Women on top

This story is an intriguing and tragic story of a man caught in the middle of office romance. Some people think they are super-smart and move people like pawns - but they would eventually be judged by their sins. This story also shows how life is worth living and should not be thrown away for stupid stuff people do - and some times we just have to leave - In the "fight/flight" decision - its better to take a "flight" response and live to fight another day. It is simply not worth it to take a suicidal stand and die out.

Story is a narration of story of J. J is an average boy - he is not super smart nor he is super dumb. He is always seated last row in school as well as his college. In school, he would see boys who are as average as him or worse get favorable treatment (private attention and more marks) from his female teachers. In college as well, he would see female professors give favorable treatment to students who are as average as him or worse. He concluded in his mind that this favoritism is because of various factors - status - those students are from high class, had high influence in college (their parents donated rich sum to college foundations) or simply of the same caste as the teachers - kind of a narrow minded thinking - but unfortunately in the system -still there are narrow-minded teachers who applied such criteria and applied subtle favoritism.

It's ok to have such narrow-minded thoughts,opinions and biases pesonally (like black boys/lower caste boys do not study well) - but within school and campus, the teacher is supposed to be neutral and help all students. Then there would be female teachers who pour their irritations at home on students - especially on J. J appears to be favorite at receiving end of all girl/female/ladies who were above him - either be his sister or aunt or his teacher - everybody hen-pecked him.. J unfortunately have seen more than one such example of a biased female teacher right through his education (may be it is because he is black and from not from a rich/affluent class or a lower caste - a kind of misfit in a honorable academic instution - a person who does not fit the stereotype).

So J enters professional career with a strong bias against opposite gender. He always wanted to avoid teams with woman bosses - they all sounded like his sister, aunt or worse his college professors. Before moving into a team he would always enquire about hierarchy, who is the boss, who calls the shots and if he sniffs that a woman boss is present or going to be moved in up the hierarchy, he would avoid the team altogether. He would also avoid teams in which students from rich/affulent classes got recruited from reputed universites - kind of an inferiority complex you can say - but it is all in his mind..

So J works hard to make it to management level. He was fortunate to have men in majority of roles in his team - so he can handle it. But unfortunately, he was to be put in projects which have more women at sales/marketing, client facing roles - worse, his client managers were all women. He would at any point in time report to almost 4 women client bosses - who would treat (a timid,shy stuttering person like J) like a spec of dust. They would invariably give bad feedback on him - based on their own biases, stereotyping and bad-mouthing. Because of their bad feedback, J was forcibly sent to some behavior and personal skills - training classes - It was so bad that J thought that something is wrong with him - sometimes he even thinks of suicidal thoughts and questions on why God created him as a stutterer..

J fought against his own biases against women, started interacting with his women bosses and become comfortable - he finally managed to communicate with women about what behavior he does not like in them. One behavior pattern he had observed in his women bosses is that they are invariably possessive. They would bypass his management hierarchy and favor a person whom they like to be subtly promoted (whom they feel can handle). J was forced to promote such individuals (recommended by his bosses) much against his conscience. He was forced to write his comments to make a particular set of people as superior performers. This type of subtle persuasion had put so much conflicts and stress in his mind. He finally could not handle it anymore. He wanted a transfer to another facility where he can start fresh. He wanted transfer to a city where he can take care of his mother.

The story starts in such a new environment he was put in.. He was to report to a women boss (P) who had people from her original team in other projects taken and put in J's project (in other words, they took all horses and driver from another team and they attached a new caravan). She obviously favored those she knew already and is hell-bent against this new comer (whom she does not know) being "Shoved" into a management position - when she had someone else (whom she feels comfortable to work with) in mind. She obviously had biases (a dont know that you dont know kind of situation) against new comers especially who were black and are not from high class and whom she had not worked with long enough to know. She persuaded the management to give her people who she can "trust". She bypasses J in all decisions and directly taks to those reporting to J (who were previously reporting to her). But J does not know is a secret - which will change his life forever that everything is make-belief..

One fine day, a smart young man G (recommended by his female boss) had to be accepted into the team by J. This young bachelor had so much enthusiasm and energy and he is a great show-off - much that he displayed his verbal communicating skills against J who is an occasional stutterer. J's female boss (P) utterly belittles him in front of the whole team and makes this young man G is better than J and should place G on top of all those managers and leaders whom J had recruited and placed. But P wants a gullible guy like J as a guinea pig/fall-guy to move her pawn (G) and give her whole team a whip. P is so possessive about G - that she has too many one-one sessions totally bypassing J. J literally becomes a dummy person. J has his close friend O who is an extrarodinary/no-frills/no-show-off/down-to-earth/humble kind of team lead. With P having a say in everything up his management, J and O's only choice is to quit the company.

But J (like a person returning wounded from war) was just back from an assignment in which bad feedback was given to him - O is also like him. They want to hold on. Also J moved to new facility just to take care of his old mother and visit her once in a while - he was so fear-ful (and having bad dreams) that his mother dies and J visits his home with a bag-full of money and was crying unstoppably - every night, he would to have these bad dreams. J was pushed to a corner. It was made to appear that J is not in control of the situation and is not good in management. It was also made to appear that O is useless for team and their team is behind the charm of G and O can be removed as well.

P is such a bad boss that she would back-bite and bad mouth about J and O with G and all her ex collegues.. Then one fine day, the truth was revealed - that P and G were related and they were having adultrous affairs and G is "persuading" P. In other words G is P's "favorite boy" who satisfied her sexual needs - while her husband was away on long marketing trips. It is a hot and steamy affair in which G always impressed P that he is a much better performer and has his G spot assured in the team. As a diversionary tactic, P would turn attention away from G and almost put a sexual harassment charge on J - since the HR would investigate these matters in private, J was in HR's radar for getting fired (without his knowing) - if the charges were proven true - While all eyes were on J, P,G got their master plan ready - to kick-out/fire all the "outsiders" who were shoved into this facility and forced to be in their teams much against their liking and wish - P,G want to hijack the team and perhaps take their renumerations and convert them to pay hikes for their own..

J having no idea about P's affair was slogging 18hours/day to point of near exhaustion and death - to prove to P. P was wasting J's time - she would arrange meetings at 6 PM - though J would have hinted of leaving early for his daughter's birthday - P squeezed J by pushing him into a corner. J did not even see his daughter awake for 6 months straight - he used to leave to office when his daughter was awake and come back long after his daughter had gone to bed. He did not even have sex with his wife for 6 months straight. When P and her boss meet J in hallway and ask him if he is on "top-of" everything - J would have wanted to tell them that he is not on top of anything including his wife - but would contain himself and say "yes Sir" he is on top of everything. Everyone saw J as an enthusiastic "yes" sayer with lots and lots of optimism - though he is seated on top of molten-lava and his ass is burning.. J's wife (a loving and caring middle-class wife - always understood her husband and supported him - she knew that he is going through some stressful situations in his place of work and never asked questions on what is causing his stress in his work place - since this is a fiction/fantasy story - such things are possible - unlike in real-life) J's plight was entertainment for P. P,G would have lot of laughs on the foolishness and stuttering of J.

Then one fine J, P's boss called J to his room - It was downturn and J was sure his head was axed - just as he suspected J gets axed due to poor performance and bad communication skills. P made it appear through email communication that J's written communication is not good either - by selective revelation of information - after J commits mistakes in presenting less-accurate data to clients. P's boss also gave one more feedback - that J is not in control of his team and he could not "reign-in" on show-offs like G and remain impartial - which he ironically says is a feedback from "P". So effectively "P" pushed buttons from either side. J was dejected - he felt let down by the women he worked as a slave (at cost of his family). He could not bear that trauma. He drives to a stranded beach in the middle of night - he leaves his laptop, shoes on beach sand and started walking towards the waves - it was midnight, full moon, clear sky, there were huge waves in the reef which had razor-sharp-blade-rocks. He walks slowly into the water never to reappear again - Not even once J (the fool) thought about his family while he was about to take his own life. He was pulled deep into the sea and banged against the reef rocks. His family was in shock when fishermen recovered his badly-bruised body the next day..

P was in shock as well (she never thought J was so much "feeble-minded"). She arranges for a company-wide relief for his family and hands over an hefty sum to his family. G was promoted as lead. O takes retirement and P was promoted to the divisional manager. J's wife takes up a low-paying school job - fortunately J's insurance paid off his apartment debt and J's daughter always crys before waking up in the mornings that she wants to see daddy.. It is a "Kill or Get-killed" world - so J's story is fair - some would say.. But you cannot judge anyone's life - until you live that life"

It also brings about a point that no one is infallible - whether you are the prince or the pauper - everyone can be made to appear bad/incompetant - it is way you move people like pawns in a game of chess. J is an unfortunate victim here. He foolishly equated his own life to his job and could not handle rejections. His soul lived an incomplete life and he was crying in desperation to see his daughter wanting him..But the story does not end there. Several years pass-by.. J's daughter was doing great in her studies - she unlike her father was a very much an extrovert and enjoys life so much - She was 6 when J died - so she has pretty much forgotten. For J's wife, his daughter was her whole universe. Not known to J's wife all these years was the painful humiliation and suffering J endured in his office - which eventually lead to his suicide.

Then one fine day O was back in town and he accidentally meets J's wife and child in a restaurent. J's wife dropped her wallet and O saw J's photo and was sharing the grief of his death. O is in a dilemma to open up old wounds and reveal to J's wife. (It is same as in War - it is difficult to explain the gory of a soldier's death to his family). But something inside O feels that he has to unload this to somebody. Now P is the vice-president of the company and G is a namesake chief-technology-evangelist and holds huge amount of stocks for the company. Most of O's collegues have quit the company and were not given stocks or were unceremoniously sent out - ALL of them were sent to work in that facility.. O wondered - wow!! with some many people retrenched and the budget for the facility remained the same (with increasing year on year revenues and profits), P,G could have given themselves huge pay hikes!! O also see that J's family is languishing in a middle-class neighborhood. J's wife is an angel - she had neatly adjusted herself to untimely death of J and is living independently without help from her family or J's family. O felt that J would not be too sad to see his daughter grow up strong - but felt that J was foolish to take his own life..

As far as J's mother goes, she dies of high blood pressure a few years later. She was always expecting to stay with J in her old age. She knew that her son returned and worked in that facility just to take care of her - she knew that her son could not be that much feeble-minded (may be he was impulsive) and something drove him to this extreme. Meanwhile P was buying beach-side homes for her parents - Her huband was always busy with business work - P was routing company money and contracts to do business with her husband's company. G still visits P in her beach mansions and they have a good time - G offloads the stocks once in a while to get a new yatcht and a new beach-side mansion. G is a globe-trotter and becomes a supposed "tech-guru" in his company - The company sends him on paid holidays to see seminars in Las vegas, Hawaii, Shanghai, Paris and all round the world..

The company came up with a new application product for mobile phones which was a huge success. The intellectual property was sold for millions of dollars. Little did they know that it was based on patent submitted by J and O jointly while they were working in the company and they are not paying royalties to O.. It's payback time from God.. O got to know from this from one of the chief-engineers of the product team. He thought of a master plan - instead of suing the company, he sued a very famous world renowned mobile company that they are using his patent w/o their knowing. The mobile company retaliates by dismissing O. But O was persistent in his efforts and the mobile company lawyer had a honest hearing and he concluded that they were indeed using O's patent by mistake. But that mobile company would have to pay millions for this - they want to pass on this as penalty to O's ex-company - since it was an application bought as a package from that company. That mobile company sued for damages from the company which will put the company in near-bankrupty.

Now, for first time in life of P, she could not think of any more pawns to move (she even offered for a out-of-office "settlement" with the mobile phone company's attorneys - but that charm did not work). She had to cause huge losses for the company. She wants G's help - G ditches her and takes off to another company - Because of this bad news and G's offloading of around a million stocks, the company stocks plummet. P was fired at an instant. P sells off all her properties and comes back to the state where J had been. G, now in a safe position in some other company - distances himself with P and counters the rumors of a sex-tape between P,G floating on the net. The management inside the company distances all the decisions maded under "persuasion" of P - They even dig out the decisions made by P on J. The HR team even revisited the sexual harassment case on J and absolved J of his charges (8 years after his death).

The company eventually have to pay O millions of dollars which O shares with J's family. J's family donates a major of these funds to create a counselling center for counter stress and to teach people against suicides. She always thinks of J and what a fool he had been - to miss it all - But surely J's sould would leave the world without a grudge..

END.