Deputy Managing Director Knew and Approved of the Branch Manger Acting as a Jerk

         When I posted my blog article that was published in SIRF News in my FB page (The Hindu took its employee for a ride) there was a comment by a friend which I thought deserved an answer on my part.  His commented that the branch manager might have done what he did to me, literally cheating on me by not keeping his promise of offering me a news agency for accepting to run the dispatch work, without the knowledge of the higher management.

          I think he had not read the seven attachments to that article in which I had clearly written what I had gone through more than 10 years of work there.  Had he read those articles, he would have come to the conclusion that the branch manager was acting with the tacit understanding and full support of the higher management.

         But still, I would like to edit the introductory article of my blog with an answer to this question so as to make the article complete as a standalone piece without the need to read other posts in my blog.  For now, I have decided to publish a new post in my blog, specifically answering this question, with an incident which will make explicit what was implicit in my other posts in my blog, that the top management of the company knew what the branch manager was doing and the branch manager had the sanction from them for his activities as a branch manager.

         After I wrote a letter to the circulation manager complaining about the branch manager (Another Incident of Playing Politics by the Branch Manger published in this blog on August 7, 2012) ,  I came to know from the staff of The Hindu (I was only a contractor of The Hindu but not a regular staff) that the Deputy Managing Director of the company ( who was also one of the owners of the company) was not pleased with what I had done because the branch manager was a favorite of him in the company.  I also learned that the branch manager, while the Deputy Managing Director was just joining the company, was guiding him and helping him learn the intricacies of how a company is run, and how decision are made by the staff in various departments.

         When once the Deputy Managing Director was visiting the Coimbatore office, I went to meet him to explain the circumstances which made me write to the circulation manager complaining about the branch manager.

         When the Deputy Managing Director and the branch manager emerged from the manager’s room, I approach them in order to get an appointment to meet the Deputy Managing Director (DMD).  The branch manager introduced me to the DMD and informed him that I wanted to talk to him. But the DMD turned away from me – as if he was not interested in talking to me – and went with another staff inside the office even without acknowledging my presence.  The branch manager also went with them.  I waited for nearly an hour there in the hope that the branch manager might have again informed him of my request to meet him. But nothing happened, and I left the office without meeting him.

         The mark of a good businessman was to give me a hearing of what I had to say in the matter.  He could have even openly told me that what the branch manger doing was right and that I could leave the company if I did not like what he was doing.  But being a smart guy (not necessarily good one) he probably instructed the branch manager how to deal with this case in an opaque manner without finding out what was the truth in the dispute.

         When finally Ramanathapuram News agency was bifurcated from the Coimbatore Agency, my application was the only one collected, but only half the area of what I was asking was made a separate agency, and I was offered the agency.  When I was submitting my formal application with the branch manager, what he told me baffled me:  He tole me with other sales representatives present in Tamil - கொடுக்கற மாதிரி கொடுத்து பிடிங்கிக்குவாங்க – which translates approximately as “You will be given but they will ultimately snatch it from you.”

         When after just nine months of my running the agency, the circulation manager came to Coimbatore and after hearing from me my longstanding request of the other half of Ramnanathapuram Agency, he went without saying anything, and then both the agency (including the other area I was asking for) and the dispatch work was offered to someone else.

         Then I realized that the DMD had given instructions to the branch manager at that time how to deal with me and how to get rid of me from the company in such a manner as if they were acting on some unstated management principles.