Conflicts between employer and employee are routine. I don't mean the open confrontations that result in double-quick firing and become the stuff of legends. Rather, I refer to the subterranean stuff that is carried out under the radar. The stiff hellos and forced smiles. The sudden refusal to ask out for lunch. The absence of the hand on the shoulder. And so on.
The kind I face at my workplace relates to the quantum of responsibilities. As a CAT (Common Admission Test) trainer, there are plenty of things that I do. Primarily, I teach English. Then I make material for classes. This includes both classroom and homework handouts as well as topicwise tests and overall mock CATs. Add to this the grading of writing assignments. Then there is the recruitment training that I conduct at various engineering colleges in Mumbai. Oh, I also prepare students for group discussion and personal training.
Now, taking classes is a strenuous exercise. One must bring all the tools of the trade - knowledge, patience, stamina - to bear on one's performance. Besides, one must strongly guard against monotony since one ends up teaching the same stuff over and over and over again.
At my workplace, we have had scheduling issues for some time because, in spite of trying, we had been unable to recruit anyone who would handle administration well. First, we had a young girl barely out of college who was completely at sea. Then we got a hotshot dude who was great but soon left to prepare for MBA himself. Then we hired another girl who was rather poor at communication. The upshot: haphazard planning, missed classes and wrong handouts.
The boss assured me it was only a matter of time before things fell in place. He spoke of Pooja, a former student who had worked with the organisation before I joined, and was now pursuing an MBA. "She wants to join us again when her MBA's done," the boss said. "She will set things right. She is fantastic."
Pooja has been with us for three months now and indeed, things are better. She has made a schedule of how sessions should proceed so that there is clarity on which class will discuss what topic. She has ensured - this may sound ordinary but trust me, it is not - that the correct handouts in the right numbers are present at the centre before the class begins. She has also been liaising with colleges to organise recruitment seminars, which is a much-needed additional revenue stream for us.
So far, so good. One consequence of all this organising is that Pooja now insists on keeping up to four classes a day. Technically, that is fine, since that adds up to eight hours. But actually teaching for eight straight hours would entail drawing upon the determination of an Usain Bolt without his genes.
She and I have since been playing this underhand game. She keeps eight-hour classes for me, I respond with a no; she says okay and shifts the class. But she does it again and again. I have discussed the matter with her but she pulls up some story about scheduling, syllabus and sessions. It's a matter too small to raise with the boss. But it's like that niggling tic that is potentially threatening.
If things come to a head and the matter does reach the boss, I suspect he will side with Pooja. One reason I left the company I was placed with at B-school was the long hours (the pay was excellent). If I start getting the same treatment here, minus the pay too, it would make little sense to stay.
If I did leave, I would have to seek employment at one of the corporate-style CAT training centres, the ones that have hundreds of students across tens of cities. Again, I will get a hefty raise but I will end up clocking a still higher number of hours. In other words, the situation is problematic any way one looks at it. If I sound like a lazy gadabout, remember I also need to make time to write columns such as this one.
I suspect the powers that be - and this would include Pooja, given her new-found vigour - know that I want to stay. Truth be told, they need me as much as I do them. The boss is an old gentleman who likes to trade stocks from home. Currently, he comes to the centre once a week to deliver the honorary lecture. If I left, he would have to get back to taking classes, a prospect that he wants to avoid at all costs.
In the event, the game carries on as each party waits for the other to blink. They, of course, have the option of hiring someone else but I have been told by a freelancer who has the ear of the boss that he is "greatly relieved" that he finally has a full-time English instructor. I don't know where or how this tug of war will end but for the moment, I will simply play it by ear.
The author has switched too many jobs in the past and hopes he can hold down this one
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
