Ten Tender Tales

War at the Workplace The End of an Era ‘Over the last eighteen months, Samaira Idnani has built a great team, acquired new business, demonstrated innovation in creating people-friendly processes, and been a key member of our leadership team. All of you are familiar with her long list of achievements and the visibility she has brought to our team at the global level. With deep regret, I announce that Samaira has decided to move on from Porter Tech. I wish Samaira all the very best in her journey forward,’ announced Robert Cooper, Director, Technology team, Porter Tech from his Ohio home-office. This unpopular broadcast about his best employee first thing in the morning was not a pleasant feeling, but Robert had no choice. The news could not wait as Samaira had requested to be released the following week. In the virtual world, employees were constantly adjusting their time to keep pace with the rest of the world. So the India team needed to know about the leadership changes on real-time. Though Robert had identified Samaira’s replacement, he wished he had a better option. The team members of Porter Tech in India, who had logged in to this all-important conference call from multiple locations across the country at the close of their business hours, were shocked! Why was she going? Samaira Idnani was the best manager, leader, and mentor that the team had worked with over the last couple of years. She was the super-boss, the Head of the Technology team in India. She had six direct reports, who looked into different departments of the business and managed a delivery center of 150 employees comprising software engineers, testers, documentation experts, business analysts, web designers, and operations executives. 48-year-old Samaira loved her job and her people. For employees in her team, this was the Golden Era in Porter Tech. Performers had been awarded handsomely, there had been two Team Off-sites which enabled employees across locations to meet each other. Samaira’s people skills made her popular, business flourished, and the Ohio office was happy with the way the India business was growing. However, the dream-like situation threatened to end abruptly when Samaira resigned. She had bagged a senior leadership role in a bigger company and decided to pursue that. There was silence after Robert’s announcement. Then, Shireen spoke…followed by Ajay, Akhil, Tia, Pekham, and several other team members, each expressing shock and grief at this bouncer of an announcement. However, Samaira’s direct reports were conspicuous by their silence. Finally, it was Samaira’s turn to speak. She choked and quickly scribbled a note to Rob over the Porter Tech online-chat. ‘Please announce my replacement. I am trying to recollect myself (sad smiley).Can’t find my voice.’ ‘Ok,’ Rob typed immediately. ‘Team, before I ask Samaira to say a few words to you, I want to take this opportunity to announce your new leader.’ People held their breath. Some employees who had a hunch about Samaira’s resignation expected the worst. They were aware that within the Technology group, there was nobody who could match up to Samaira’s expertise or her personality. It either had to be a new person, a non-Porter, or someone from another department. People opened up the calendar invite that had reached their Inbox to look for any new name in the invitee list. There was none. Rob continued, ‘It gives me immense pleasure to welcome aboard Girish Taneja as the new Head of Technology Group. Girish comes to the team with over 15 years of experience in the financial domain, operational research, and project management. He has been doing a fantastic job so far as Vice-President of our Finance team. I wish you all the very best in your new role Girish.’ Once again, there was silence. Team members were careful to put their phone on mute before discussing the new manager with their next-desk neighbor. Most took resort to the online chat window to express their first reactions, apprehensions, and impressions on Girish. ‘I have heard he is a tough nut,’ an employee from Pune typed. ‘He is horrible. Forget promotions, increments and get ready to massage his ego,’ added another from Hyderabad. ‘Come on! Didn’t the leadership find someone at least half as dynamic as Samaira?’ was the ping from a Bengaluru employee. ‘Acche din gone,’ wrote someone from Kolkata, indicating the end of ‘good days’ at Porter Tech.