The First Meeting
It was about ten pm on a Saturday in India’s city of dreams, Mumbai. In the bedroom of a tiny apartment, Veronica James lay tangled in a horrible nightmare. The nightmare was no figment of her imagination. It was the mangled pieces of her nightmarish past. In her mind, she was transported back about ten years.
A much younger Veronica was rudely awakened by fingers fondling her. It was Simon. He was back late from work and had decided to play with his toy first before relaxing in other ways. It was always a set routine with three focal points. At the end of the process, her lips felt violated and burnt, her chest felt like a festering wound with pus flowing from it and, the lower part of her body numb. It was not a violent act; it was just a degrading one. At the end of it, she always felt like a thing who had served her purpose. When Veronica managed to open her eyes, after controlling her tears, Simon was watching television. For him, one entertainment was over, he had moved to the next one before he slept for the night.
Back in Mumbai, Veronica opened her eyes at this point, feeling again like the abused animal she had felt back then. She looked around the room assuring herself that she was safe now and the nightmare was long over.
The next day around five in the evening, Veronica sat in a coffee shop. An elegantly dressed woman in her forties came to her table and joined her. Veronica had been waiting for her. She introduced herself as Rajeshwari Sharma. They had met at a training conference a year earlier and Rajeshwari had taken an instant liking to the tough, immensely talented Veronica.
Rajeshwari had a job proposition for Veronica but it was not a simple one. Over coffee, she explained. She was the HR head of a small BPO called Neo Vista. It was founded about ten years ago by two IIM graduates, Sambit Arihant Mhaswade and Abhay J, who came to India after a successful stint working in America. The company was now one of the respected Indian companies in the field of outsourcing. The company had no women in their roles for nearly nine years of their existence. Then last year, as a conscious policy change, Mr. Mhaswade decided to bring women in. But none of them survived more than a week in the company. Then six months earlier, Rajeshwari was personally hired by Mr. Mhaswade as the HR head with her main responsibility being creating an inclusive organization.
Rajeshwari: “The senior management has become more stringent about behavioral issues now. I’ve had to issue a few warnings once in a while but things are as normal as any workplace now. I hope I have not frightened you so far.”
Veronica: “No, on the contrary, I’m curious now.”
Raje: “That’s good then because what I have to offer is not for the weak-hearted, nor someone who is looking for a regular job. You have to be a crusader for training and employee development and at the same time someone who can meet men at their level. There is a lot of work to be done to get this company to an international level. There is no formal appraisal system, no established employee training and, development facilities; no quantitative way to gauge a person’s performance... the list is endless.
As for you personally, all I can formally say is that I can give you a really good remunerative package. Mr. Mhaswade has left it entirely to me with no limits. But I could not give you a formal designation and clear-cut roles. You will be all in and your formal designation would be a Senior HR Rep, maybe. So that is that...”
Veronica: “Well, Ms. Sharm…”
Raje: “Call me Raje please.”
Veronica: “Okay. All of this sounds interesting but I enjoy my current job. There is probably no other place where a training professional would be more satisfied than here. But that said you have certainly piqued my interest. So, is it okay if I mulled it over and gave you an answer in a week?”
Raje: “That is fine. I will be waiting for your answer.”
About two months later, at 8:30 am on a Monday, Veronica walked into the Vista office, expecting to attend an induction program. She found herself facing a rude receptionist who told her to go to the second floor and gave her Raje's cubicle number. There was only one woman sitting in an otherwise empty section of the floor. The woman came up to her and said, “You must be Veronica. I’m Aditi, HR. Raje asked for you to wait here. She’ll be here by nine and will set you up.” Veronica was a little surprised, but said, “Thank you.” As Aditi turned to go, she said with an apologetic smile, “Welcome to Neo Vista”.
By the end of her first week, Veronica embraced her job. The challenges excited her. She was already beginning to understand the passion and sheer anger that drove Raje to better the place and it had started to drive her too.
But as she walked into the office on Friday, the end of her second week at Vista, Veronica had a strange feeling inside of her. She pushed it to the recesses of her mind, attributing it to another sleepless nightmarish night. Nevertheless, she had something to be excited about that day. She was scheduled to accompany Raje to her meeting with Mr. Mhaswade.
At a quarter to eleven, Veronica made her way to the Operations Department on the fourth floor. As she passed by a meeting room, she found a girl huddled in a chair and a group of guys was surrounding her trying to intimidate her. The girl seemed to be crying piteously and the men looked menacing. Without a second thought, she pushed open the door and was standing inside glaring at the men. The three men jumped a little, looked at her, then one of them said, “Get out” and they continued back to work at the girl. Nonplussed, she said, “Get off the girl, you ***.” They looked back at her and one of them came and stood too close to her, trying to scare her. She stared back at the guy without flinching and he backed off. Veronica then walked up to the girl, pushed the guy standing over her and he went flying into the wall. This seemed to paralyze the other guys. She asked the girl to follow her out of the room.
She had barely reached the door when it opened, and she felt a strong energy field crash into her. In the doorway stood a guy, with a wild angry look on his face. The forcefulness of his personality reminded Veronica of Simon and she was momentarily weakened. She was revived by the guy shouting right into her face, “Get the *** out”. In reply she walked right past him, pulling the girl’s arm along. But her movement was arrested when he tugged the girl’s other arm.
Veronica: “Let go of her hand.”
That guy: “She is in my team. You let go.”
Veronica: “That does not make her your slave. She is in no position to talk to anyone.”
That guy: “I will say this only one more time. Let go of her hand.”
All this while the girl was being pulled both sides and was beginning to faint. The deadlock was broken by the sudden, rushed arrival of both Raje and Sam Mhaswade, whom Veronica would be introduced to later.
Sam: “Vernon, leave the girl alone.”
He left the girl’s hand immediately.
Veronica: “I think she will need some feminine assistance. I’m not equipped for this.” (Raje smiled at this and gestured to one of the girls on the floor to take the near-fainting girl away.)
Vernon was about to leave the scene when Sam called out to him.
Sam: “Wait a minute. Time for a little introduction.” and turning to Veronica he said: “James, this is Vernon Isaac. He is a manager but generally runs the whole show on the floor.” and turning to Vernon he said: “I would like you to meet Veronica James. She’s been hired to whip this place in shape and I think she has made a good beginning with you.” (He said this with a look on his face which showed Vernon that he was displeased with him.)
Veronica raised her eyebrow a bit and extended her hand in a handshake. He did not extend his hand, just gave her a curt nod, acknowledged Sam and, walked away. Veronica, unmoved, moved her hand towards Sam. He took her hand in a hearty handshake and said, “That was good work, James. It seems like an auspicious start. Let’s talk in my office.”
They had prepared a presentation for him. Sam was pleased with the presentation and all that they had proposed. As a parting thought, Sam had emphasized that Veronica would need to work closely with Vernon Isaac if all of these ideas were to be practically implemented. As she left the office that day, Veronica knew her days were going to get interesting. She knew she would have to be on her professional best if she wanted to work with that *** and not punch his nose. And the ordeal was to start the very next day.
Veronica said, “Well, Mr. Isaac, let us get to business. I hope you went through the reports I sent you. What do you think about it?”
Vernon: “Well, first of all, I think we should move out of this stuffy meeting room and talk in the breakout area. It will be casual and comfortable.”
Veronica: “Thank you for the offer. I like to do business in work areas. Do you want me to give you the summary of what the report contains and then we could discuss further?”
Vernon:” I want you, definitely, but not to give me any summary.” (This with a grin on his face)
Veronica was trying hard not to lose her cool. So, she proceeded to explain her findings. And all the while Vernon kept looking up and down her body with a lustful look on his face. This at first surprised Veronica because she always dressed very conservatively, more like a man. She had on a three-piece formal suit and her blazer was pinstriped, which made her look very professional but unattractive. Her long hair was pulled into a tight knot and she had on no makeup. Gradually the surprise turned into anger as she realized he was being rude just because she was a woman. She still tried to maintain a semblance of cool and continue with what she was saying but the man was not listening. Finally, she stopped, gathered her papers and, stood up. “Thank you, Mr. Isaac, for your time. I think you should read the reports and let us know if you agree with what we are proposing. Have a nice day.”
She had reached the end of the bay when she heard some guy ask Vernon, “[1]kya bol rahi thi?” and he replied, “***! [2]Mujhe kaam sikhane aayi thi.” Veronica had to muster her entire self-control not to turn back and start a fight. She clenched her fists and walked in a frozen state to her desk. She was her calm, unemotional self by the time she reached her desk.
That day as she entered her apartment, after a long day at work, Veronica could sense an old depression coming upon her. As she got into bed, she thought it would be another sleepless night. She had been a confirmed insomniac for some years now but had never given in to medication, preferring to stay awake the whole night reading, studying or, watching movies. Tonight, she fell into a deep sleep and nightmares chased her through the night. Then Veronica woke up with a start and calmly started reading a book that lay beside her. It was a normal night in the life of Veronica, confirmed workaholic, confirmed insomniac, confirmed machine in human form.
The whole of next week, Raje and Veronica worked on putting together a comprehensive report. It included details of formal induction programs, initial and process training done by other world-class companies. Veronica added a lot of data about comparative performance and process analysis, building a really strong case for change for the better.
A week later there was a meeting to discuss Veronica’s report and the plan of action to be taken. Sam and Raje were chairing the meeting. Present were the managers from all the lines of business, including Vernon Isaac.
Piyush Agarwal, a manager, asked, “VJ, where did you get these numbers from? Is there a report that compares …?”
Veronica had a surprised look on her face. With all eyes on her, she looked for a second towards Sam and then said, “I used the ‘Datamatic*’ tool”.
Piyush: “What is the ‘Datamatic*’ tool?”
Veronica again looked towards Sam and he was grinning widely.
Veronica: “This tool gives the performance data for each of the teams. It has various functions to compare various kinds of data. It is an easy-to-use, comprehensive tool. ”
While the dazed managers digested this information, Raje sarcastically said, “I thought Ops only rejected ideas from HR. Didn’t realize they ignored Mr. Mhaswade’s ideas too!”
Sam: “Not their fault, Rajeshwari. I developed the tool and didn’t tell them about it. If I had, we probably wouldn’t have met targets. Those were different times. Now we have the luxury to look into employee welfare while meeting targets.”
Vernon cleared his throat and said, “I have a small question here. What’s wrong with employee welfare now?”
Raje: “What’s wrong? The appropriate thing to ask is what is right. There is no centralized tool and guidelines for employee appraisal. Every manager ranks employees based on his whims and fancies. There is no training for people to improve their skills, no guidance on what their skills are and if they fit into the team, they are in. No tool…”
Vernon cut in: “How is this important to business? People get paid for their work. They are happy and they will continue to be until they are mollycoddled by women.”
There was laughter around the table.
Raje: “This is an outrage. It is high time people on this floor respected women...”
Vernon: “If they were supposed to be taken seriously, they would have been. Nobody...”
Sam: “Isaac, I think that is enough. James, let’s hear your plan. James…”
While this was going on, Veronica had shut her mind off the meeting and was playing some game on her mobile.
Veronica: “Okay. We’re back. Next is the employee appraisal system that we plan to implement...”
Sam: “One minute. I’m sure you are all aware that Foster and Quinn consultancy will be developing that system for us. They will have questionnaires and interviews with all managers. Please ensure that you explain everything to them. James will be our liaison with them. So, you could approach her for any clarifications you need. Continue, James.”
Veronica: “Okay, next is our training and development plan.”
Vernon: “Now, what are we developing here?”
Veronica: (her usual calm self) “Professional human beings that can compete with the best in the world.”
Sam laughed aloud at that.
Vernon sat beaten for the rest of the meeting.
Veronica: “First of all we will have a small formal induction program for all new joiners so they can get an idea about the company and its work culture. I’ve included basic work training in this induction period, which is optional at this time. It could be implemented if there are no immediate floor requirements. We also propose a formal process training program, for which we would need the help and co-operation of leads and technical guys. For the initial phase, we’ll do it and then hand it over to designated tech leads and process trainers as and when they are identified.
Rajeshwari: “Just one comment here. Training will continue to oversee the process and will hire and train process trainers.”
Sam: “This is not about the Training department. This is about how we can improve the usability of our employees. Let’s not make this an inter-departmental issue.”
A manager: “What is this Training? I did not know we had a department by that name.”
(Laughter again)
Sam: “I think once things are streamlined, Training can always assume an observational and support role. Does that fit into your plan, James?”
Veronica: “Works for me. I believe that Training should be an enabler, something that should help Ops do their job better. I…”
Rajeshwari: “VJ! She sometimes gets carried away with her idealistic thoughts. We will do more than that.”
Sam: “Okay, you and James get on with building the Training team and creating the training programs. Ops will lend full support to successfully implement the system.”
Once they were outside the room and the two women left, Vernon: (aside to the men) “Oh we will, as long as the trainers are attractive.”
Walking back to his room, Sam started thinking about Vernon. His womanizing was going to great extremes and had started affecting his work. In the last year or so he had not contributed significantly towards taking the business to another level. All his amazing potential seemed to be lost in his hatred for women. For Sam alone knew that what others took to be womanizing was misogyny. Vernon slept with women to feed the hatred inside him and the women he slept with never recovered fully from the shock of the experience. Sam loved Vernon like a son and wondered sadly what could cure this otherwise good kid.
