Like the Order of the Knights Templar, the corporate world too is run on orders, both pleasant and unpleasant, to be obeyed at any cost. ‘Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and fly’ (with apologies to Lord Tennyson).
My daughter was working as a senior human resources (HR) manager in a company that was downsizing when she was asked to deliver the pink slip to an employee. Why me, she protested, since that employee was not under her jurisdiction. But her boss turned a deaf ear. “Orders are orders,” he said. “It’s a simple task. Just deliver the letter of termination to ‘A’ and ask the security guard to kick her out.”
My daughter was aghast! Is this the treatment that a company metes out to a diligent worker for no fault of hers, after she had been with the firm for more than 10 years? Determined to do it her way, she called ‘A’ and took her to an empty conference room, where she delivered the dreaded letter in privacy. Then, instead of flying away, she sat down by her side when the woman broke down and cursed the company for its sheer inhumanity.
The best that my daughter could do was counsel her with words of encouragement peppered with terms of endearment. She helped the poor woman collect her things from her desk and carry them down. Finally, she escorted her car to the gate to wish her a dignified goodbye. Later, my daughter’s human touch stretched further to help find her another job.
They don’t teach such conscionable HR practices at B-schools. Perhaps my daughter would have propagated her HR theory based on human touch, had she had the time. But she didn’t. That woman turned up at our doorstep as soon as she learnt that her benefactor had been diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer. It was only then that I came to know of my daughter’s human touch at the workplace. The woman broke down again and hugged her. If only she could do something to save a noble soul, she implored.
But compassion does not evoke compassion, nor is inhumanity punished with inhumanity in the Almighty’s creation. My daughter fought the disease stoically for more than a year. But despite the combined prayers of ‘A’ and many like her, she left us for another world, where perhaps her HR skills are better appreciated.
