(Adapted extract from The Best Seller)
My continuation in the role as the official buddy, of a fellow employee who has just had his short term assignment converted to a lengthy one, has been dubbed LESSON – Logical Extension of SeamlesS ON-boarding. When you scratch the surface of this pompous piece of rhetoric, it actually means continuing to point out bars and shopping malls of the city to the new member. The maniacal euro pursuing corporate organisations not only try to manufacture a common soul by propagating brand values. They also develop their own poetic version of the mundane for that soul to be uplifted.
However, critical as I am, this microcosmic world has its uses. Concocted philosophy in form of brand values, laboured poetry in the garb of elaborate euphemisms, pseudo science in the guise of innovations, petty politics in the cloak of relentless back biting, ersatz society under the mask of people living virtually in each other’s homes long after office hours, frequent musical soirees with the inbuilt sham of philanthropy through small change associations with NGOs masquerading as an apology of culture – all these have their utility.
What if some shifty eyed account manager, for example, had not reacted with jerky gestures at every sneeze of the client? What if some senior manager had not sung her cheery greetings and made her domineering presence felt across the length and breadth of the client organisation, threatening all and sundry with the next instalment of family stories? What if everyone had been free spirits like me?
Would then a bunch of largely mediocre people have found a satisfactory life abroad? A life that many of their friends and family are proud and envious of. The truth is that every business has to run in accordance to its own rules. If the more sensitive and intelligent of the lot get disillusioned at the contrivance, they have the choice of playing along, getting out of there or becoming an entrepreneur-visionary and trying to create their own royal game.
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