Should I have kept quiet?
I was 22 years old. I was working for a Navaratna public sector company as an Engineer in the Marketing Operations team in a Terminal in Mumbai. Our life was limited to meeting our peers, our manager and the skip manager who was also sitting in the same terminal and was responsible for managing the terminal complex. We never got to see a leader from outside the terminal for several years. The only time we saw them was in the induction program. The Gallup philosophy was very true that managers engaged or disengaged employees as we were never exposed to anyone else those days.
In one of the terminal meetings, I broached the subject with the Senior Manager Terminal Complex (Let us call him Mr Seth) and asked if it was possible to invite a senior leader from head office to come down to the terminal and talk to us. Mr Seth hesitantly took it up with the Chief General Manager (Let us call him Mr Menon). Mr Menon graciously accepted the offer and came over to the terminal on a Saturday afternoon. When he asked us if he could help us address any of our problems, I promptly spoke about the fact that the HR team in the head office was far removed from the ground reality. The idiom that management is manage-men-tactfully does not seem to work with the Industrial Relations situation in the terminal. Dutta Samant ruled the area back then. I requested that one of the HR managers from the head office be posted in the terminal complex to teach us on the ground how to manage e workers without resorting to industrial workplace practices that were unwarranted. Mr Menon heard me and nodded his head.
After the meeting, Mr Seth told me that this was a career suicide.
On Monday morning I got a call from a friend in the corporate HR team. He said,
“Prashant what did you do in Mr Menon’s meeting?”
ME; “Nothing. Why?”
Friend: “Someone has recommended your transfer to a project site on the Nepal-Bihar border. Does it have to do something with the Saturday meeting?”
I narrated what happened.
Friend: “Why did you have to do it? Why can’t you keep quiet?”
ME: “Hmmm… What next? Should I pack my bags?”
Friend: “Looks like.”
After a week… I called my Friend.
ME: “I haven’t received my transfer order yet. I am mentally disengaged and not putting in my best in my present role.”
Friend: “Please stay engaged and continue to enjoy your work. Your transfer order has been cancelled.”
ME: (Amazed!) “Why?”
Friend: “Mr Seth has refused to release you.”
ME: “Wow!”
I went to thank Mr Seth.
Mr Seth: “Do you want to win battles or wars?”
So, leaders could engage or disengage back then as well. Just that there was a 13-level hierarchy and no social media.
Today, the hierarchy has collapsed to 5 levels and social media (internal and external) is ruling the roost. Leaders are far more accessible.
What do you think?