Thought this was a normal day at office until the Boss came and called us the managers and with a smiling face he said – “Today is the sacking day”. I looked at his face and was thinking – “Is he joking or is he serious?”. And then come the second statement where he said one of my team member is also part of today’s sacking. Then the last and ultimate one came from his mouth, -“You should not tell this to the concerned people, the letter from HR will be given to them by the end of the day and they will be asked to leave their desk immediately and a security will escort them to the gate for exit”
On the way back to my seat I thought to myself – “What a disgrace?”, the world is moving ahead, the corporates are competing each other and showing off and the people inside the corporate have lost their values and dignity and see how an employee is treated. Till yesterday, (NO!, till they get the letter today), they were among the great work force who helped the company to excel but within hours they will become someone whom the company can’t trust and security people are required to make sure that they wont be making any harm to the company! Fortune indeed changes in minutes…..
To talk about the boss, he joined the company couple of years back from a UK-based company as a junior manager. But within in a short period he has climbed up even though he didn’t have great subject knowledge. This shows his manipulation power and his ability to do things through the back-end. But all these back stabbing were covered by his pleasant smile and he could use this as a disguise creating an impression of a nice guy. But I had always felt this dual face in his activities.
I reached my seat and the person who is going to get sacked today from my team is a lady and she sits right in front of me. I looked at her and she is very busy in her day-to-day work as usual without knowing what could happen to her at the end of the day. I slowly turned to my monitor and trying to put my mind back towards the work but it didn’t last long. She was there standing in front of me with some doubts and I asked her to sit. Various thoughts passed through my mind while going through her doubt and finally I told her, I can’t concentrate now, so give me some time to get back to you. As she moved away from my seat I decided that I cant take this anymore. I cannot sit there watching her working, watching her moving around busy, watching her talking to her colleagues. So I got up and started walking, thinking what should I do?, shall I go back to my home or shall I stay here?….
Finally I decided to go to IT department, where I have some friends whom I can talk freely, I walked to IT and stayed there for nearly two hours. Looked at my watch and I knew I have a couple of hours more to reach the deadline. By this time I had made up my mind that I wont be going back to my desk and I don’t want to meet her and give this letter. I simply can’t do it. So I moved to canteen and sat there for an hour and went for a meeting just to make the timeline. At 3:30 I got the message that they have started the distribution of letters and the boss called me to give the letter to her. I told him I cant do it since I am stuck in a meeting and you handle it. So the boss handed over that task to another manager and he give the letter to her and as announced earlier she was escorted to the gate! At 4pm I returned to my seat and I could hear people saying that she bursted into tears and obviously I expected that and that was the reason I was running away myself from this scenario.
The day was over and I reached home, but I was still in this mood. I couldn’t sleep that night, since her face was coming in my mind every second. The question came up to my mind, “Am I a good manager or a good human being”. Looking towards the answer, the next day starts and that’s another day out in the corporate world………………..
This is a fictional short story, any resemblance to living people is a pure coincidence.