Saamna - The Real Story

Empowerment – Empowerment is a strong word and we talk in today’s world with respect to Women Empowerment, Employee Empowerment…. Empowerment is what young job aspirants are looking for in organizations. More than monetary rewards, it is the feeling that employee “owns” the job that motivates him or her nowadays. Empowered employees are energetic and passionate, however in a middle level position when “Boss” empowers the subordinate, it always doesn’t mean that  “Boss” is doing to make the subordinate feel empowered but it can also mean that he is incapable of handling the work and has chosen the best brain to help him so that he can show his work to seniors by simply erasing the employee name from the document .

So how to handle such Idiotic, mad boss… here presenting the story of Saamna a middle level manager.

One fine day Saamna got a call from an HR firm stating “ Will you be interested in joining ABC company” ? She said “ No” because she had heard that Women are not treated well by ABC company. After few days she was surprised to get call from the Head marketing of the same organization called “ Nilesh Kumar”. First of all she was shocked and taken aback that how “Nilesh” got her number and secondly Why is he calling her… This was the first time in her life when Head marketing was calling her directly without any appointment. However she gave him ear… Nilesh tried to persuade her to join the organization and ensured her that she will be treated well.

After the call he started texting her. She was shocked and didn’t know how to handle the person like him…. So she gave it a thought and tried to ignore the messages. However she had a strong feeling that someone else is controlling this entire act ( The stupid act of Head marketing) so to get into deeper she also got friendly on sms but things were still not clear as whose brain is behind all this activity.

 One day she got the call from HR that she has been finalized and she had to join on x day. So finally she joined. Nilesh tried to get close to her and shared his personal life. She easily could have said “ FO” but he was her boss and she had to think smartly so she hatched the plan in her mind.

Problem statement – Nilesh was mentally sick and needed a shoulder to cry as he was undergoing Divorce in his personal life.

To know about the person who is asking him to get friendly with Saamna.

Solution : For problem statement 1 she needed someone who can become Nilesh friend so she zeroed in on a girl who was always checking guys and was known as “Saana” by some of her friends.  So this “Saana” was best mach for him as there was lot of similarity between Nilesh and “Saana”.

1. Both of them can't stick to one person.

2. Both of them had the habit to show off and were masters in manipulating the situation. Both of them were born liars. Lie was in their blood. Both had the bad family background.

3. Both of them had little brain and were divorced. Nilesh was divorced twice whereas “Saana” was divorced once.

So she thought of introducing them to each other because by doing that she will be at peace and Nilesh will stop harassing her and both Nilesh & Saamna will be able to concentrate on work and will have peaceful professional life. Sammna was professional enough to handle the work and she just wished that Nilesh let her work peacefully which was beneficial for the organisation as well as for her. It would have been the WIN WIN situation for both the organisation and for her.   She once thought of sharing this with senior management of the organization but  she was told that senior management doesn’t hold good opinion about her, however she tried once sharing with senior management but got cold vibes. One of the option was to tell his wife but she was shocked to hear Nilesh opinion about his wife. He told her that she had cancer once and she goes out with guys. Her English is poor. She drinks and smokes. She is on depression pills. Saamna thought the person who had no respect for his wife will never make her life happy. In fact she will become more depressed if she stays with person like Nilesh.

So in front of her there was only one option which was good for the organization as well as for her  that she get him friendly with that “Saana” so that he remains busy with her and she gets peace in life and they as team were able to deliver the project on time. So she introduced him to her . Life was going good till the time Nilesh behavior became worse ( A man ego that how a woman can say no to him). One day when Nilesh misbehaved with her she thought of teaching him lesson for life because there is saying “When we ignore a wrong, we also become part of the wrong” so she decided that she will leave that organization only after  teaching him lesson for life.

She took the matter to HR and she moved on in life. One month later she got call from a lady stating that “Saana” was sleeping with her husband and she needed Saamna’s help in meeting “Saana” as “Saana” was ignoring her calls. She mailed her the videos of her husband and Saana in a compromising position. She also got the shock of her life when she was told that Saamna account was hacked and few mails were sent using her account to show the world the different story. Saamna could have gone to the police but she thought this situation was like mud, if one throws a stone then some mud will be on her as well. So like a sensible girl she thought of ignoring everything. Time will tell who is what and you can't hide the truth for long.

So finally her plan worked. Both got together, the organization came to know the real Nilesh, and she saved his wife life as well.

When the life showed her right vs. wrong , she chose the right even for that her image was at stake and she had to leave the organization on a bad note. Leaving on a bad note was less painful than to suffer from daily harassment. One mistake which Saamna made that she heard the personal story of Nilesh. According to me she should not have given the ear to Nilesh story but her inquisitive nature and a thought that someone is behind her stupid boss action and her thinking that the organisation is like family, made her hear the story. She learned a big lesson that the Organisation is not family and one should never hear the personal story of anyone or never try to help anyone.

When I heard the above story I was moved and proud of being a woman and only a woman can make such sensible judgment .  Hope you all agree that Saamna was a good decision maker and did the best in that particular situation. There is lot to learn from the above story and the fact that empowerment always doesn't mean that Boss is empowering subordinate to give him/her the power of decision making and allowing the employees to say on how things are to be done.... Empowerment needs to be implemented with caution and senior management should be able to differentiate between empowerment and Bosses non performance. Empowerment doesnt work at the place where boss have highly inflated egos and are self centered. When boss look for secured but not challenging jobs, empowerment sounds hollow.

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