Idiosyncracies

I hope I spelled the word right in the subject line.

A colleague whose husband has gone on a tour, had brought the newspaper to office and said- I am getting to read my newspaper in office after so many days, and added- actually my hubby has this habit of taking the paper to loo (I know many such people who do), and after that I don’t feel like reading the newspaper at all. What an insight. I responded by sharing a similar problem of mine, when my wife reads the paper first, she scatters all the pages as if a hurricane has read the paper, and I end up not reading the paper or rearranging all the pages to make it readable first.

All of us have such eccentricities. Another one of mine is related to eating. When wify shares what she is planning to make for breakfast or dinner, then my mind subconsciously goes into eating mode for that dish. And if she suddenly changes the item, I feel cheated and angry. I know, it’s idiotic but that is me for you.

I have another bad habit. If I am sharing a joke or one-liner, and I feel it is being appreciated by listener/s, I end up repeating the line 3-4 times. I pledge almost every time I notice it, not to do it again. But next time, I end up doing it again.

Then you have people wearing rings on all the fingers, or gold chains all around. There are people with OCD habits like washing their hands many times a day, and if you see them washing their hands, it’s a treat or punishment, depending on how you view it. One of my colleagues not only washes his hands 10 times a day, he almost washes the whole tap, sink, slab and what not in the office toilet. Exaggerated a little bit, but he is almost there, and he takes literally 5 minutes for one hand-wash.

One of my ex-bosses has this habit of dialing another number from another phone, while he is speaking to someone on his mobile/landline. Most of the times, the phone gets connected and he does not know what to say to both the persons. And if I am in front of me, he will hand over the phone to me and ask me to carry on the conversation. I don’t know who is the person, why he was called and what to say. How romantic, no!!

Another of my friends who is a heavy drinker, has the habit of drinking while driving. And the first thing he does before taking first sip is, he dips two fingers in the glass and sprinkles three times in the air outside. This he says is offering to Lord Shiva. Strange, right.

Such is life. And it goes on.

 

Boss peeves

First of all, I don’t get it why senior officers are interested in their photo coming out everyday in newspapers, and even in small shitty newspapers no one reads. Then newspapers have become smart and have come out with marketing-controlled half-page once or twice every week, and they oblige big clients by carrying their news and photos. I heard comment one CEO of another company called these pages Obituary pages, but even he does not mind his photo coming in these pages. There is a sort of childish competition as to whose photo comes first and at what position. My hunch is that more than top management, the juniors  are more keen on this for earning brownie points.

Aniways coming to the point today, a photo release was sent to marketing group, and as usual a junior followed it up with a call. One of my seniors also followed it up with major newspapers. So today when the photo did not come out, he called me up and started shouting, why did the photo not come out. Take your junior to task. Actually he was angry over me, but I don’t know why he did not accuse me directly. The fact is that HE ALSO CALLED NEWSPAPER IN FRONT OF ME YESTERDAY TO GET THE PHOTO PUBLISHED AND WAS GIVEN COMMITMENT. So how the hell me or my junior are responsible when you yourself have monitored. But I did not say anything to his face. But why do these seniors don’t realize.

Same senior earlier accused me of putting him in soup, over late release of an advertisement. Fact is that we were waiting for an approval, and knowing that approval might come late, I had asked him to release the ad. But concurring department did not agree, and he did not take the risk of releasing on his own. But as and when there is a mention, he also blames me. One colleague told me last week, that this boss told him in similar context, that get okay from concurring department fast, since due to same problem, I was trapped in  problem. SO he did accept, that it was in his knowledge why the delay happened. But still he blames me. False lives.

On another occasion, he had cleared an advertisement in which caption was printed wrong, but when top management wanted to take someone to task, he put the entire blame on me. What leadership.

Same problem I have faced with other bosses also. They see, clear, okay everything. But when there is a mistake, they don’t accept responsibility or part-ownership. Credit is their, but when their is delay, junior is responsible.

And poor non-assertive me, I can never tell them on their face that they are aware of everything, and now they are pretending to be ignorant and un-involved.

Bosses, bosses everywhere, no leader anywhere. :(((