The Manager and the Recruit : The Office Shorts #1

 

The continuous ringing of the desk phone irritated Meghna to an unbearable level. For the past fifteen minutes she was trying to conclude the report on analysis of the variation in operating expenses in between actual and budgeted for the half year ended. In her previous company it would only take her perhaps one or two days to complete the same task but here at the MNC, she had taken the whole week to complete and now when the conclusion was almost reached, she was having doubts over her own work. A new recruit coming in from a mid-sized Technology developing company to the new Multinational Life Insurance Company, she had had a nightmare in her first five months since induction.  Being a part of the team, which was handling expense variation analysis of the large sized MNC, she often got nervous, stressed out and of course warned upon by her manager for her inefficiency at various occasions.

In her previous company, she had been part of the team which was one of best performers. However, the manager at her present company couldn’t see much of the promise which was evident during the hiring process. Only one month was left for completing her probation period and she had a fair idea that she was surely going to have a difficult time to keep her job intact.

The present manager, Rajinder Awasthi, had given a hint that her performance wasn’t up to mark and the seniors were watching. Inability to meet deadlines and frequent errors in data workings were getting repetitive. In the cut throat competition in which she had entered the company, she couldn’t keep up with the pace with which work happened in the MNC scenario. Meghna’s team was headed by two mid –level managers, Rajinder Awasthi and Shridhar Iyer, who were reporting to the senior manager. Both the managers were working with the company for more than five years. Both of them had tried to help Meghna in most of situations but the stress factor and the fear of failure often erased the benefits of the manager’s help. The managers would often solve her doubts in person and also ensured their support at any time of the day. Meghna was asked by the managers to bring the constraints to them so that they would help her solve the same. However, things weren’t working out. It was at this time when one of the managers, Rajinder Awasthi had to take an emergency leave. In his place, a temporary manager, Alisha Gujral, was transferred to head Meghna and team. Alisha was associated with the company for more than seven years and had worked in various verticals. She had started as an Executive and risen to the level deputy manager in no time.

The first aspect that Alisha did was to study the performance evaluation reports of all the team members and as expected, Meghna’s evaluation caught her attention as it was a concern for her as a manager. she observed that Meghna had only one month left for completing her probation period. Over the next three days, Alisha observed the recruit with respect to daily reporting, communications, contribution to the team and of course quality of reports and workings. One evening, out of the blue, Alisha invited Meghna for a coffee at the company’s cafeteria to have one on one causal chat.

“I have gone through your recruitment paper. You do have good experience backing you.  So tell me, how was it working in your old company?”

Meghna took a sip of coffee and gave a thought about the things she would be speaking. For the next twenty minutes, Alisha just listened. she observed that Meghna was smiling and was excited and of course happy to share her happy days at his earlier office.

“That’s great. It seems really interesting. So, tell me, how do you find your new company?”

Meghna took another sip.

“It’s good and nice. Lots to learn.”

“Only Good? We thought we are an MNC.” Replied Alisha in a casual tone.

Meghna forced a smile on her face.

“Okay tell me now, what was your most challenging project till date which many would have told to be impossible but you had successfully done it?”

Meghna got confident smile on her face as she got ready to narrate his most challenging project which she had completed at his previous job.

“That’s incredible.” Replied Alisha upon hearing,

“Really, do you really thing it was incredible?”

“Yes, of course, if you can crack something like that so confidently, I am very sure that you are in for a great time ahead. If you have the belief or shall I say, the thought that you are going to do great, you are going to give your hundred percent, you will not be negative, then I think that no one can stop you from performing great.”

For the first time since joining the company, Meghna felt relaxed. Hardly did she know that it was already forty-five talking with Alisha.

“So, what do you say?” asked Alisha.

Meghna had a confident look on her face. A look that Alisha hadn’t seen in the previous three days.

They took their own ways from the cafeteria and one month later, Meghna got confirmed as a permanent employee. In the last month, the Meghna had performed very well way above the expectations and all the managers had noted her improvement and were satisfied with her work.

 In the lift one day, the manager who had gone on an emergency leave, Rajinder Awasthi, met Alisha who had handled Meghna in his absence.

“You know that recruit, Meghna, who was facing a lot of issues. She got confirmed yesterday. Her performance had improved by double in the last one month. I just wanted to know, what did you do? How did you manage?

Alisha gave a charming smile looking at him.

“I didn’t! I just motivated her and the rest was done by her. You see, motivation is the best medicine for any human at any point of time.”

As the lift door opened up,

“So, what were we doing?” asked Rajinder.

“I guess, baby-sitting!”