Bowed out but bossed up

Right in the middle

At a leading Indian business house I had to deal with my first one. For those who get one free, he came with his wife. Life would have been cushy had I resigned myself to working for him as he did nothing official at work but got his personal stuff done and delegated brazenly. I couldn't take it anymore when I was asked to order chickoos for his home "the oval shape of eggs." This was my Hotel California moment but I managed to escape.

You might ask why I was prone to such bosses, a kind of Calamity Rajan at the workplace. I have no reasons, just that I was and this was a recurring thread in my career.

So thereafter I land this plum job at a biscuit manufacturer. I had a PR background but spent my initial months in marketing. One day a publication said they were carrying a picture of a nail in a biscuit. I offered to handle this. Though I was promised that if a valid reason was given the story would not be run, they reneged and next morning the shit hit the ceiling. Days of being victimised followed. My bosses concluded that business enmity at a high level was the cause but I had to take the rap. One can't make a habit of leaving each time this happened so I had to lump it till things cooled down.

Then I got a real PR job in a consultancy and an opportunity to work for a boss who was known in the industry. Our interviews were conducted in the parent company's plush 5-star hotel. But once done, we were relegated to a barn of an office. We were a start-up and had to scout for clients. A party thrown for prospective clients resulted in only one attending, who did not sign up. For one full year we had no business.

Our whiz kid of a boss gave a veiled ultimatum to me and a few more highly paid staff: "Guys develop a killer instinct in 3 months or..." Distraught I repeated this to my wife who replied, "As I have not seen any killer instinct in you after 3 years of marriage, I doubt if you can develop it in the time given by your boss!" Words of wisdom even if it was from my better half, I resigned the next morning. I was accused by the boss of deserting the ship. Since he was cunningly calculative, his words fell on deaf ears.

The cycle of suffering under ill-suited bosses, thankfully, ended. I set up my own PR firm and became my own boss. Here I was laughing all the way to the bank and leading juniors. How did they rate me? I'm afraid you will have to wait for their take on my style, who knows, as a reaction to this middle. Hope they don't name me as I have protected identities of my tormentors!