptom of that happening. If he remains in the department for a little more, is sure I am going to switch over...I just can't bear him any more."

Sitting among the three I decided my next post will be something about the species called 'Boss' and the unique relationship between the bosses and their subordinates (we will be calling subs hereafter), well presented by the joke

The assistant makes a mistake. Irritated, boss open fires at
him...
Boss: Kabhi Gadha Dakhe ho? (Have you ever seen an ass?)
Assistant:
(With lowered eyes) No Sir.
Boss: Niche kya dekh rahe ho? Idhar dekho, (What
are you looking down for? Look at me).
Till now I have seen only one side of the coin, what subs feel about their bosses. But perhaps it will not be a mistake if I say there's hardly any one who does not enjoy bitching about their bosses. The most enjoyable part is the pseudo names the subordinates generate while bitching abut their bosses. Yes it's not necessary that you will be able to find perfect reasons to establish the names in their right perspective.

It's a matter of coincidence that my first boss and one of the current bosses share the same pseudo name, Pappu. I can’t find any resemblance among the two on the basis of which they can have the same name. My X-boss was one who has had extremely high regards abut his abilities (!). He enjoyed keeping everything running under his fingertips. His search for solution to each and every problem that arises used to start with the ritual of scoffing at his subordinates. Most of the time it failed to proceeded beyond that. No doubt Hitler was considered a synonym to Pappu.

Working in a Multi-Boss-Environment now, everyday I am getting the chances of testing 'mixed-vegetable' dishes.

The present Pappu has a unique approach towards solving problems, code named by his immediate subs as the LD approach ("let’s discuss"). His initiatives start with delegation of the tasks to his subordinates without spending an ounce of his mind in it. What follows is a series of meeting at regular intervals seemingly for strategy making. However internal information say, thanks to Big B's LD approach, the team has to invest 75% of the project time in reviewing the progress of the project backed up by the rest 25 % time spent in implementation.

The next one is Munna Mobile. All the day Munna remains extremely busy on his cell phone. So he also has adopted an approach that to some extent matches the LD approach evolved by Pappu. His approach has a blend of LD and Divide and Rule policy. By presenting different versions to the different subs he manages to keep the group from getting united. Hence no threats to his reign so far.

It's easy to see working with Hitler is of tremendous pain. However you will hear similar complains from subs whose Boss is of 'chicken-boneless' type. Ones who seem to have no stand on the issues. They are the ones who believe in avoiding problems or tackling in shoddy manner. You feel like living in a house without roofs.

In spite of all these, it will not be fair to generalize my experiences (that can at most be counted for duration of three years only) to draw some kind of bitterness in this subs and boss relation.

We should not try to arrive at some conclusion that there exists some kind of a necessary revulsion among the two species…most of the time it's just a matter of feel good that is involved, generated out of efforts to outsmart each other.
I have specific reason for that, which I discovered when one of my bosses left the organisation recently.


He was not my immediate boss and hence there were not much scope for interaction with him. But I feel I will remember the little chance I got to work with him. In each of these he allowed me enough freedom to take steps at my own and to make mistakes, was patient enough to find out the mistakes with possible corrections. He was there to instruct on the way out when ever I found myself at an impasse. These do not mean that he did not yell at me at times…but what I will remember is the pats-on-head I got after completion of his assignments.

And I found myself I struggling to reach office from the meeting I was attending, on the day we bed him farewell. The air around was heavy when he officially stepped out of the company for the last time.


I felt really great when he took two steps forward to shake hands with me, just before the last glance at his past. All of us waited there till his vehicle vanished in the darkness of the road.

"It was nice meeting you boss…"

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