A Little Note After A Long Long Time...
Neha
I'd hate the year to end with no post in this space. Though I have been thinking for months to pen down something, but time and circumstances just wouldn't allow. The readership has almost dried up, while my blog friends have also stopped asking when I'd write next. This is what happens when you ignore your blog for so long. And of course, I am to blame for it.

2013 has had its highs and lows. On one hand, it gave us a major blow on the personal front and on the other, I paved a new path on the work front. With another month left before the curtains finally fall, life is all set to take a new turn.

This year gave us a setback when we lost our father. He had been suffering for long and it had been even harder towards the end. Losing a parent is one of the most difficult things in life and especially when you have lost another one years ago. Yet, you have to let go. Death is indeed the most harsh truth of life, one thing that you cannot turn away from. It instills a fear in you, a fear of the unknown and the uncertainly of life itself. Things appear from a different perspective altogether and you begin analyzing and assessing every relationship in life.

It's certainly difficult, but then we had to move on. No one ever gets any other choice, do we?

To say I didn't miss blogging would be incorrect. I haven't written for months, something I have missed a lot. In fact, I have been so close to writing and content all this while and yet not written a word! There are plenty of drafts sitting in there to be completed and a great number of post ideas that seem to appear and disappear simultaneously. However, the one thing missing is that extra effort from my end to actually sit down and write! Any tips for that?

Writing is one thing that has always given me solace and I yearn to get back to it. It helps me get sorted; and tonight, as I type this, I can feel a new gush of energy within me. Yes, I need to get back to it, to writing, to blogging, to you all. And I will now.

Leaving tonight on this note, with a promise to myself that I will write more before the year ends. The posts will get better is another promise and you'd soon find the same old Neha back to where she belongs - writing & blogging :)

Till then, take care and stay precious.

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My First Brush with Office Politics... My Corporate Saga (Part 6)
Neha
(Read the other parts here.)

As we settled in the new place, life at work was beginning to change. We were no longer treated as 'freshers' and results were expected from us now. There were scores maintained and ratings given for every call we took. We were taught to treat the caller/client as the 'king', no matter what kind of language the 'king' used. It was okay to mutter back but even more important was to ensure you are not heard, even by yourself!

I continued to treat work the way I had treated other things in life so far. I worked towards improving my scores and performance while trying to enjoy work. I hadn't got around to liking it yet as it still seemed forced on me. However, there were targets to be met and I focused my energy on that instead of reminiscing over what could have been. There were other teams on the floor and competition was fierce. Scores were shared every other day along with the team's collective performance.

It was just another day in office when I was struggling to type the conversation I'd just had with a customer. Looking for alphabets on the keyboard then seemed like hunting for needles in a haystack (seriously!). 

A guy from another team, someone who I saw chit chatting more than working, walked up to my workstation. After the customary 'hi', I resumed typing. He stood behind me, watching intently, enough to make me stop and turn around.

"Real slow typing, huh?"

"Yeah, still not used to it."

"You'll be an expert at it in a few days. Anyways, are you friends with that girl in our team?" He gestured towards the bay behind us.

"Yeah, known her since we joined together. Why, is there some problem?"

"I heard her talking about you and what I heard was not nice." His voice was barely audible.

"Ohh, what did she say?" My curiosity was at the peak and I could feel the tension growing inside me.

He went on to tell me the "negative talk" that had been going on about me, about my selfishness, my competitive nature etc. etc. As he spoke, anger welled up within me. Who were these people to pass judgement about me? Who are they to discuss what I am supposed to do or how I should be? Questions like these surged in my mind. 

After a while he left, leaving me reeling in anger. Any amount of distraction didn't help as I continued to do my work normally. As soon as I could, I took a break, got myself a cup of coffee from the vending machine and stood by myself on the staircase, trying to calm myself. True, I had never been a world favourite, but was also not told of such things on my face before either. 

A senior team member walked up to me then and inquired what was wrong. When I told her what this guy had said and that I had considered that 'girl' to be a friend, she asked me if I had spoken to her about it. I obviously hadn't. 

She pointed out then, "You are believing this guy you barely know and based on what he's said you've made an opinion about this girl you've known and been with for a few months now. If you look at it objectively, this guy knows you two are friends and assumes that you two share office and work related matters too and being in the same different team as the girl, he doesn't want that their team's matters, if there are any like those, to be revealed to you. So, what he did is simple. He made you believe that your friend is talking ill about you and you did just that. This is called politics, dear, rather office politics.C'on now, let's go inside." She smiled.

She was right. I did just that. I believed in this stranger and was all set to vow against speaking to a friend. Whether the reason or gain that my senior said was valid or not, the logic seemed to make sense. 

Over the next few days, I got to know more about this guy and thanked my stars that I never believed in him. And then, another fine day, he walked up to me while I stood waiting for my cab, "I see you are still friends with that girl. Remember, what all she said about you?"

I smiled back, "That's okay. You know what! There are so many people talking about you all the time too." I boarded my cab. 

Thinking of the look on his face at that time makes me smile even today. 

Office politics? Sorry, not with me!

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Blogdosts, this is part of the series 'My Corporate Saga'. I will share my experiences, the challenges I faced, the achievements I accomplished, and the falls I suffered in my eight years of life as a working woman. It will highlight the problems a single girl faces in a new city and in a new job among strangers. It will also tell you how I managed to move along. The sweet and happy moments, the sour and frightening ones, all will be part of this series. Read the other parts here.




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