Fired, only for a moment
I hate team meetings. More so when it is convened to iterate the do's & dont's(predominantly the latter) for the nth in two months. "Do not open cricket sites, do not access new papaer site, don't use any banking accounts, blah, blah, blah and finally use internet(read google) only for technical purposes", these are the few points that my manger, in her own words, TOUCH BASES upon in every meeting.
I received an email invite for one such meeting today, with an innocuous subject: 'General Project Updates'. It said we all had to COMPULSORILY attend the meeting at 4.30 PM, and a voting button was also included in the mail asking whether we would be able to attend it. Sigh!
My team mates and I were present in the conf. room five minutes in advance and strategically took the seats that were farthest from the speaker & closest to the exit door. I always wanted to be the first, in running out of the conference room. Hence this position. :D
If you are working in a Software Company & have attended quite a few team meetings, I'm sure you will agree with me that "Going forward", "Paradigm Shift", "Core Competency", "holistic" etc. are the pricipal words around which the meetings revolve, none of them making any sense to anyone. It has kinda become an obsession for managers so much that they can't have a peaceful weekend, if they have given any of these words a miss during the week.
I was expecting this meeting to be no different. It wasn't. Just like any other deliciouly soporofic meetings, I dozed through this one as well. And started dreaming too when suddenly I faintly heard someone whispering my name in my ear. I came back to reality and found that it was my team mate sitting next to me, who was now elbowing me.
"Fired", said my manger loudly.
For a moment I froze. Yes, I did sleep for a while. I agree it's not right. But firing someone for dozing off in the meeting is ridiculous. And how the hell can my manager decide that I should be fired? It was HR's job. I was mentally preparing myself to argue with her on these grounds when she resumed speaking. After a few seconds, I learned that I was not fired. It was one of my teammates.
He had mailed across a few sensitive documents to his personal mail & was caught by the clients while monitoring. The clients wanted this issue to be treated with "zero tolerance" (another one of those jargons that I learnt today) & my company obliged by sacking him.
My senses came but to normal, but at the same time, I was really worried about my team mate. I could empathise with my team mate, because I had just then experienced what it feels like to be fired, only for a few seconds though.
I received an email invite for one such meeting today, with an innocuous subject: 'General Project Updates'. It said we all had to COMPULSORILY attend the meeting at 4.30 PM, and a voting button was also included in the mail asking whether we would be able to attend it. Sigh!
My team mates and I were present in the conf. room five minutes in advance and strategically took the seats that were farthest from the speaker & closest to the exit door. I always wanted to be the first, in running out of the conference room. Hence this position. :D
If you are working in a Software Company & have attended quite a few team meetings, I'm sure you will agree with me that "Going forward", "Paradigm Shift", "Core Competency", "holistic" etc. are the pricipal words around which the meetings revolve, none of them making any sense to anyone. It has kinda become an obsession for managers so much that they can't have a peaceful weekend, if they have given any of these words a miss during the week.
I was expecting this meeting to be no different. It wasn't. Just like any other deliciouly soporofic meetings, I dozed through this one as well. And started dreaming too when suddenly I faintly heard someone whispering my name in my ear. I came back to reality and found that it was my team mate sitting next to me, who was now elbowing me.
"Fired", said my manger loudly.
For a moment I froze. Yes, I did sleep for a while. I agree it's not right. But firing someone for dozing off in the meeting is ridiculous. And how the hell can my manager decide that I should be fired? It was HR's job. I was mentally preparing myself to argue with her on these grounds when she resumed speaking. After a few seconds, I learned that I was not fired. It was one of my teammates.
He had mailed across a few sensitive documents to his personal mail & was caught by the clients while monitoring. The clients wanted this issue to be treated with "zero tolerance" (another one of those jargons that I learnt today) & my company obliged by sacking him.
My senses came but to normal, but at the same time, I was really worried about my team mate. I could empathise with my team mate, because I had just then experienced what it feels like to be fired, only for a few seconds though.
tell ur team mate that this is not the only sw company in the world!! :)
ReplyDeleteand ask ur manager to conduct meetings during ur non-sleeping hours! :P
Hey nice blog machan. I'm impressed to read this post especially. I'm really sorry for the guy who got fired but i couldn stop laughing as well. I dont think u can ever stay awake in a meeting at all :)
ReplyDelete@GoodEarth (what made you to think of this word? :P)
ReplyDeletemeeting during my non-sleepig hours? :-O You mean to say, "ask your manager not to conduct meetings." :D :D
@jani
Thanks machi. Coming from a person like you, I consider it a great compliment. :) Keep visiting!