This business, in offices, of making a collection and buying a gift for someone who’s leaving. Real pain. Must have worked ok at a time when people worked in just one place for several years. Departures and farewells made sense, as people had gotten close, used to working with each other. But in recent times, it’s a royal pain to buy every migratory bird a byebye gift. On top of it, most of them are moving on to better propects – better salaries, better positions. And they’re virtually saying ‘so long, suckers’ to those who remain behind. And then we have to also sweeten their departure with presents?
The larger the organization, the bigger the pressure on your pocket on this account. There was one time (briefly) when I used to write daily accounts. At this time I was also working with a publication. End of one month, when I (briefly and virtuously) tallied my accounts, I was shocked to see how much money went towards ‘gifts’ - more like a tax than a gift. Others in the organization had been doing their monthly accounts too, because when I went in to work the next day, someone said: “Remember the Rs 100/- we gave last week for that guy who’s leaving from the design department? We’ve decided that only people within each department need to give gifts to exiting guys.” Someone had actually gone around returning Rs 100/- to each person not concerned with the departing design dude, who many of us had not even met, since he worked in another building and had joined barely 5 months earlier. I waited for the chap who had collected the contribution to return my money, but soon realized that the slippery guy was avoiding me. One day, I accosted him in a corridor and said rather brusquely: “Hoyy, I believe we have decided not to contribute for people who we don’t even know and who have worked here for less than a year?” The man in front of me looked distinctly awkward and mumbled. Convinced that he was dodging returning my money, I cut in and said: “So return my Rs 100 given for Ramesh/Rakesh/Whatever Kumar. Never met him even. And he’s skipping off to Dubai. He should give us money.” The man in front of me looked even more shifty, and red in the face, and then stammered, pointing to someone standing next to him: “This is Mr Rajesh Kumar from design.” Yup, the one time I decide to write accounts, and pursue someone relentlessly for my money, I put my foot into it. But at least office collections came to a halt and we all got a little richer, or less-poor.
The larger the organization, the bigger the pressure on your pocket on this account. There was one time (briefly) when I used to write daily accounts. At this time I was also working with a publication. End of one month, when I (briefly and virtuously) tallied my accounts, I was shocked to see how much money went towards ‘gifts’ - more like a tax than a gift. Others in the organization had been doing their monthly accounts too, because when I went in to work the next day, someone said: “Remember the Rs 100/- we gave last week for that guy who’s leaving from the design department? We’ve decided that only people within each department need to give gifts to exiting guys.” Someone had actually gone around returning Rs 100/- to each person not concerned with the departing design dude, who many of us had not even met, since he worked in another building and had joined barely 5 months earlier. I waited for the chap who had collected the contribution to return my money, but soon realized that the slippery guy was avoiding me. One day, I accosted him in a corridor and said rather brusquely: “Hoyy, I believe we have decided not to contribute for people who we don’t even know and who have worked here for less than a year?” The man in front of me looked distinctly awkward and mumbled. Convinced that he was dodging returning my money, I cut in and said: “So return my Rs 100 given for Ramesh/Rakesh/Whatever Kumar. Never met him even. And he’s skipping off to Dubai. He should give us money.” The man in front of me looked even more shifty, and red in the face, and then stammered, pointing to someone standing next to him: “This is Mr Rajesh Kumar from design.” Yup, the one time I decide to write accounts, and pursue someone relentlessly for my money, I put my foot into it. But at least office collections came to a halt and we all got a little richer, or less-poor.
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