Thursday, November 4, 2010

The wonderful blunder

I joined this IT giant by the last quarter of year 2007.
In 2008 we had the great recession. Until then what glamour and lusture these IT jobs had, started to crumble like a card castle with the news papers daily reporting exciting news about hundreds of people getting laid off from work. But this company decided to avoid layoffs..and that was compensated by putting on hold all promotions and pay hikes due for that year. This got the entire staff to have a lagging promotion cycle of one year and my batch of employees, who joined in 2007 were still at just one next designation above trainees.
So this, is the background of what is to follow.

Last week one of my friends from my previous project in Chennai pinged me in internal communicator and told that there is a neat chance for us, (the 2007 batch of employees who had good rating during previous appraisal cycles) to get auto promoted this time to next designation. It seems like she had overheard few senior managers talking so. Just when she pinged me this, I got too excited. The guy who sits adjacent to me here at office also belong to 2007 batch and I somehow wanted to let him know about this happy news(..or rather, the happy sounding rumor !). As it is a ‘sensitive rumor’ regarding a most awaited promotion cycle, I never wanted people sitting around us to hear when we discuss the matter. For this very reason, I decided to ping this person in communicator and convey the news. This guy’s name was Parthasarathy, Aravind. I looked the recent chat list in my communicator and double clicked on this name and typed the entire news as one big paragraph mentioning that – My friend from Chennai overheard such a news..as this was between Sr.Managers it should be 80% true…etc etc and tapped the enter key. The ping was sent, and I was looking into the screen of my friend expecting to see my message popping up from a corner and his face brightening when he reads it. But there was an unexpected delay ! That’s when I felt to re-check the name in the chat window and LO!!! ..it was Parthasarathy, Vinod..the HR head of the Kochi location !!!!!!!

It happened like..for registering my new bike, I needed one HR letter from office stating that I am an employee here. So regarding this I had pinged him earlier that morning and this person’s name was displaying in the recent chat list. As it starts with Parthasarathy, in my excitement, I never bothered to read the full name before I launched the half heard rumor ..

I was shocked and there was no response from the other end. I typed
“sorry Vinod..that was not meant to u ..kindly ignore”

Still no response…I was cursing my absence of mind. What have I done?
I had pinged an HR head about a Corporate rumor.. mentioning that it was OVERHEARD during a CONFIDENTIAL talk between two Senior Managers..(you can’t empathize the feeling ! I bet)

Anyways, breaking the Ice, Vinod replied with a smiley telling
“its Ok Vishnu..but I guess, you took this news to the right person” !!

I apologized again and he replied..
”it’s Ok..and it’s always there at work..after all people work for money and position..even I am no different”
Hmm...phooooooo…that’s it.

Later that day, I had to go to his room to get that HR letter. I went there with a plain face as if nothing had happened !
Well, he did not tell anything but just smiled. I tried smiling back but I could feel that my expression was getting far worse than a smile..
He handed over the letter to me and I turned to leave when he called from behind and told..
”Vishnu..cross your fingers hopefully and wait ..I too heard a similar news …”

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

..So, the above incident was typed fresh while I was still in that shock..because I don’t remember the last time I had landed myself in such a ironically comic situation.
And why did I decide to post it in this blog today ? Well, find yourself the reason here.. a small communication which I had with him today.

Sreekumar, Vishnu [11:58 AM]:Hi Vinod..
Parthasarathy, Vinod [11:59 AM]:Hi
Sreekumar, Vishnu [12:00 PM]:hope u remember me, I wrongly typed this appraisal rumor in ur chat window last week... .. I got promoted this time...just thought of informing you
Parthasarathy, Vinod [12:00 PM]:hey, cool!! Congrats!!
Sreekumar, Vishnu [12:00 PM]:Thankss...
Parthasarathy, Vinod [12:00 PM]:..and next time do try pinging the CFO regarding promotion !

(the name of the HR lead given here isn’t real..coz you know, I don’t think I can get away lucky every time like this..!)

6 comments:

  1. Hey Vishnu!!!!
    I can't stop laughing at the blunder u did coz it reminded of a similar mail sent by me to a wrong person @ office!!! Congrats for your promotion!!!If i was there, I would have also got promoted :(
    Divya

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  2. Mann!!
    Wats this!!!
    I really can imagine ur expressions while u wrongly send d mesg to Vinod.hehhe...
    n did d incident speed up ur chances f gettin promoted?
    as Vinod said, make sure nexttime u ping sum much higher level guys:)
    wishing all d best on ur new promotion!
    Thanks for sharing.

    Cheers,
    Anoop

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  3. Your expressions when you entered the room were very clear to me... lol

    Nyways...Congrats and nice post :)

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  4. Kidilum alee!!
    Nice incident to remember this promotion always and make it even more sweet! :) :)

    Congrats on the promotion..I would not have got it even if I was there. So opportunity cost for having left the job is getting better and better for me!!

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  5. Hehehe.. good post mann :)
    I was relatively free today (read as I had NO pending WORK today and was smart enough to avoid new tasks) i thgought of reading through the blogs i follow.. to kill time basically.. and thus i came across this post.. :)
    A friend of mine in my previous organization had a similar experience.. but that was a serious issue.. he forwarded a mail with new job opportunities which was intended to a colleague but accidentl went to an HR.. The situation was blown out of proportions as the guy was already on his notice period and the fact the firm was loosing employees thick and fast..
    Anyways.. coming back to the post.. it is really good :)

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