Drama in Real Life

Blog 29 of 30

I got used to working from home. I got used to working with interruptions from children, dogs, maids, parents, in-laws, and the like. Now I had to get used to a whole  new environment – an environment which I thought would be completely professional and easy to manage.

But I was mistaken. I am convinced that when employees enter an office the professional side is grown up, competent, Intelligent, and mature. But somewhere the personal side regresses to childhood. 

The first week in the office, I had to sort out what I thought was a very simple problem. Air-conditioning. We had a cassette air conditioner and about four people sat under it. One found it too hot, I found it too cold, one got headaches and one did not care at all.

To me, they were adults and could talk it out and find a compromise. So, I smilingly handed the remote to them and asked them to figure it out. After a week, I realized they were not talking to each other and two of them had almost come to blows!

I confiscated all the remotes in the office. We took a vote on the temperature and then set the air-conditioning. There were no changes anymore. Though sometimes even today, I walk past people wrapped in shawls, monkey caps and more so much one would think we are in a blizzard and not a summer day in Chennai!

The next excitement in my life was when I wanted to talk to a team member who had gone out. I had no idea where he had gone or how long he would take and realizing he was probably with a customer; I did not want to call. So, I sent out a mail requesting everybody to inform the receptionist when they went out for meetings with a probable indication of what time they would get back. 

Seems simple enough, right? Wrong!

Some people forgot. Some people remembered but chose not to do so. After all, they were senior to the receptionist, right? Why would they need to inform her? It became a clash of egos. In the first week I didn’t understand how deep it ran. But one day, I needed to talk to someone again, and he was out. When I asked the receptionist, she told me that he had not informed her. So, I requested her to take the initiative and ask them. Little did I realize I was going to set-off a storm of arguments that would take a little over a week of talking, counseling, and smoothing ruffled feathers to get the office calm again.

I had to talk to numerous people explaining to them what would happen if we did not have the information and why it was good to have it. After weeks of discussions, begging, pleading, and cajoling the rhythm set in. 

I initially thought it was a problem of our office until I ran into an interesting challenge in my consultancy work. I was working with a corporate house who were trying to support an NGO to implement a project. It required coordination between two people. It was a large corporate house and I had spoken to each of them individually. I assumed, since this office had numerous locations, they probably did not know each other.

I did the courtesy of coordinating every detail. I would speak to one person clarify all my points, then call up the other. This went back and forth for many days until one day there was the need for a technical discussion between them. I tried coordinating a time but as that did not work, I requested them to talk to each other so that the project could proceed. They answered yes, willingly enough, so I never gave it a second thought. However, things dragged on and on, and every time I asked one of them, they told me how difficult it was to get hold of the other person.

I still didn’t think too much about it until one day I had a meeting with the senior person. He asked me the status and I explained that everything had been done except for one technical discussion and that the two people had not been able to get hold of each other. I told him I had been coordinating and would try to get it done quickly.

He looked at me strangely, then he smiled and said, “You do know they sit next to each other in the office, don’t you?”

My jaw dropped. Here I have been imagining two people separated by vast distances in two offices across the city, trying hard to coordinate with each other.  In the end it was just an ego clash, and no one wanted to take the initiative of calling the other!

I had thought corporate life would be devoid of humor, fun, and excitement. I was wrong. We have a lot of humor there if we choose to see it. We have drama and excitement. We have had the police come to our office to question colleagues about two people who had eloped.  I had a mother call me up and harangue me because I allowed her daughter to go out for a meeting and if she went out, she would become dark, and no one would marry her. I had husbands and fathers and mothers come for interviews and question me relentlessly until I put an end to it. I have had an employee tell me her in laws were hunting her down to kidnap her child. Trust me, there is more than enough excitement.

Many days I found myself spending more time counseling than anything else. I would talk to people in the office, help them cope with their problems, balance their job and their life.  Jokes aside, it made me connect with people. It made me understand their challenges and it made me feel  

personally vested in their growth within the organization. 

We implemented many measures to help our employees. We never had people work late so they could balance work and home. We implemented flexible hours so people could choose a time that best suited them. We hired women who wanted to work part time or come back into the workplace by working shorter hours. We ensured that there was a good dynamic balance between men and women with equal salaries and opportunities to grow for everyone. 

Overtime the office became a vibrant family and we saw the change when people started working together. My years of work across different sectors had taught me a lot. From coordinating with clients when I ran a content firm, to finding creative solutions that I learned in Kreeda, to developing empathy and understanding in my consultancy, to setting up processes in Petralthan Pillaiya Trust – I had learned a lot and come a long way. Now I was learning how to implement it all with professionalism, creativity, empathy and a touch of humour.