Have you ever been fooled by the title of a movie or a book. Well, I must admit, I have been. I call it a googly (it’s a cricketing term. come on! I am a cricket fan). This story is similar. It will not live up to its title. So, it is my duty to warn the stray reader that it is going to be a googly.
With this little preface (or warning!) we may continue our story. It is about a rather funny incident (may be a sad one as well for someone) I witnessed in my previous organization.
In my short career till now, I have spent a rather long time in one project. It was my first as well. I have made some good friends during that time, also there are lots of memories I cherish. The big team was like a family where every emotion used to flow. Here is a funny part -
Mr. Raman was a cool guy with real talent in software programming. He used to handle complex problems in our software product single handedly. Most of us respected him for his knowledge in the software field. Everything was going well till the time recession had surfaced. During recession time, my organization did similar things that other organizations were doing. Layoffs, no pay hike etc. to name a few, though pay had not increased the volume of work had increased a lot. As more and more employees were removed from the project the work pressure was raising. All of us were trying to cope with it somehow. But the hostility came when employees saw the light at the end of the tunnel, market started to show signs of an ending recession. It was our ray of hope. We expected a compensation hike for people who had survived the worst.
But the hints of an ending recession were not enough for the company management to raise the pay. They wanted to maintain the status quo to make a bigger profit which can overcome the losses incurred during recession.
This was the time when Mr. Raman and many others started to re-think their career plans. Actually, they were opting to leave the organization at any given opportunity.
This rang the alarm in management; they realized the risk and found a cheap solution quickly. They announced number of awards to be awarded to the employees. The awards policy was pre-existing, but it was hard to come by for a normal employee earlier. This time though, most of us got one. Even if it only included a certificate and a stress ball, we were happy and felt motivated as getting an award till then was a big deal. But Mr. Raman was not moved by the awards, a man with his intellect (and experience) could substantiate the actual intent of the awards. It was to distract him (and many others) from their prospective job hunts, though it was not enough. Still he had shown no signs of his feelings in the award ceremony and accepted the award cheerfully. He looked equally thrilled like us, with the award nomination.
After the awards, Mr. Raman wasted no time to pursue his interest and soon enough he found a better one. Then started an epic process, officially called ‘separation’, which normally takes couple of months to complete.
The last day of Mr. Raman had arrived and as always, we had arranged a small send off ceremony. Manager gave a talk about his ability to achieve best results and things like that. He (or she? I don’t remember exactly) also mentioned the number of awards Mr. Raman had received over the years shows his excellence in software field and he should cherish those esteemed possessions (read awards) for his life time. The event ended with some gifts being handed over to Mr. Raman.
It was time, Mr. Raman to leave the work place for the final time. He picked up his things from his locker and started meeting each of his colleagues / cubicle mates to say good bye. There was the surprise. Few youngsters used to sit in proximity of his work place and he had developed a friendship with them. When he met them he had a gift for each one of them. Can you guess what was it?
Mr. Raman approached his young colleague with one of his esteemed possessions (as our manager had termed it in award distribution ceremony), award certificate and said “I enjoyed working with you guys. Please accept this small Token of Love.” Nobody could react to it and by then he was gone. Finally when at the afternoon tea break we gathered at the open terrace of our floor, we could link the story. Mr. Raman had distributed all his certificates awarded by the company among us. He had made a mockery of the management’s award policy and in a nice way. Soon enough the story was circulated to different groups and every employee were laughing at the awards they were getting from management. Mr. Raman had disclosed their (management’s) intent to retain employees by luring them for awards.
That’s the end of the story. But, what happened to the “Token of Love”?
We never took it to home. It should still remain in someone else's locker as we passed on our esteemed possessions too when we left.
