Asked to Leave Page 2

  Well that is how I passed a milestone called “Training” and entered the safe zone as chances of getting ‘asked to leave’ were less, owing to my satisfactory performance.

  After a week,

  I logged in to Vcube Application. It was an extraordinary experience to be a part of the customer service- operations team on the floor. Everything seemed to be alien to me at the onset.

  I looked towards the entry door, while sitting with a senior team member ‘Mr. Pulkit Raj’ in the process.

  “Did you like her?” Pulkit asked.

  “Who is that girl?” I asked him out of curiosity.

  “Her name is Pooja; she is a nice girl and single as of now.” He added. By the time she passed us, both of us caught her attention. She walked up to me.

  “Hi, are you new in the process?” She asked.

  “Yes, Ma’am”

  “Please don’t call me ma’am, call me Pooja” she said, without rebuking me, as I saw a lot more on her face.

  Alright “Pooja! My name is Ram.”

  “Guys, lets gather for a meeting”. Floor supervisor Hemant Sharma was loud enough to let his manager know, that he was asking the team to put their phones on meeting mode.

  “Come with us.” Rushing towards the supervisor, Pooja and Pulkit asked me to follow them.

  It had been said that the workplace is considered a second home for employees, as they spend half of their time there. One has attached sentiments with the company they work for, contributing with emotions, care and concern for the progress of that company. Many employees have demonstrated these feelings and many employers have accepted that an employee is an important asset. However, the situation was extremely opposite there, they were standing near the narrow cafeteria with their heads bent down, looking towards the floor. I was for the first time feeling awkward.

  “You all may go” the supervisor said. He pulled one of his team mate’s hand and went out for smoking. I followed Pooja and went back to the floor.

  “You can come and sit with me.” Pooja said looking at Pulkit. I accompanied her to her seat, took a chair, sat next to her and started looking at her computer. HR’s cabin was located in the next corner on the operation floor. So, we could see people coming inside for an interview.

  “We are in ready mode to take calls”, She said; with an intention to bring my attention towards her. She went on after getting a nod from me. She was teaching me ‘How to take calls, respond to angry customers and refer to multiple applications at the same time. I noticed she was looking at a team leader from a different process.

  “What is the best way to survive here? At least for 6 months?” I asked her as I was not feeling good there. I was not afraid, as it was my first day on the production floor and I took the risk of asking that question.

  “Why? What happened Ram?” She asked; she did not look surprised.

  “I am not feeling good and don’t think I am at the right place.” I replied.

  “I know Ram, where you come from. But, let me advise you to give yourself some time and you will get used to it. And you never know things will get better with time.” She said.

  “But I don’t think our Asst. Manager was talking to us in the right manner, it was not the right way to talk to his teammates. Dominating… commanding… unprofessional… and chewing a gum all the time”.

  As he came back from the smoking zone, we became silent. Oh! God… he did not even have a mouth fresher after smoking; he was stinking of that smoke.

  “Excuse me; I am going out to have water.” I told Pooja and went to the cafeteria.

  “Let’s have coffee”. I found her following me, while I was pondering on the decision of working for that company.

  I kept quiet, served her coffee and took one for myself.

  She looked beautiful. It was not the first time I had seen a beautiful and wonderful women like her. Although, right from the first meeting, we struck a cord and she was successful to create her own space in my heart. I decided to give it a shot and consider her suggestion, so, I decided to stay for a while and stopped thinking about that abominable manager.

  For the next few days, Pooja and I were spending most of our time together. I had been asked to sit next to her and she was instructed to help me. It seemed, as if, she had also found a best friend in me. Hence, I decided to propose her for a long term friendship and to my surprise, she accepted it; I was not on the planet earth anymore. The smile that charmed my face was clearly visible. But unfortunately there was neither a coffee shop, nor, did I have enough money to treat her. So, I decided to treat her some other time.

  “So did you get an opportunity to go out with her?” asked Sherry.

  Ok well! Slow down Sherry, it seems you are in a hurry to know everything.

  “Yes! I am. I want to know every bit of it.” Sherry smiled.

  Well, that dream never came true, but then came the company’s annual day celebrations; and a party was organized by the company. I was excited to know that and thought to myself that I will now get to spend some time with Pooja. Pooja and I shared our breakfast and came back to our seats to work.

  At 1300 Hours, the party had just started. Everyone was busy dancing, eating and talking, while I was looking for Pooja and I saw her dancing with the Asst. Manager. It was a shock of a lifetime. I stopped doing everything and kept watching her till the last moment. There was nothing wrong for a female living her life the way she wanted to; however, I felt responsible and did not want my new best friend to topple in not so good hands. I immediately decided to talk to Pooja about it. All of us went back home in the evening.

  The next day came as usual; we reached in time at work.

  I was hesitant at first, but I gathered courage and said “You dance really very well”.

  “Oh thanks and you notice girls really well.” She might be aware of the impact of that dance on my mind, with the enemy of politeness and courtesy the last day.

  Suddenly Hemant walked in and said “Hi Pooja, come with me”.

  They went to a meeting room situated in the other corner of the floor.

  Hemant said “See Pooja, I don’t like this new guy Ram, especially when he hangs around with you. Are you dating each other?”

  “No sir, there’s nothing between us, it’s just that he is new employee and I was given the task to mentor him and he is a nice person sir”. Pooja was surprised; she had not expected anything like that, and became nervous.

  Hemant said “I don’t know anything and it is not allowed in the office premises. Please do not repeat it.”

  Pooja felt bad and said “But we are not violating any laws and in fact not doing anything wrong sir, it’s just that we…” Pooja stopped as Hemant interrupted.

  “You know I don’t like people arguing with me. So please go now and send Ram here.” Hemant ordered staring at her.

  Pooja made a bad face and went out.

  “Hi Ram, Hemant sir is calling you.” She said that with a smile, but I could figure out that something was wrong, because her voice was trembling with anger and in stark contrast with facial expressions. She looked upset.

  I could have tolerated that humiliation, if it was towards me solely; however Pooja’s choking throat had disappointed me. I could not see all that was happening to her.

  “Good morning sir! You called me?” I entered Hemant’s room.

  It made me upset; when he started talking to me emphatically, it seemed that he was frustrated in his personal life, however vomiting all of his frustration on both of us; Pooja and me.

  He kept yelling and I kept quiet.

  “What are you looking at like that? Everyone is performing well, taking more than 300 calls every day; you are taking only 200 calls. Why is your performance so low?”

  For a moment I felt like laughing, as I had no tools to validate whatever he was saying
. Because he himself did not know what he was talking about; oh! Sorry, yelling at me about. And I was a victim and witness of the fact that he was talking to me in a rude manner.

  For someone, who is not a graduate, has a sick father, is staying 500 miles away from home and not so good at communication skills, which happens to be the key component required to work in call centres today, and had no choice but to remain mute.

  My good time started, as I heard someone knocking the door. Before I could turn my neck back to look at the door, he signalled his head to open the door. I opened the door, though it was not locked from inside. The client, who was a manager with Oxygen services looked at me with questions on his face, then looked at Hemant, who then looked at me in the same manner. I thought he wanted me to get lost and I went out listening to a “Hmm—hmm” sound from him.

  I had to take about 60-70- steps to reach my seat. With every step ahead, something strange was stirring in the whirlpool swirling at my mind. I was in a dilemma; I still can’t tell you how Hemant perceived me, however, he gave me an opportunity to judge him. It was tough to judge that angry young man, as he was very unpredictable personality. Naturally, I felt bad about it and I was cursing myself, once again.

  A volcano erupted in my peace loving mind; when I observed Pooja not talking to me and gossiping around with Hemant, in the second half of the day in the cafeteria.

  While that day came to an end; there was an unexpected meeting called for a briefing. The conversation among Hemant and his sycophants was about to be ensued.

  “New kids stand up and come here in front of me” Hemant asked the new teammates to come forward and threw a dreadful look at us.

  And he started “How many calls have you taken today? “He asked Bharti Roka, a new hire girl originally from Darjeeling.

  Bharti didn’t see any need to stir up the hornet’s nest by answering his question. But he proved her wrong, by asking another question.

  “Are you mentally here or some other place?” He asked.

  “About 200 sir.” She answered his first question.

  “Not so bad, but not so good either”. His reaction was enough to kill her morale. She muzzled herself and looked down towards the ground.

  He targeted all the new joinees and then asked us to leave for the day. The team huddle carried on for 30 minutes after the shift was over, maybe because his shift for a couple of hours was still left. It seemed, as if he was not bothered about our time being wasted for nothing.

  We were leaving for the day and everyone was rushing towards the main gate. I was also a part of crowd until we put ourselves in line at the security gate to get our bags and pockets checked, collect our mobile phones and leave for our respective residences. I don’t know what others did or thought, but I was whistling and my speed was more than a cycle rickshaw, while walking on the street.

  When I reached home; I immediately washed my hands and took my employment contract out of the file and started reading it, unless I was done with all of it. Surprisingly, I did not see anything which would let a new hire know about the working culture of the organisation. Only employees ‘do’s and don’ts’ were mentioned in it. It seemed to be made for the employer’s good, as I found that those rules were imposed on me.

  Sherry was listening to all of this interestingly, as it was a surprise that any organisation would let their new people are treated in such a manner.

  “Why didn’t you call for a meeting with the higher management, if you felt it was unacceptable? Anybody who was there in your place would have felt offended?” Sherry asked.

  “Well, I was new and I didn’t know that it was possible. Moreover, I had lost my trust in the management, after meeting Hemant. I thought why would anyone care, why would anyone listen to my part of the story and advise me to take appropriate action. I felt alone; I had lost trust in Pooja, who once upon a time was a great help in the beginning, when I had joined that organisation.

  So, what happened later?

  “Is Ram here?” Hemant asked once he entered the office. I was busy with a customer on a call. So, after finishing that call I went to his desk, stood next to him, while waiting for his response.

  “Your login hours are short for this month, the hours that you are short of will be deducted from your salary, not mine. So, complete your login hours today and then go home.” Hemant said.

  “Sir, could I check for which dates are they short. Because, I always come to work on time and go once you conduct the post-shift briefing.” I said.

  “Sir, are you trying to tell me that post shift briefings are not good for the process or what?” He took it the other way.

  “No sir, how dare I say that?” I said with a calm smile on my face.

  “Ram! I can’t open the ledger for everyone every time to show people their mistakes. So, there is no point of an argument here.” He was extremely irate, but still neither did I get to know, by how many hours I was short nor could I know the name of the person to seek further help. So, his anger was good for nothing.

  I thought it would be a waste of time, energy and patience to ask that question and approached one of my friends Inder Sharma, who had trained us as his first batch.

  “Sir, I have a request for you. Could you check and let me know, how much I am short in login hours this month?” I insisted.

  “I will check with the MIS person and let you know right away.” Inder said and went to the next lobby, where the MIS executive was busy playing solitaire on his computer.

  Inder called me there.

  It was Sunday, the last Sunday. And everyone’s login hours are short for that day. He is not the only one, who is defaulter.” MIS executive let Inder and I know that, it was due to a technical downtime.

  “Now what Inder sir?” I asked with curiosity.

  “Let Hemant know that.” He advised.

  “What’s going on Inder?” Hemant came from the back and asked, seeing both of us talking.

  “Sir, Ram asked for help with his login hours”. Inder could not even complete his statement.

  “Is that related to training?” Hemant asked as Inder Sharma was a part of the Training Team and he had taken an initiative to guide me into the right direction.

  “No, but to help someone is a part of Training, maybe it’s not a part of Operations”. His login hours are short, as there was downtime on Sunday.

  “What are you looking at? Go back to your seat and login, we have calls in queue.” Hemant said and I had to follow his instructions. I didn’t know how the conversation between them proceeded further; however, I got another opportunity to know what happened next.

  “Inder sir, is there any good news for me regarding the login hours issue?” I asked him.

  “No yaar, it’s not worth even talking to him about it. He is such a j*rk. I don’t know, what fun he gets out of poking you guys. Bl**dy sycophant” I didn’t expect Inder to use the ‘J’ and ‘B’ words, but it helped me understand how dejected Inder was, after that conversation, which had taken place a few hours ago.

  The days passed by, and so did the issue. I didn’t dare to talk again about the login hours’ issue with Hemant.

  “But why didn’t you report it to the Human resources department Ram?”

  “Sherry! It would have been of no use. I didn’t because I had seen the HR manager and him going for smoke, lunch and weekend outings together.”

  “And what happened then?”

  The next afternoon, I reached work at 1:30 PM and my shift was scheduled for 2 PM. I had to make sure that next time no such issues arise between Hemant and me.

  “Stop, please stop.” The security guard ordered, while making an entry in the attendance register at the main gate.

  “Yes Brother.” I said.

  “From today onwards, you guys will have to get your bags checked by the security guards at the main gate a
t the time of entry and exit, so please cooperate; there was a guy called Ravi, he denied getting his bag checked, we reported this to the administration team and they asked him to leave.” Security guard with a star badge on his shoulders was looking like a supervisor or he could have been a security manager, we didn’t ask him to reveal his identity.

  I tried to leave to go upstairs, as I was not willing to take any chances of being late and fall into the same pit again. But once we stepped within the boundary of our office, we were no more ‘We’; who had human rights to live life with happiness; in fact we were not mankind, rather machines. So, I had to step back as the security guard interrupted, “Hey, Listen. Switch off your phone, deposit it here at the main gate and only then you can proceed to enter the floor.” The guard offered the register, where lines were drawn horizontally and each column was tagged as Name, Phone Number, Process Name, In Time, Out Time and Signature. I entered all the required details and when I turned back towards the lockers to keep the phone, there was a note saying “Items kept inside will be at owner’s sole risk and responsibility.” I turned back and looked at the security guard’s face.

  “Keep it there” he said. It’s just a disclaimer. Nobody will take your phone away.

  I switched off my mobile phone and kept it there. “Brother, please take care of it, it’s a humble request.” I hit the guard with the weapon of politeness.

  “Now you will teach me, how to do my job. Get going; else I will call your manager.” I was confused, if the guard was joking or was seriously going to call my manager. But, I thought it was of no use to continue that conversation further. So, I gave him a gentle smile and ran up the stairs.

  I couldn’t stop wondering, about the kind of satisfaction people get by behaving in such a manner. I was scared of the darkness that was around, but Alas! it was my bread and butter. Besides, I had to think about my father, who was not well for months, yet to be diagnosed.

  “Sir, tomorrow I have to take my father to the doctor, he is not well.” Time was so cruel to me. It had brought me into a situation, where I had to face the same person, who had cut off my wages the previous month without any appropriate reason.