“Raheeman iss sansaar mein bhanti bhanti ke log“
Poet Raheem says in this world varied types of humans abound
In around four decades of work life I have had more than twenty odd bosses to deal with. Each with their individual mechanism of getting work done by their subordinates.
The first seven years of my career I had to deal with a young lady who hated me. She was not alone. The leader of the Workers’ Union hated me as much. So did his followers. A novice, I followed the ‘sheep-or-is-it-goat- policy’ , i.e., if I ignored their misdoing they would eventually start ignoring me, which of course did not work.
When I got a transfer back to my home town my new boss had an odd habit of calling me up in the evening and telling me that I was no good that day in the office. I was then on 24×7 duty required to be available on landline even after office hours. It was not possible to not attend his calls. But why did he not pull me up (if at all what he said was true which it was not) during normal office hours was what I never understood. I boiled it down to pure sadistic pleasure in the absence of a rational explanation. Much later I came to know that other officers would tell him that I was being unduly burdened with work. They feared that I would be set as an example for them to follow suit. What an odd way of dealing with the situation it was!!
The one who made it his mission to totally spoil my career was a Bengali. The Department thought he had a soft corner for me being a Bengali too. But on the contrary, he made me a scapegoat every time he was compelled to take a stand in any matter. So, when others made mistakes I got rebuked verbally as well as in writing.
Every morning at 06.30 AM he would call and give me a list of work I was supposed to do that day. One day I asked him whether he was on leave that day as he could do this during office hours as well. He got offended very badly. Later I came to know that this was his routine with all the others in the Department who he called up one after the other early in the morning from 06.00 AM onwards.
This guy never failed to find new ways of torturing his subordinates. Those were the days when PCs had not completely taken over. Every time I took a draft note to him he would make corrections on a piecemeal basis , one word or one phrase or one sentence or one para or one dot or one slash or one stroke at a time. Every time he would tell me to make the note crisper. Every time he would find mistakes in it till he would be correcting what he had corrected a few minutes before. Phew!!
It was a surprise that such an ogre had to take Voluntary Retirement when the Company got merged with a Fortune 500 Corporation post disinvestment.
From a small to a large Corporate Sector, the style of working differed enormously. In the Corporate Office I had the good and misfortune of working under a workaholic boss who considered his subordinates as rivals. Very difficult to please he’d make it a point to delegate work right at the closing hour forcing his staff to stay beyond duty hours. According to him we were already late as the task was to be finished yesterday. Nobody asked him why he never delegated on time when the work was so urgent.
He was also a “copy-paste” master, that is, he had this peculiar habit of copying paras and sentences from previously approved notes and pasting them in a fresh one taking it to be a good strategy – if the proposal from which he copied had got approved smoothly the fresh one would get approved in no time too. Bizarre psychology but there it was. There were instances when he would call me back to the office when I was half way home because he had wrongly sent some email which now I had to resend on his behalf.
He was always in a hurry – to get a proposal sanctioned, to send an e-mail, to get a promotion, to get down first from the flight he was taking to an outstation tour etc. etc. Our office building was rumoured to be haunted. But the standing joke in the Department was that even the ghost would not dare to haunt when he was working late in the office.
There was no point resisting him because it was confirmed that he was obsessed with his work and would not care for two hoots even if his subordinates got down to a bloody revolt against him. But to give the devil his due I learnt a lot assisting him though at times I was hard pressed not to engage in a war of words with him.
So the poet Raheem’s observation did fit the bill in so far as bosses were concerned.
However, this story has no end and anytime I feel like venting I’ll pick up the threads again… 😂 😂
Good luck to y’all…
You must be very patient.
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Yes, I am and a quiet worker too…
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I think you can write volumes on the above topic 😀!
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Yes, I can. This is my favourite rant.
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What a wonderfully candid journey through four decades of “bossology”! 😄 Raheem’s timeless observation feels almost tailor-made for the workplace, where every boss seems to arrive with a different manual for extracting the best and sometimes the last ounce out of their people.
What makes this account especially enjoyable is that beneath the humour and frustration lies something deeper: every difficult boss becomes an unwilling teacher. Some teach patience, some resilience, some diplomacy and a few teach us exactly what kind of boss we should never become. 😂
A delightful read, full of wit, irony, and hard-earned wisdom. And yes… please do pick up those threads again whenever the “venting department” reopens! 😄
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Yes, Vijayji, as I was ranting I too realised that these are the types of bosses we should never become. Taking it a little further this is the type of human being we should never become.
Thanks my venting department is always on as is evident from my posts.
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Patience is a virtue. You too, good luck ☺️
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Oh! There are a multiplicity of factors that promote patience and endurance. Thank you Aptivi
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You’re most welcome. You’re absolutely right about that. 👍
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Geeta ji, what an interesting and honest account of your work life! 😄 You have truly experienced every kind of boss—from difficult and demanding to downright bizarre. Despite all the challenges, I loved how you also acknowledged the lessons you learned along the way. Looking forward to the next part whenever you feel like venting again! 😂🌸
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Thanks Maha for being so understanding and sweet
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wonderful reflections, Geeta
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Thank you very much Yvette
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What a remarkable collection of bosses—each one seems to have been determined to prove that management is indeed an art form! 😄 The good news is that you survived them all and came away with stories that are far more entertaining than their management styles ever were. Looking forward to the next installment—I’m sure there are a few more unforgettable characters waiting in the wings!
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Thank you Indrajit. I am relieved to have taken them out of my system. Yes, there are many more… colourful ones…waiting for the next round of rants!! 😂
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Waiting for the next chapters…
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I’ve also had my fair share of good bosses and bad bosses. Oddly, the bad ones taught me more over the years – how not to treat people, how micro-managing kills productivity, and how empathy can go a long way to building relationships, as examples.
The good ones have also taught me things like taking responsibility for my mistakes and teaching me to communicate more openly.
I guess they all serve their purpose in our lives. 🙂
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They do have their purpose in our lives. More so, the bad ‘uns. They stay in our memory. In my case , the good ones , though a very few, have made me immensely grateful to them by their good and kind gestures. But they came at the fag end of my career probably when I needed them.
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Good Morning, Geeta Di
Both good ones and bad ones give us memories,good or bad.I have erased the bad ones from my memory but among the good ones was a Bengali Officer,Abhijit Ghosh Dastidar and some Heads of high schools,Aisha Mam ,Zubaida Mam.
Learnt a lot from them.
You have been very patient with these bad bosses,but had they been understanding and considerate,the post would have been different.
Many employees lose interest in their work because of such bosses.
If it would be possible a copy of this post should be sent to these bosses by post ,may be they learn how annoying they were inspite of how smart and workaholic they thought themselves to be.
Waiting for More About Good and Bad Bosses.
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Good Morning Nusrat !
You are right. There were good and bad ‘uns and anything and everything in between who taught me life lessons in their limited ways.
The bad ‘uns were also the ones who wrote exemplary annual appraisals praising my work. That made me think about the worth and futility of it all. Was it worth getting tortured through the year and then getting a eulogy at the end of the year ?? It all seemed like a khela….a game. Right ?
I endured a lot. There were many factors why I did. Firstly, I was not the social type who interacted with bosses like other female colleagues over a cup of chai. Most of the time I couldn’t figure out what I should chat with them about apart from work. It did not make sense.
And then a quiet worker is the one who always gets bullied. So I was as much to be blamed as they were.
Letting them know their misdeeds?? They already knew what they were up to. The Bengali guy once said that he knew I disliked him. That is why he was after my blood I guess.
Anyway, I don’t want to be bitter about what they did. I have ventilated about them and that, I think, is good enough.
Thanks a ton for your patient and empathic reading.
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You are right ,Geeta Di,when you are not the Yes Boss type,you suffer a lot.I have been through it,but in their heart of hearts these officers know how hardworking you are,they can’t deny it.
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I hope I was the enabling type
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Thank you very much Derrrick 🙏
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I salute your courage and dedication Geeta. Must’ve been very difficult to work with such characters. Bravo 👏🏼 dear sister
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I didn’t have much choice other than being enduring. Thank you my dear friend and sister
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You’re most welcome. And in those days, people weren’t encouraged to stand for their rights.
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Ugh. We have too many bad bosses rather than ones who know how to motivate and appreciate employees.
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Exactly and sadly so Mary
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Oh those bosses. I am sure each one of us have quite a number of tales about our bosses.
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Oh yes! Those tales are historical
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