From Dumb Boss to Clever Boss – The transition.

Often those bosses who are nice, kind and gentle are thought of as dumb and foolish – by those very people who work under them. Maybe deep inside the human psyche, it has gotten deeply etched that Bosses should be (are) tyrannical brutes who will kick the butt (of employee) at the slightest pretext!

In my personal life I have observed this pretty closely. For example the maids who come to wash utensils and clean etc. they were paid by us on the very first day of the month. We never delay salary because we think that they are poor people who more or less live hand to mouth – so paying on the very first day is the least that our kind of middle class people can do for them. And on top of that – we never cut the salary for absenting etc…again thinking that they are humans after all – they can obviously fall sick and feel unwell – so absenting is but natural for them! But this attitude of ours got backfired!! You see when the maid saw that we give her full salary irrespective of whether she is working for 25 days or 20 days or even 18 days, she thought that we are pure IDIOTS! What she then started doing was – she went to other houses on time without absenting a single day also – but called us up – coughed a bit and said that she is unable to come because of any one of the following reasons::

1. She slipped and fell
2. She is having a terrible headache
3. She suddenly got guests
4. She has to pick up ration
5. She has to take her child/ mother/father/husband to the doctor
6. Other unheard of reason too…

So she was basically cheating on us – why? Because we belonged to the duffer category of Boss! We thought we were being humane but we were grossly mistaken! She reported to those bosses on time who were very clear from day one about their attitude towards them –

1. You absent, we cut your salary.
2. You break something, we cut your salary
3. We cannot pay on the very first day of the month – we will pay only after the 10^th of each month (so that the worker does not leave and go for greener pastures)
4. We don’t give any advance of any kind – any festival or ceremony is none of our business
5. Every day you leave our house, better show your bag to us – we will check your bag (to see if you have stolen anything or not – the dumb bosses that we were – we never checked that – and we knew very well that she was taking garlic, ginger, tea leaves, sugar, detergent powder & even cooking oil – and much more…even clothes and saree!!)

Anyways, how long can a person cheat – invariably we came to know that she had been conning us – so we asked her to leave. Of course she screamed, shouted, cried – did everything to stay back – where else do you get such dumb bosses huh!?

Conclusion – I guess…in Rome, do what the Romans do! And thus slowly and gradually the dumb boss becomes a clever boss…..which the workers actually deserve!

This particular thingy – as described above…happens at all levels…all the levels!