Right Boss

Right boss

………

I knocked on the door of the chamber.

“Come in” I could hear Mr.Hajela calling out.

“Were you searching for me?” I asked with curiosity as I had just joined duty after spending 15 days of leave with my parents in Delhi.

“Bolt the door, I don’t want anyone to enter now.”

I was a bit apprehensive but as commanded I bolted the door from inside and sat down in front of his desk.

He opened his drawer, took out my leave application and said, “I have not sent this to the personal department yet. You said you don’t have enough leave so a part will be without pay.”

“Yes sir,” I said.

Then he did a surprising thing which I remember still to this date. He just tore off my application and said, “Now you have your leave and no pay cut.”

I became emotional by his that gesture and got up to shake his hand.

He said “I know I have called you in the dead of night to attend emergency in the plant and every time you have come willingly even leaving club parties. This is your reward, but then you know you have many types of friends so don’t share this with anyone.”

I thanked him profusely with tears in my eyes.

“Now go concentrate in your work.”

That was Mr.Hajela Deputy Chief in Electrical maintenance and my boss in Barauni Refinery, IOC. That action of his on that day made me more loyal to him. He was a flamboyant character and loved clubbing. In the club bar we were like friends, the barrier of boss and subordinate was breached there.

Coking unit was one of the vital plants of the refinery and I was responsible for electrical maintenance of that unit. I was often called in the night to attend failure of some circuit or of some drive motor. Due to some reason if I was not able to restore the fault quickly then I would find Mr.Hajela standing behind me to give moral support.

During office hours he would come by his official jeep and then would hand over it for our use. Kedar Singh, the driver will come to report to me with his log book. It was Kedar Singh who would pick me up from my quarter or from officer’s club in the night for attending emergency break downs.

I was confident that Mr.Hajela was there behind me always, a kind of blind faith. That faith gave me confidence to assure my technicians of me being there for their difficult times. That faith worked like magic, I could get their unadulterated loyalty.

For the sake of overtime payment often workers would delay the repair and put the plant on the edge. In such cases my pet rigger Tarachand would bargain with the workers on my behalf for completing the work as early as possible and he would make sure they get overtime of 5 hours for that day. This formula worked always, I could enter into such unholy nexus for the sake of completion of work because I had the blessings of Mr.Hajela. It was win win situation for both workers as well as for the organization.

On looking back I realize that much of my human engineering skill I learnt from him which I honed further by my diverse experience.

As I started climbing the corporate ladder in IOC and BHEL all those skill learnt in IOC,Barauni Refinery came handy.

The basic takeaway from Mr.Hajela was that the subordinate should feel that there is someone who looks after his interest. The boss is always there to help him with resources in work, in his difficult times, and makes sure that he gets his due appreciation.  I made it my job to align aspirations of my people with the goal of the organization. Finally it is the teamwork which produces the desired results. In short it is the empathy towards people which always gives rich dividend. The final result is mutual trust between boss and the subordinate.

I believe initial character building of an individual takes place by observing his parents and then comes teachers. Down the line somewhere friends play important role but the most important role in work life is played by the first boss. I was lucky that I could get Mr.Hajela as my first boss.

Many years later when I was heading BHEL,Eastern Region Mr.Hajela came to meet me , by that time he had retired as Director of HSCL and joined a private organization.

He was happy to see me in that position and I readily admitted to him that it was him who was responsible for my initiation in handling people and which had helped me to ascend.