I was then on probation. My Accounts Manager loved tennis. In the evenings, just as were supposed to close them books of account, i would have differences staring at me from the ledger folios. He would walk out after informing me that he expected me to balance them accounts books by dusk. He would then leave for his game of tennis.
I sat meditating over probable differences among the huge amounts hidden among the ledger folios. As sleep haunted my confused mind. he would return after his tennis game. He would wipe his forehead with a towel and reassure me “we shall balance”… He did nothing except smile. As he de-sweated himself, anger gnawed within me at the helplessness of a subordinate … I had to go home… so i would concentrate on them irreconcilable figures as i pored through them vouchers and the “clean cash journals”, and sought the hidden figures.
Sometime later, I would find the truant difference. I would then announce to him that i was about to close my books of account. “We have balanced”, he would proclaim….
One night i could bear no more of this hypocrisy and asked him quite strongly as to why did he include himself in ‘the ‘we’ even as he did nothing much. He smiled. “Bosses do not do. They challenge. They motivate. They groom. They build the subordinate’s confidence.” Sometimes, I think he is right.
storiesofmigrant 