My friend is unthrilled today. Oh! Do pardon me for that jarring discrepancy. It is one of the curses of being a regular writer. There comes a point when I forget the bindings of a formal dictionary, and start coining new words to record the extremes that I observe or experience around me. With observation and experience as my teachers, and with expressiveness being the only end, I've been known to toss out dictionaries and to go forth with firm faith that my word will fit right in and make sufficient sense to most of my readers. Haven't failed yet.
Well, getting back to the topic at hand, the friend works with a tech startup of sorts. I mean to say, it's a firm that can be called a startup today for mere technicality. At one time it was actually what it quite unabashedly claims to be today: a startup. At that distant time it had an amazing run; those were it's golden days. With a huge share of the market in its basket, it was ruling the tech space it served. It hadn't the ostentatious overheads of the multinationals, nor the associated idiosyncracies. Among non-technical staff, they had a simple, but efficient accounts manager, an amiable young woman for a HR executive, a couple of assistants to the directors, and a couple of housekeeping and tea-making staff. That's the place my friend had started his career at. And I daresay he was happy then.
Until the M&A changed the scene. Well, as they say, when it rains, it pours. This change lead to a series of changes and corporate adjustments. Each sediment brought in another layer of a dirty domain of dominance to bear upon the unsuspecting original employees. The long and short of it is that now my friend is troubled immensely by a brand new Head of HR.
Now, I daresay he was in one of his exalted moods even last month around his pay day. The amount seemed slightly larger than usual. He put it down to the probability that they had released a couple of months' arrears on his increment along with his regular salary. When he told me, it had seemed even to me to be a reasonable supposition. Understandable, he was quite the party host that day. He was thrilled, you see.
But I know you remember the creative word in my first sentence, which was that my friend is unthrilled today. This pay day, he got about thirty per cent less than his regular pay. There were no explanations given. In fact, there was complete radio silence from the Head of HR until he called her and pointed out the discrepancy.
When the explanation did come, it was worse than none. It seems that the previous month's increase wasn't the result of any arrears being released as we had supposed, but was the ill impact of a blunder on the part of HR, where a portion of somebody else's salary was posted into the accounts of my dear friend. And this month, they've silently rectified their blunder by deducting the said amount from his accruals.
Such an event begs us to question the authenticity of the qualifications and of the competence of the said HR Head and her team. Not only about such a blunder, but also, and even more importantly, about the all round silence maintained about it. The lack of even the basic courtesy to communicate this with the affected employee and to apologize for one's mistake. This lack is a gaping hole that raises serious doubts about the integrity and professionalism of the concerned HR personnel.
Well, that, and my friend is quite unthrilled today.
-- Pradeep K (Prady)
#OfficeHumor #CorporateLife #WorkplaceWoes #HRHumor #FunnyStories #Satire #WorkplaceDrama #OfficeAntics #CorporateComedy #FunnyFail
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