Corporate Affairs! #wattys2016

A Case for the Employees

Mr. Singhania liked his pencils. He always sharpened them up and put them in a descending order of their respective lengths. Today was another day for him and his beloved pencils. He looked at them with the kindness that a mother would look at her baby. Suddenly a voice from behind asked, "Could I borrow one of your pencils?"

It was Mr. Ruben. He was a partially bald man, slender and a sly smile on his face. One look at his face and anyone would realize he was a born prankster. Mr. Ruben was somewhat of a nemesis to Mr.Singhania.

'No you may not. Get your pencils. The stationary has a lot of them. Why don't you take it from them? Why do you want my pencils?' Mr.Singhania wanted to say. He even said all this in his mind. But the words that came out of his mouth were somewhat different. "Of course, of course, Please take any one you like." Mr.Singhania felt hot inside. He knew Mr. Ruben. This was all just an excuse to irritate him.

Suddenly the phone rang. It was from the new director in charge, Mr.Ankit Shrivastava.

"Mr.Singhania, please call Mr. Siddique and come to my office immediately." Ankit said.

"Sure sir. Should I come now or with Mr. Siddique?" Mr. Singhania was a little confused.

"Come with Mr.Siddique. How does it matter anyway? Just come with him. I want you both here." Ankit said.

"No sir, I meant I can come directly. I mean I am just outside your office. I can come now if you want."

"What? Why are you making this complicated Singhania? Just come with Mr. Siddique."

"Sure sir.. Sure." He hung up the phone. There were beads of sweat on his forehead. Only the second day of the young director and already in the fire zone, this is not good, Mr. Singhania thought. Blast that Ruben, for distracting me, he thought.

He immediately called Mr Siddique. And of course as obedient Mr. Siddique rushed in quickly to Mr Singhania's small adjacent office in a matter of seconds. He had a few fat files in his hands.

"What is it? Why did he call us up so early in the morning. I was just having my morning tea." Mr Siddique demanded.

Mr. Singhania gulped, "Sir, it's eleven am. It's not really early morning, is it?"

"Who said that? Its early morning with respect to this office. We start working only after lunch. Don't you even know that after working 20 years in this company?" Mr. Siddique said. His eyes were now fixated coldly on Mr.Singhania. "Anyway, what did that young ignorant fool want?"

Mr.Singhania gulped again. The shirt collar was beginning to feel tighter. "Sir, it's about the file on the current employee strength. He has it. And he has quite a few questions, I think. But he did not say this. I am just guessing."

"What?"Mr.Siddique literally jumped in the air. "What? Why in the world would you want to give him that file?"

"Because he asked for it."

"He will of course ask for it. But that does not mean you should give it to him. That file was in the process of revision and it was a draft. Now he has the draft of the draft of the revision file. Don't you know we never give drafts to the Director?"

"Sir, he asked for it. I had......I had no choice."

"You always have a choice, you illiterate fool. You should have given him the final document of the last year and said we are still working on this year's file. You could have asked me." Mr. Siddique was hoarsely whispering now. He did not want the young director to him, who was in the next room. He was fuming. "Do I have to do all the work around here? Why am I surrounded by such stupidity? Good thing I anticipated this and brought a few files of my own." he continued.