Summers ! I have never been a fan of this season as it makes you shed more water than you can drink. More than my dislike for this season itself is my dislike for stepping out in this season. I really wish I could hibernate like polar bears, except only I would do it in Summers instead of Winters. How wonderful it would be to sleep when it is the end of spring and wake up with the monsoon !!!
Anyhow, no matter how much I hate it, I still went out on a Sunday evening for grocery shopping. By the time I was done with it, I felt that I have showered with my clothes on except for the fact that I was drenched in sweat and feeling hot n sticky. To cool ourselves, me and the husband decided to have sugarcane juice. It looked cool and refreshing so we asked the guy to make 2 glasses. While he was taking out the juice from the sugarcane, I had an epiphany that Me and this sugarcane share a similar life story. Confused? Let me explain...
Being an Ex- Banker, I could relate to the sugarcane. The juice wallah took out some nice juicy sugarcane from the lot and put it in the machine. Some juice was extracted so he repeated it for 5 more times till the time there wasn't even a drop of juice left in it. I felt that we employees were also put through the same process every day.
The first round happens in the morning meeting itself where you are given the day's targets in the morning meeting itself and it is not even 9.30 yet. The day hasn't technically even begun yet... You come back to your work station trying to remember all the bad karmas from your past life which have landed you here.
You start your day and by 3.30 pm you have taken two more rounds of the machine. The juice which was extracted was distributed amongst your customers who have shouted on you ( for no fault of yours), have showered you in spit, have made you inhale second hand smoke, argued unnecessarily with you and basically drained you of every ounce of energy that you had gathered from your breakfast and the 10 min lunch you took. Phew !!!
The fourth round starts when you start winding up and realize that some operational mistake has been done while you were cross selling to that customer. You get down to resolving the error as your supervisor has clearly told you " cross selling was required but not the cost of operational mistakes"
When you resolve that error and start winding up for the day, it is already 7 and you are praying that at least today I can leave early by 7.30. But the fifth round starts, and just when you think there is no more juice, I mean energy left in you. but Our bosses appear - just like that juice wallah who puts the sugarcane back in the machine for the last drop of juice that can be extracted. Yes! you got it right ... Calling !!! Database calling to your customers for cross selling and generating leads. You perform this loathsome task and wonder why and how a qualified post graduate person as yourself landed in such situation.
One by one, all your dreams of a successful corporate job break in front of you eyes- the corporate presentations, the success, the promotions, the private office, the chauffeur driven car...This is the last and the final push after which you begin to wonder whether you are private bank employees or just some sugarcane!!!
