Office Owes!

Now that I am back in an office environment, I am slowly getting used to my previous ways of navigating through restricted sites, of surfing the net secretly when I should be working, of pressing “alt+tab” as soon as I hear somebody coming, of writing a blog when I should be writing an “analyst report”…

But armed with two years of experience, I am a pro at it. However, it reminds me of the time when I was new to all these sneaky ways, and believed that as long as I deliver my deliverables well (which have never been compromised on) it’s nobody’s business what I do as my “extra-curricular activities”. But, clearly hypocrisy is a big part of corporate life which I learnt pretty quickly…

Situation 1: This happened within the first week of joining. I was still not on the job, and was asked to read up and generally get a hang of things. Being a fast reader, I finished it before day end, and was bored stiff. So I decided to take a break and started playing freecell in broad daylight. Before long, the secretary of the VP calls me up and sternly says, “Sir has asked you not to play games…” so that’s that!

Situation 2: I was still in my first month, when one afternoon, all the PCs conked off and there was no work to be done. So I happily crossed my legs and started reading the very entertaining Mumbai Mirror. As luck would have it, the Regional Head walks in and finds me in that “compromising position”. He calls me back to his cabin and what follows is a flurry of sarcastic comments alternated with “you will be fired” threats which really got me all freaked out (I was too ignorant to know about the stringent labour laws in India at that tender age)…

Situation 3: During the last six months at work, I took more unauthorized print-outs than all employees put together, thanks to the number of B-school forms I filled up. So on my last day, as I was doing the good-bye ritual, a senior guy wished me luck in Symbiosis. I stared at him, wondering how he knew that I was going there. He twinkled and replied back, “Unfortunately I need a lot of prints too!”

But in spite of all my misadventures, people still loved me there (being young and cute helps), and more importantly they loved my work. Irrespective of my partiality towards unpretentious display of my “hobbies”, I did more than my fair share of work (and did it fast) and even to this day, my ex-boss (who is no longer in IDBI) mourns that he misses the pleasure catching me red-handed and delegating more responsibility as a punishment!