Career Capers

KATHMANDU, June 22: We spend seven to eight hours a day at work surrounded by people of different temperaments. We work in close quarters with our colleagues, whom we might or might not like, and work under bosses who either inspire or depress us. The jobs that should motivate us can bore us to death sometimes.

All of us can relate to a fun or horrible day at work that leaves an indelible memory behind. We spoke to a few people who confessed their appalling actions, shared their disgruntlement with their jobs, and how they dealt with uninviting situations in their professional life.

Diner’s dilemma
When I was training in a posh hotel, I had to work in different departments and restaurants in the establishment. So one month I was based at this cafe during a particularly hot season and orders were pouring in. I was taking a break and my colleague was whizzing in and out of the kitchen carrying cold coffees, juices and cakes. After one round, he came in and gave me a tall glass of cold coffee he was carrying in his tray saying that he had mistaken the order. As he went out again, I happily started drinking the coffee but next thing I know, he’s snatching the glass from me because the customer had decided to go for the cold coffee after all. So he just refilled it and went off with it while I couldn’t do anything but helplessly stare. That incident has made me very wary of eating out.

The age factor
During a conversation, a friend and I discovered that we’ve both experienced discrimination in the workplace because we are relatively younger than the rest of the staff. In my case, I am the youngest member of the staff and this works against my favor most of the time. My opinions and ideas are sidelined and not taken seriously at all but if someone else pushes the same idea forward then it is taken up. It is simply infuriating. But I feel I cannot say anything because everyone else is years ahead of me in age and experience. Most of my seniors are holding me back instead of encouraging me and helping me learn and grow.

Love vs principles
Three years back, I was working for an IT service providing company as a Project Manager. There was a vacancy in the office for a web developer and I was given the task to screen the candidates alongside my boss. A beautiful friend of mine, on whom I had a crush, told me she wanted the job. She was a good candidate as well so I wanted to help her. What I did was I revealed the questions to her beforehand and she prepared herself accordingly. When the interview was taken, she was confident and we pretended we were strangers. She got the job and later, we also dated for a while. I do not regret doing it as she was talented and the job gave her a brighter future.

“Can anyone smell a wet dog?”
A colleague would always take off his shoes. That wouldn’t have bothered me but his feet smelled really bad. This continued for two months and I finally had enough. So one day, in a really loud voice I said “Can anyone smell a wet dog?” and I proceeded to act like it was the worst smell ever. It worked like a charm! He put his feet back in his shoesac and it hasn’t happened once since that day. In hindsight, I guess I could have been more sensitive and told him nicely but I was too irritated to care anymore.

Twisting the truth
I worked as a reporter for a magazine when I was 19 years old. The magazine was new and competing in the market. Informally, I was also made to do a bit of marketing and distribution for the company. I had been promised a nominal salary of Rs 2,500 per month. But then eight months went by and I wasn’t paid a single penny. I had to manage transportation and lunch all on my own. My parents were also annoyed that I was being exploited and I wasn’t doing anything about it. I was desperate and paranoid. I told myself that the salary was my right and I had to fight for it. Mustering up some courage, I went to the receptionist and threatened her that if my salary is not given, I shall use my contacts of ‘tough brothers’ and break the office and smash the computers. I could not believe that it worked! I got my money the next day which I used to repay some debt and buy gifts for my family.

Playing hooky
I’m a dedicated doctor now but when I was an intern, I was quite mischievous. It was toward the end of my internship when I found myself late for duty. I was supposed to be at the hospital from 8 AM to 4 PM for the pediatric rotation but it was already 9:30 when I reached the hospital’s parking lot. There I met a fellow intern who was hurrying away from the hospital with the intention of bunking his duty. Between us, we made a plan to ditch duty together and called up two other friends (who didn’t have work) and we headed to Lakuri Bhanjyang. It was a fun day. As the new session of internship had already started, new interns were at the hospital and we weren’t missed. No one called us and we didn’t say anything when we reported for duty the next time.

The mysterious case of the attendance register
I had been working in this publishing house for over three years. Work was fun but they had very strict office hours. In the morning, even if we reached a minute late, our attendance was marked in yellow. If the yellow mark totaled to three in a month, they would deduct a day’s wage from our monthly salary. Since I lived alone and was single then, I could manage to literally live in the office, but many of my colleagues didn’t reach office on time everyday—some of them lived really far away, some had children to tend to in the mornings, and some assumed the management would excuse them because they had worked late the previous day. The management, however, never considered any reasons, no matter how valid they were. I was particularly sad when I found out that one of my colleagues (who was really hardworking and dedicated) wasn’t given his full salary for he had four yellow marks that month. One fine evening, as I went to sign myself out, I saw that the girl in the administration desk wasn’t there. And since no one saw me, I simply lifted up the attendance register, put it in my bag and left the office. I dumped it on a river bank on my way home.

The mysterious case of the attendance register became the talk of the organization for many months ahead. Funnily, my name was nowhere in the management’s list of ‘suspects’ that I came to know later on, since I had never earned a single yellow mark. Everyone played their guess games and I enthusiastically participated in all their conversations, silently patting my own back for everyone opined that whoever took away the register did a great job. No, I have never felt guilty about it.