Old Story - Part 1

The year was 2015 and we had just finished our almost-exclusively-Islamic-Financing release. It was my first real brush with Islamic Financing and anybody who's used conventional and Islamic both can tell you that they are quite like apples and oranges. It was a tough release with terribly insufficient time but with P being on the other side and discussing with me daily, I had felt a connect by the time we finished. The next release was going to bring in more changes and I was already deep into analysis, when one fine day RR, my current boss, called me to say that I was moving into JC. I was outraged. There were other reasons apart from my wish to stay with Islamic Financing. RR was going to be my sixth boss in fifteen months. The lack of continuity was frustrating. Also I had received my worst rating ever in these months and I had begun to feel that everyone wanted my work but no one wanted me. And then JC wasn't really new to me. Because most of my old team had moved there, I had been involved in the design of almost everything of Loans, officially or otherwise. And I had even been roped in for the fire-fighting for a month. Now that their big release was over, what was left for me to do! Anyway, RR was reputed to be the nicest boss around so I decided to take a chance. I sat in his cabin and told him I didn't want to move into his team. His face fell. I told him my problems and I said I had no issues being a consultant as I had been all these days but I just didn't want it to be my primary job. He listened to me patiently and said, "I get your point. But much as I would love to have you in my team, I didn't put in a request for you, you know. There were other peers of mine who did but it was AG, my boss, who decided that you should be in JC. So... ". He stopped but I knew what that meant. So, are you going to plonk yourself like this in AG's cabin too?

AG. The elephant in every room. He had many reputations but none that gave me confidence to explain this whole thing to him. Our bosses used his name as a terror tool but could he really be all that? I had been in his cabin a few times and though the discussions were typically one-sided,  he had not been foul-mouthed as they said. But what if he just shouts me out? In front of everyone..  I had a feeling he didn't like my work. Anyway, it felt like I had entered a tunnel and it was better to reach the other end than returning. So I told RR that I would talk to AG and let him know. I think he gave me some tips on AG-etiquette but I don't think I absorbed any of it.

So the next day I sat in AG's cabin, facing him nervously, hoping that the call he was on would go on longer. Getting his time had been surprisingly easy but once inside, all my reasoning had begun to look silly. What was a senior like me doing, being so petty? Whatever, but once he said, "Tell me", I told him everything. I said I would do ten more things parallelly if he wanted, but I didn't want to move. Our conversation was also somewhat one-sided, with me doing most of the talking but he let me know in the end that he was the boss. He said it was not possible. He had put me there on purpose, Loans being very crucial to to the project's success. His directs were appreciative of my approach to work and that was going to be important in the coming days. JC was going to take all my time, I would have to work more than I possibly ever have and there was going to be no negotiations. I left the room dejected, informed RR about my defeat and joined JC.