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Boss


An anecdote and an afterthought

Every Monday the staff had to stay back for an hour after office for the Weekly Assessment Meeting.  Boss would speak out his Scrutiny Report.  He blamed each member of the staff for one failure or another. 

“Sir,” one of the staff dared to ask one day, “don’t you ever find anything good in any of us?  We complete all the tasks in time, bring in huge profits, and the company is running well.”

“Whoever said the company is not running well?” thundered Boss.  “This is your problem.  You are a thoroughly negative person and hence you see everything negatively.”

The staff responded with a positive silence.  After Boss had taken charge, over a dozen staff had lost their jobs for crimes far less serious than questioning Boss.

Afterthought


A docile worker who does as ordered without question is the ideal worker in the corporate world.  Famous French intellectual, Foucault, said that.  The perfect fodder for the Capitalist factory is an automaton, not a human being.  Don’t think, just do your work.  Don’t ask questions.  The corporate firm is a Panopticon with detailed hierarchies, a complex chain of authority and training.  Each level of the hierarchy keeps watch over the lower ranks.  Every behaviour that is seen by the authority as deviant will be punished.  There is only one standard behaviour.  Boss decides the standard.  If you can’t accept that standard, you quit the firm.  Or else, you will be removed.  As simple as that.  

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Comments

  1. PallaviDecember 10, 2013 at 7:51 PM

    So true.. unfair.. but that's how the corporate world works. Well written Tomichan :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 10, 2013 at 9:07 PM

      Dickens could have written a still better "Hard Times" were he alive now.
      Thanks for the compliment, Pallavi.

      Delete
  2. Poonam KhandujaDecember 10, 2013 at 7:59 PM

    The nuances of the corporate world, well captured, Tomichan. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 10, 2013 at 9:07 PM

      Thank you, Poonam. Happiness in the corporate world is not an easy pursuit.

      Delete
  3. IndraniDecember 10, 2013 at 10:13 PM

    True picture of corporate world!
    Very concisely and correctly put forward.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 10, 2013 at 10:27 PM

      It's consoling to see that there are many people who feel the same way about the corporate sector!

      Delete
  4. AnonymousDecember 11, 2013 at 2:07 PM

    Hi,

    This is in regarding the Bloggers Meet by the Akshaya Patra Foundation the largest NGO known for its mid-day meal program is striving to achieve a hunger free and educated society and is organizing a bloggers meet for all aspiring bloggers and photographers.

    Each blogger can interact with the children and in the process also click photographs of them.

    . For further Information, you can contact me on deepa@pepperpr.in

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownDecember 11, 2013 at 3:14 PM

    I would die of suffocation in such a job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 11, 2013 at 8:57 PM

      Many are condemned to tolerate such jobs out of helplessness, Pankti.

      Delete
  6. Rajeev MoothedathDecember 14, 2013 at 6:55 AM

    Nice to see the corporate situation discussed.it is only through discussion & introspection that corporates can move forward & get out of deep entrenched traps. Thanks for the post

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 14, 2013 at 10:05 AM

      Discussion and introspection are drowned beneath profit heaps, if not massive egos.

      Delete

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