Ms.CEO - Of Faces and Phases

A normal office day began with 'what to do today' lessons by Anand and ended up with 'what not to do' lessons by Meera. Arathi never understood why she developed a hatred towards Meera when there are umpteen reasons to hate others. By the time she got her first salary, there were lot of familiar faces inside the office. Her lunchtime company extended to Networks manager Unni, Gokul and Dhanya from accounts and Nisha. There were laughter and noises like a school and she began to like the office in spite of all the boring lessons and complaining customers. Day by day there was a certain level of confidence that developed in her. Now she know the name and number of the electric posts through which 'Net Data Line' cables passed. She could memorize numbers so easily which made her a "how do you do it?" person among the other girls who did her same job. She knew that the modems can be installed in a customer space if and only if it was registered at "KNOCK". Till the moment she saw a mail from NOC which is the short form of Network Operating Center, she believed that the modems were "knocked" from sides by a machine which can automatically register the modem numbers. Thus she was almost thorough with the process and people.

Though she got attached to the office, the place where she sat still looked like a big waste basket. Initially she counted the boxes, then the tables, unused broken chairs and other storage spaces. The whole boxes was a convenient home for many cockroaches and mosquitoes besides the unused application forms and brochures in striking colors. As she moved it to one side, all of them fell down together, scattering the forms all over and inviting Shekar to the cubicle.Rejoy and Nisha too joined her. Thus with some time and effort they turned it out as an office. The scattered application forms were numbered and filed, old brochures found its place at a common dumping area and the cubicle had a fresh look. But the phone calls had the same dialogue to say and the power cuts were more frequent.

By this time it was June and rains started to hit the lives of people inside in an absolutely bad way. One fine morning, Shekar came in with the news that Vice president is coming in to check the office. All of them felt like a Tsunami hitting the office. K.N as he is called, was said to be an IIM product with less ears and a mouth full of words which meant bastard! Arathi was asked to keep the register up to date, her daily call sheets to be presented on Shekar's table by afternoon and to keep the filled application forms out of sight.

During lunch, Unni came in with a smile and said, "Tomorrow there is a special show by K.N here. He will make you cry with his looks."

"Why me? I am the last one to meet him, there is Anand, Shekar and all others. After all i am a contract staff. I will resign if he embarrass me. Mind it!!" Arathi said it in spirit. But unfortunately the next day she was the first one who was called. He asked about the less number of calls at month ends and in almost all days.

She stood like "Mary had a little phone and that phone rang all the day". All she could say was, "As you say sir. I will make calls from today." With she completing that sentence, the power went off and there was a killing silence inside the room.

"So what were you doing all these days? why didn't you make calls?" He asked again, this time in a higher tempo.

"Sir, I come here in the morning. then the phone will be engaged as the cable team and others will be making calls. Then by ten, customers who have lost connection will start calling. After answering them and asking them to call the customer care, when i make a call to a customer, they simply kill me over the phone for our poor services of TV connection. then like this power goes off and the phone is dead. Please tell me how to make calls from a dead phone."She expressed all her helplessness.

K.N was silent for a moment and then all she could hear was, "Dong Ding Tang ting dum, bum" and finally "get out". she walked back to the cubicle where she could see faces raising from the accounts and other departments. She smiled and muttered, "It was just a round, more to come". The executives from all nearby places were called up the next day and they came up with registers, sheets and books. Then again there was bomb blasting inside K.N's room and later he was seen out terrible and irritated.

He came up the cubicle and asked aloud, "how do you manage to sit here without power? Don't we have generators?" With that he walked near Unni who said, "generators don't work and we haven't got new ones". Everyone expected a bomb blast, but nothing was heard. K.N left the office this time with a warning that, "The killer  will be back in another few days". Shekar shared a common relief with his sub ordinates.

Next day, a new face, a handsome guy, gave her a warm welcome to the office with a good morning wish. She too wished him back. He just said, "I am from Head Office." Arathi had an anxiety to know who he was, but there was nobody in her department to ask. She got into her work and could see her being noticed by the H.O. guy.

"Hey Rohan, when did you come?" It was Rejoy who broke the silence.

"O, an hour back. But she was a very bad company" He said looking at her.

"She don't know you and K.N was here yesterday. Probably BDM and Anand will be on leave today. And she is Arathi, our new complaint recorder.Arathi, this is Rohan, he is from NOC."

She literally wanted to drool down into the earth and kill Rejoy at that moment. How dare he call her a complaint recorder when her profile is Telemarketing & Customer Relations Executive. Though what he said is true to the core, she didn't want the 'handsome' guy to know it. Then when she raised her eyes from the phone, she could see Rohan sitting in front of her.

"So how do you record complaints? let me see." he said with a smile.

She wanted to say something, but there was a road block inside the throat. Voice was not coming out."Hope you are not deaf & dumb" he was provoking.

"Nnn...Oo "I was not ok after the meeting with K.N. he literally threw me down. Sorry, what did you ask?" She somehow managed to ask.

"He does that every time, but he is the most respected officer in this company and the most paid one. I was just kidding. Do you get that many complaints?" he eased the situation paving her some room to talk.

She was well equipped to face any question from anyone soon after joining here. But there was something special or wrong with this guy. His looks were haunting and she wanted to avoid a conversation. With less interest she said, " i am into sales, but all i hear is the abuse from poor customers".

"Can I help you for a day?" That was an offer,  she couldn't reject. He called up a number from the list even before she could say a word and spoke to the customer.

The loudspeaker was on and she could hear from the other end, "Your connection is good just inside your office. please keep it with you. I still have that useless modem with me. if you can sell it for a good price and compensate the loss i had, i will be happy. don't call me again with any offers." She skipped her giggle with a cough. But his face was still calm and cool. He took the next number, called the next prospect and repeated the whole dialogue. Then the answer was, "we don't have a computer. then why do we need a net connection?".

Rohan said, "this place is not right. Your database is not prospective. You need to change it and give a try. Take some numbers from the BSL website. (BSL is the telephone department of government). Sort it out by area and then make calls. Even if you don't do it, I liked the way you escaped your smile and handled me. I will be back in the evening. Hope you get some connections by then." He walked out of the cubicle leaving behind a confused Arathi.

The day was good and there was ten connections in her kitty. That was the first time she got these much connections in a day. Unni credited K.N for that, but for her it was Rohan's advice. By evening he was back in the office and she pretended as if she is busy with calls. He checked the register and said aloud, "why don't you give Arathi a big hand? she has ten connections today." Everyone raised there heads to see her. There was a stillness for a moment and then she could hear the word of appreciation. He came near and shook her hands for a while and said, "well done".and there was a "thank you" from her side which he never heard.

As she walked out from the office, there was a call from behind and that was Rohan."I was just waiting for you." Walking along he asked, "Do you stay nearby?" "yes".

"i will be leaving tonight.9860802050..this is your number right? I will give you a missed call. save my number. will give you a call sometime soon. Just wanted to tell you something, you look pretty". "Thanks" that is all she could say.

While sitting inside the auto on that rainy eve, she was happy for all the reasons, for the ten connections, for the apprecaition from colleagues and lastly for the "you look pretty" from Rohan. after all she was a girl at teens!

To be continued....

Ms. CEO - First day First show!

19th, that was the day of joining. Arathi took up all the papers, certificates, mark lists etc and obviously her letter of appointment. She made a prayer, "As I am joining at the end of the month, please don't delay my first salary as I have promised Hanuman a vadamala on the 6th of next month." She made some smiling exchanges to all the Gods and got down to join there.

There were almost all the staff in the office by 9 am.

That was the first time she saw the whole office in lights. Everyone looked busy and none of them even noticed her. She reached the end of the office where she met Anand. It was then she noticed that the cubicle has no ventilation. There were lots of boxes which was filled and over flowed with papers. it didn't look like a part of that office. She was forced to believe that it was the place where the whole office waste were dumped in boxes. 

As she stood near the entrance of the cubicle, Anand walked in and asked her to sit inside. He introduced her to Nisha, who was the accountant and the person who temporarily handled her post. She was a lean and tall lady with a smile not so good on her face. She handed over a phone to Arathi and said, "you can use only this phone. Don't attend any complaints in this phone. Ask them to call on the customer care number, 2723223 or 2723222.. Don't answer any unnecessary calls. When inquiries come in, you need to describe them the plan. Here it is, for 99 rs you get 50MB and for 199, 100MB, 399 is an unlimited plan. But don't say that we have a 99rs plan to anyone. Promote unlimited more " and she handed over an yellow pamphlet which said the plans.

"Now this is the directory and this is the data I collected. You need to make calls, write it here with the response." Nisha woke up from the seat and moved to a system. Arathi stared for a moment, at the paper in hand and phone on the table. She shifted to the chair where Nisha sat earlier and looked around. A man was sitting behind her cubicle. He smiled at her. When she was suppose to give a smile, Anand called her, "Arathi, come here..Will give you the target of this month. "

Even before she could say a word, he handed over another paper, a book and a register. so now she had a table, a phone, a pamphlet, a book and a register which is going to be her world. She opened the shelves of her table to see another replica of the cardboard boxes inside the cubicle. There were umpteen forms, filled, half filled, some torn and others unused. she picked up one and tried to read it. It was a three page form in yellow, pink and white. The yellow was the first and all others were separated by carbon copies.  It was the registration form for new users. She stood up and walked near Nisha with that piece of paper in hand and asked, "what is this? How do we use this?"

"Who asked you to take that form? You must not open that table. It is mine and i keep my bag there. If you want, you can use that table"she pointed out to the table at the other end where Anand sat.

But I asked you about this form?" Arathi repeated.

"Oh that's the registration form. You can take new ones from that boxes. Not this one. These are all my connections and it comes to my credits and my salary."

"What's the number of that phone?"

"3240900"

That's a fancy number. Arathi thought. She dialed her number first and checked whether the number is same on the mobile. It is. She began to sit and read the pamphlet, the book, the register and the target sheet. All she could understand is that each month she must reach a target of 10. Anything after that will make her more rich and for that these papers and book will help. The register had uneven columns, untidy pages and different hand writings. The register was named Connection register in a dirty handwriting with a red marker. She flipped the pages to see some letters which made no sense other than nonsense. It had name, address, connection and "remake". What is this remake? She had less courage to ask that to Nisha. She looked around again. The people who sat next to Nisha was Rejoy and Meera. They were busy attending calls and another phone was ringing there continuously. None of them noticed. She again looked back and smiled at the person who sat there.

She saw in his table a small name board which said Regional Finance Executive, Harikumar. E. They exchanged a Hi and as she turn around, the phone was taken away by a tall and masculine guy who tried not to look at her.

"Rinesh, she is our new tele caller." Nisha said to him. He passed a smile and said, "All the best".

Whenever Nisha mentioned about her, Arathi could see a grudge on her face for some reason. All others sat as if she is a nobody in the office. It was around 11.30 by then. A lady came in with tea and she served tea to all inside except Arathi. Then again, Nisha took the initiative to introduce Arathi. Then turning to Arathi she said, "come let us have tea".

There was a small corridor which led to the lunch room where hardly five people can sit at a time. She wondered how the sixty people who worked there had lunch in an hour. As she returned to the cubicle, Amith was seen. "Oh, Hi, I forgot that you are joining today. Had some work outside. Got settled?" He asked in his usual careless way.

"Yups, somewhat. Which is your place?"

"I belong to that section, not here." He said as he pointed out to another big cubicle where there were lots of phone, people and sound. "See you in the evening.Bye". He left the cubicle.

Back to the table, she saw all her 'property' safe and untouched. She stared at the 'remake' heading to understand that they meant 'remarks'. She corrected it with her new fancy green pen which she bought the other day.

She was reading and learning the whole plans in a way so that she can start working from the afternoon. At Lunch time she met some more girls in her profile who work in Amith's section. They surprised her by saying their achievements and told her that the boys in the office are not good and she should be careful about her manager. All she could return was a smile.

She picked up the data which Nisha gave her and took the phone to make a call. The first number was of a Col. Sunder Pandey. She made the call. A very old man picked the call from the other side.

"Hello good afternoon Sir, I am Arathi, calling from Net Data line. Can I talk to you now.?" she asked very politely.

"Ohh.at last you called. You know I lost my connection two days back. Still not reinstated. where are your people? Is this the way you treat customers? Where is that lady who promised to sent me someone with a new modem?"

He was lashing out in anger. Arathi couldn't even say a word. Before she could say anything, he disconnected the call saying,"Dirty bastards".

She sat with a lost breath for a moment. Then walked near the customer care people and said, " I called Col. Sunder Pandey for a new connection and he said his connection is lost since two days.." Before she could complete, Meera asked, "are you here to support us or create more troubles. Why did you call him? Who asked you to do that?"

"Nisha gave me the list and I called for new connection. Never knew that he had one." She tried to clear her innocence.

"Arathi, what are you doing with the customer care? Show me what have you done till now?" That was Shekhar, the BD manager.

"Sir, I was learning the plans. then checked out these register and list. I made a call and he said, his connection is lost since two days. Thought to inform it here. That's it." Arathi told as she walked back to her table.

He checked the list, turned to Nisha and said, "all these people have connections. This is for you to call, not for her".

Nisha gave a furious reddened look to Arathi.

"Now start calling from a new list" He instructed Arathi and went out.

There was a silence till a boy came in saying, " Colonel's problem was not modem, his power switch was off". Everyone burst out into laughter. Arathi couldn't hold on. She smiled as she thought "Dirty Bastards" !!

She saw Nisha getting up and nearing her.

"Sorry". Arathi said.

"Oh! It was a confusing day. You will be alright by tomorrow. Now go home". She said like a school teacher.

That first day after the first show, Arathi walked out of the office with names and faces she is going to bear for the coming days!!!

To be continued...

Ms. CEO - The day of appointment!

Arathi walked into the busy office of  Net communications Private Limited which provides cable connections, broadband services and which owns a local TV channel. She was supposed to meet the manager of broadband services for an interview. The friend told her that there is a vacancy for a post "Telemarketing and Customer Relations Executive". The salary was not so bad for a girl of nineteen.

She stopped at a corner where it was written " Manager". A man with a thick black beard sat there and he raised his eyes to see a confused girl standing in front of him.

"Um?" He asked. She handed over her resume while her friend came running into the room saying,"Sorry Sir, this is for the other section." He gave it back with a not so pleasant smile.

"Ummm" He said again!

"So where is this other section?" she was surprised.

"There, that is the person you have to meet. I think the lights are gone again. You know, power cuts!" The friend murmured.

Then she could see a small cubicle where there was no ventilation and a group of four or five people standing and sitting with some paper fans, unanswered phones, and there was no electricity.  As soon as she got into the manager's cabin, the lights came on and she could see another man with inserted shirts and square glasses sitting there.

"Good morning"

"Good morning, You came in with lights! Sit down" He said in a very pleasant tone.

She smiled as she found her chair which was bit shaking.

"Myself  Anand. I am the Sales manager of this department called Net data Line. Can I have your resume?" He was trying to ease the situation.

As she handed over he began to peep into it with a good deal of concentration. 

"Oh, so you are fresher, waiting for degree results. But you are too good in arts. why don't try with our channel?"

"Amith said there is no vacancy and I am interested in doing something new". She was not so confident at heart about the reason for being here.

"Now tell me about yourself."

This is a stupid question she thought. After reading such a detailed resume, why should one explain it again. Anyways Ms. Arathi Nair you are here for an interview! She blabbered all she knew about herself and finally sighed, "that's all Sir".

He was simply gazing at her as if she is someone called alien!

"Sir".

"Oh yes, I was listening to you. Just one question, why do you need this job?"

"I need to live on my own. I always dream of having a job and earning my own salary."

"I hope you know about the job here."

"No, I don't, but I can do it if you let me know what it is" She said with a smile.

The manager couldn't stop laughing for a while.

"Wait here. I will give you the copy of appointment letter. You need to meet the BD manager too. But don't say that you don't know the job!"

Arathi was surprised at the last tip from the manager. "Then what am I supposed to do? Smile and say Yes Madam/Sir, I know the profile. Between who is this BD manager. They said its a broadband company and how can they have beedi managers? Was it a nick name?"

While she was wondering on the name, the manager called her and led to a room where it was written"BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (BD MANAGER)." So its Business Development and not BEEDI!. She smiled as he smiled back.

" I am Shekhar, BD manager." Arathi somehow managed to slip her giggle into the mouth.

"I hope you know about the profile", he said in a ruling tone.

"Y...es" she said after a thought.

"Is there any confusion?", he looked at her face and smiled.

"Not much, but I would like to know more on the profile".

"You have to canvas new clients, attend customer complaints and hand over it to the customer care section and almost all data entries into the computer. You will be reporting to Anand. Come, i will introduce you to the team."

He got up and walked into the cubicle where the only familiar face was Anand.

"This is Nisha, the accountant, Rejoy the customer services manager, Vinesh and Meera the customer service associates, and all, this is Arathi, our new executive. " Turning towards her he said,"For any clarification you can come to me and Anand." She nodded her head and smiled at the two ladies.

"So welcome to our company. You must join with all the papers on 19th April. Here is your letter." He handed over the letter to her.

She wanted to jump upside down and roar aloud "I have a job now".But she stood happy and smiled.

"Arathi", he called as she walked out of the room, "You are a smart girl".

"Thank you", she walked out with a smile of pride.

The moment she stepped out of the office, lights again went off and loud sighs were heard behind.  She walked out of the complex to begin her new role on the day of joining, the 19th of April.

To be continued......