It's a small world

You have appreciated my last post on ITpeople. And this time I have tried a story inspired from a real incident. 

This incident has proved that we are not living in a very big world but we are small particles of this small ball called globe.

By reading this story you will get to know that what can happen in this big yet small world of IT and why only IT, every Sector if it is Marketing, Finance or any other blood sucking job.

Manoj is a very talented technical consultant in a big MNC where he joined just a year ago as a Team Lead. In this company he is expected to work more on a technology called MS Excel than a technology in which he is an expert.

In the typical org structure of his company, he is a middle man, Manager is above him and consultants are below him. Manager always puts a cactus into Manoj’s A**s to get work done from consultants and to save cost, but he is unable to put the same cactus into consultants, why? Because may be he is not capable enough to do so, or may be he is enjoying the cactus himself.

He has completed 1 year and finished his appraisal cycle.  He is expecting a good result because according to him he has done very good job last year, so he should get promoted or at least should get  good ratings and a salary hike. But as you know that good ratings and hikes are dream components in IT industry. Working hard for a year and expecting a good hike in IT industry is same as expecting a union budget in favor of middle and lower middle class.

Manoj is disappointed or more over he is frustrated because he got a “C” rating(Below Average Performer), where hike will be in negative for this year( no bonus, no variable pay and 0% hike = less salary). He decided to switch the company and started circulating his resume across the industry.

One day in afternoon, after having lunch, he was wandering around his office building with a cigarette in one hand, a cup of tea in other and remembrance of old days in mind….

He was a happy consultant there in his old company, enjoying his technical work, been to onshore 4 times. His latest onsite visit was also from his previous company and it was in Australia for a long period of 9 months. It is other thing that in the 9^th month in Sydney he was as desperate to come to India as is a child in the 9^th month in mother’s womb desperate to take birth. Because he was married and these 9 months he spent with his colleague and not with his wife.

His colleague Venkat was from his native, so they had formed a very good bonding. They used to take breaks from work to have beer parties at each other’s place. One Friday in a similar drink party at Manoj’s place, Venkat got over-drunk and started teasing Manoj by taking his wife’s name. The party ended by Manoj with a firm blow on Venkat’s face, and then they exchanged few more blows before Venkat left saying that he would remember this. After this incident Manoj was missing his home and his wife, because he was alone. 

Today again he was feeling lonely and disappointed with an almost burnt cigarette butt in one hand and an empty disposable glass of tea in other. He realized it’s too late to go back to office desk so after disposing cigarette butt, tea glass and the memories in which he was engrossed, he headed towards his present office desk.

 Next day morning Manoj got a call from an Indian MNC and this call was to schedule a telephonic technical round of interview. He fixed a time of 5:00 PM in the evening on the same day. Manoj was prepared to crack the interview; he went outside at 4:45 PM and started waiting for the call. Till the time he got the call at 5:30 PM, he had finished 4 rounds of smoking. It was a technical interview and that too a telephonic, where a panel of 3 sitting persons each in Chennai, Bangalore and Noida respectively were shooting hard technical questions on a person standing in Hyderabad. After a massive Q/A round of 2.5 hours Manoj was tired and satisfied. His interview went well and he cracked the first round and was selected for the managerial round which is scheduled to be held the next day at 10 AM.

Next day Manoj came early to office. He was desperately waiting for the final call. Today again at 9:45 AM he left his seat and went outside to attend the call, but this time he didn't get call till 10:45 AM. Manoj was worried, he tried to call the corresponding HR, but failed. Finally at 11:10 AM he got the call. The person at other side apologized for the delay and then rescheduled the call for 4:00 PM on the same day. Again Manoj started waiting for the call from 4:00 PM. He consumed smoke of 5 cigarettes, however he didn't lose his patience till 5:00 PM when finally he got that “Managerial round” call, and here the exact conversation of the call:

Caller: Hi Manoj, sorry for a delay, is this the right time to talk, can we start now?

Manoj: hey, no issues, yes sure we can start.

Caller: so Manoj you cleared your Technical round and just this call will get you the package which you demanded. We have this project specific requirement for onshore, so tell me do you have any onshore experience?

Manoj: yes, I have visited client sites abroad 4 times in 4 different countries.

Caller: ohhh, great man, so you have a good exposure of working with client, it’s good.

Manoj: yes sir….

Caller: so tell me which countries you have visited and it would be good to know who were the clients you served for?

Manoj: I visited South Africa for a mining company, Spain for a liquor company, Canada for a food processing company and Australia for an oil and mining company.

Caller: Sounds interesting and it’s nice that you have done cross industrial projects. Manoj, tell me if you remember any serious issue you faced during any of these tours.

Manoj: actually all the tours were implementation projects, so all were challenging for me and as you know being a technical guy we have to face issues.

Caller: tell me about your toughest tour, professionally and personally.

Manoj: oh yea, my toughest tour was Australia, where I faced serious issues not only professionally but personally too.

Caller: you were alone there or someone accompanied you?

Manoj: No sir, I was not alone but Venkat, one of my colleagues was also there with me.

Caller: so it was a team of 2 people.

Manoj: yea….

Caller: Manoj, you told that you faced some personal issues there, if you don’t mind could you please put some more light on it, only of you feel comfortable.

(Manoj was now comfortable that this interview is rather a discussion and being interesting)

Manoj: yes, an incident happened there which disturbed me very much. I couldn’t concentrate on my job after that incident.

Caller: If you don’t mind Monoj, may I know what that incident was?

Manoj: Nothing, it was just a small fight. I and Venkat were enjoying a drink party and we got drunk and exchanged heated arguments. I lost my patience and slapped him hard on his face.

Caller: ohhh, it’s sad, so after this fight did you fine-tuned your relationship with him?

Manoj: no sir, I didn’t talk to him, neither had he talked to me.

Caller: So you haven’t spoken to Venkat till now, and you don’t know where he is?

Manoj: right….I don’t know.

Caller: ohhh… Manoj, it’s really sad.

 OK, I have done and I would like to end this call by a note that we don’t have any such requirement in our company where you can fit. And being as a technology lead of this company I am very sorry that it was an official prank call for you….

And before I leave you disheartened I must tell you that till now you haven’t spoken to Venkat, but for last half an hour you were speaking with him only.

Beep beep beep beep (call disconnected).

Don't mess with anybody at workplace !!!!!! It's a small world, you know.... :)