An small issue that grew huge : Application for Casual Leave at India’s International
Bank
One of my friends felt very lucky that he had received an
invitation from YouTube through e-mail, to attend the YouTube Partners’ meeting
on 18th April 2015 at Google’s office in Mumbai. He felt very
excited about the meeting.
He had attended a similar meeting earlier in 2013. But
this time it was different, because he was now working as a Probationary
Officer for India’s International Bank, one of the Indian Public Sector Banks.
So it was necessary for him to obtain one day’s leave from his office to attend
the YouTube Partners’ meeting in Mumbai.
He applied for a day’s casual leave in the system the day
before the event, as soon as he entered the office. He kept an eye on the
status of his leave request as the day passed by. In an hour or two his Branch
Manager, a scale 3 officer, who was actually filling in for the Chief Manager
who had recently retired from Bank’s service, called him to his cabin. A scale
2 officer, who was filling in for the Assistant Branch Manager, was already
inside the cabin discussing whether to sanction my friend’s leave or not.
When my friend entered the cabin, the Branch Manager and
the Scale 2 officer, continued their discussion. They completely ignored the
presence of my friend completely who was standing near them, for another 5
minutes or so, as if he was completely invisible. Suddenly they took notice of
my friend and told him that his leave cannot be sanctioned. Also they advised
him to tell Google to postpone the meeting. The assistant manager mentioned the
fact that he distributed bananas on a certain day of the week because he was
unable to attend the pooja conducted weekly. He also mentioned that he had
certain invitation for funeral rites pending with him, but he had decided to
skip the event. My friend was unable to relate the events related by this man
with the topic being discussed. So he tried to explain them in a very decent
tone, that it was very important for him to attend the meeting, the Assistant
Manager said my friend should not argue because it was not his right to obtain
a leave, also the Branch Manager joined him and told him that he should delete
the request from the system. The Assistant Manager then told him that if my
friend kept on arguing, he would deal him by the book of rules and
instructions.
My friend is on Probation in this Bank’s service for one
year, since 7th July 2014, so he kept quiet at that moment and spoke
nothing. He quietly went to his desk and started thinking about India’s
International Bank. An Indian Public Sector Bank, which proudly mentions itself
as India’s International Bank was robbing him of a lifetime opportunity. His
Branch Manager who is in his late fifties, and is in charge of a technology
oriented branch i.e. City Back Office, Pune, where the new Cheque Clearing
system i.e. CTS clearing is functional, does not know anything about Google!
How could this Branch Manager suggest my friend to ask
YouTube to postpone its meeting?
Reserve Bank of India had recently started thinking about
providing second and fourth Saturday of the month as a holiday to the employees
of the Indian Public Sector Banks. It had taken into consideration the idea
whether the infrastructure available with these banks in the form of alternate
delivery channels will be sufficient to cover up the service gap generated,
while the bank employees were on leave. These Banks have appointed their oldest
and senior most employees to head the program for implementation of technology
based products. While assigning them this role their knowledge about the
product is ignored and their ability to enslave the employees and get the work
done is taken into consideration. Hence the success of Alternate Delivery
Channels is not very enthusiastic.
Many people still fear to use the ATM cards, and RBI
expects them to use products like NEFT, RTGS, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking
etc. to move the crowds out the of the Branches of Indian Public Sector Banks.
The Indian Public Sector Banks are only focusing on their daily routine. They
care about the implementation of new technology only when the RBI issues
directions about the same.
My friend was deeply hurt by the thought that just
because he had joined India’s International Bank he was unable to attend the
meeting. Then he thought about the computer illiterate Branch Manager, who
tried to hide his illiteracy by scolding his subordinates as and when he found
an opportunity, just because he wanted to maintain his supremacy. He was feeling
very depressed. It was then his colleague provided him his Deputy Regional
Manager’s mobile number and suggested him to send him an SMS and address this
issue. He followed his advice. Within a few minutes, the DRM replied, “Not to
worry let me talk to your Manager.”
My friend waited for two to three hours and then checked
the status of his application in the system. It was still unapproved. So he
sent another SMS to the DRM providing him the number of his Manager and
requesting him to talk to his manager, assuming that the DRM was a very busy
person and would not have had the time to obtain the number of his Manager.
Two to three hours later my friend again checked the
status of his leave and it still showed unapproved. He had lost faith in India’s
International Bank and its DRM. So with a broken heart he sent an SMS to the
DRM mentioning that despite of his instructions the Branch Manager had not
approved his application for leave. The work in the branch was about to end in
almost half an hour. It was then; the sub-staff informed the staff members that
the Branch Manager had called for a meeting of all the officers in his cabin.
My friend entered the cabin to attend the meeting along
with all the other officers. The Branch Manager ordered to close the door. He
began the meeting by pointing finger at my friend and mentioning that he had
sent an SMS to the DRM regarding sanction of his casual leave. Manager abused
my friend at this meeting and insulted him with obscene remarks, in presence of
female officers. All this happened just because he had asked for a casual
leave.
The manager specifically mentioned that:
1.
Do you think you are very smart?
2.
Hence forth get all your approvals from the DRM.
3.
The DRM had spoken to him in the morning and requested
him to sanction my friend’s leave. But he had called the DRM within 5 minutes
after finishing the call, and asked him to take charge of his Branch’s staff’s
leave henceforth. So the DRM has hesitatingly mentioned that it was at BM’s discretion
whether to provide him casual leave or not, and that he could ignore his (DRM’s)
request if necessary.
4.
He mentioned that my friend had broken the
discipline of the branch by calling the higher authority for help. So he would
be asked to provide written explanation for the same.
5.
The BM challenged my friend and said that either
he (BM) would stay in that branch or the management can keep my friend in that
branch. Because he would not let anyone help my friend in case of need. Also he
would make it difficult for my friend to stay in the branch, by providing him
the most difficult assignments.
6.
He also suggested my friend that in case he did
not want to stay in the branch, he could forward a request for his transfer.
7.
My friend has worked in reputed international
call centers like Accenture and Convergys for more than a year and this BM kept
on saying that his English is very bad. Can you believe it!
My friend attended the meeting on 18/04/2015 at Google’s
office in Mumbai. When he returned on Monday he was handed over a form to
attend the details of his appraisal form in the system. The officers are
allotted marks out of total 100 marks taking into note his performance till
that time of the year. But the Management of India’s International Bank does
not care to check whether these Branch Managers have the capacity to judge the
performance of their subordinates. Also the Branch Managers use this system as
a tool to torture their subordinates. But this system of scoring is used to
judge whether an employee is suitable for foreign posting or not. How foolish!
The Chief Manager had done scoring for all the officers
before his retirement in February 2015. This activity was to be finished till
March 2015, but the new Branch Manager in charge changed my friend’s score from
90/100 to 89/100 to take revenge.
India’s International Bank is the only organization where
its employees sing the song “Hum ko mann ki shakti dena” now I know why it is
so necessary. (Because its Managers function with a revengeful attitude!)
India’s International Bank tried everything to stop its
employee from attending YouTube Partners Meeting. But he attended the meeting
though with a sad face.
Understanding the
reasons for this event
Now that the event was over, my friend started thinking
about the possible causes for this kind of reaction of his Branch Manager. It
so happened on Wednesday 22/04/015 that the BM called my friend into his cabin
for some reason. There he threatened him that in case he holds any of my
friends monetary benefits for a month he would be disturbed and go into
depression. That got the bells ringing into my friend’s mind. He now got an
idea as to why the BM was acting so crazy.
My friend was provided 6 casual leaves because he had
joined the bank in July 2014. One casual leave credited per month. He had
consumed 3 CL’s and had 3 remaining in his account till 31 December 2014. His
marriage ceremony was scheduled on 26/12/2014. So he needed 6 leaves in
December 2014 to attend his marriage ceremony.
Since he did not have sufficient leaves in his account he
had written an application to the DGM, India’s International Bank, Maharashtra
and Goa region to provide him leave for his marriage ceremony in lieu of the 12
Casual Leaves to be credited to his leave account in January 2015, as per the
suggestion of his co workers. He had submitted the request to his Chief Manager
who was about to retire. The Chief Manager had referred his application to his
subordinate (Who is now the acting BM). My friend had enquired about the status
of the application the next day. He also urged the concerned person to send it
quickly. This is what had hurt the ego of that person. He thought as if he was
taking orders from somebody else (as
informed by another senior officer the same day). So in order to satisfy is ego,
he decided to take revenge by not forwarding the application.
My friend returned to office after marriage. He started
distributing sweets in his office to celebrate the ceremony. He started
distribution by providing the first sweet to this person who had not forwarded
his application for leave, because the Chief Manager was on leave. This person
felt rewarded for hurting his subordinate. Later he felt more happy when the HR
informed him that his subordinate was to be treated on loss of pay for 9 days.
The present Branch Manager was missing this pleasure of
hurting and getting rewarded for hurting. So he was just trying to get a kick
out of his daily job. My friend informed me that on Saturday (the day he was on
leave in order to attend the meeting) only two officers were absent, he and
another officer who had gone to his hometown for his marriage. The volume of
work was almost normal. So the BM should have willingly sanctioned his leave.
The BM rarely concentrated on the process being handled
at this branch. He mainly focused on housekeeping activities like drinking
water, lighting arrangement, electricity supply, Air Conditioners etc. because
he wanted to save himself from getting into any complexities during the last
year of his service. By doing this he was able to exhibit the co workers that
he cared about their comfort.
An officer is not allowed to remain in a region for more
than 3 years as per the guidelines of the India’s International Bank. But the
officers in this branch had been in the region for more than 3 years. Most of
them had completed more than a year in this branch. These officers had stopped
the flow of vital information regarding the process and prevented the newly
joined staff for enquiring about the same. Thus whenever any information was
needed everyone needed to ask the senior employees for help. This made them
feel very important. These senior employees scolded the new officers for their mistakes.
They also issued orders without any authority. ex – Pass the cheques blindly, without
looking at the details because they would need to be marked as counter returns
after the cut off was run by the Mumbai Service branch. In case by mistake any
of the officers passed the cheque that was not in order in haste, they would
humiliate him later. This officer who made the mistake could not blame his
senior, because of lack of proof. The atmosphere was always tense.
If the BM had ever tried to understand the atmosphere in
his branch, he would have definitely transferred the senior officers who had over-stayed
in his branch and also trained the new officers about how to handle the process.
But this was not happening.
The BM scolded everyone in his branch about letter
drafting skills. He used to ask them to prepare a draft and save it in the mail
for him to correct the mistakes. Only after that he allowed his staff to send
the mail. One day when he drafted a letter, his staff found it in the sent
items of the mailbox. He had written “Closer of account” instead of “Closure of
account”. Also he made spelling mistake in his own name.
Ever since he was assigned the responsibility of this
branch, he had tried hard to obtain goodwill of the other branch managers, by
providing them special favors. He used to compel his staff to pass the cheques
rejected by them initially just because that person had deposited the money during
the working hours (may be in the afternoon). He thus almost doubled the work of
his staff.
The RBI has laid huge emphasis on the existence of
checker maker system since the implementation of the core banking solution.
However this BM forced the officers to post and verify the same entry. The
branch followed an invisible rule that in case a mistake was committed then the
maker and the checker would contribute 50-50 to take care of the loss. However
in this case where the officer posts and verifies the same entry, he would be the
only person accountable for the loss. Thus the officers did not want to do data
entry. But he bent the rules and forced them to do so, putting his Probationary
Officers’ careers at risk.
This BM was unique piece. He stopped the officers on
their way home and asked them to meet him in his cabin before they left. He
would lecture them for more than half an hour. The poor officers helplessly
waited for him to ask them to leave.
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