Being the boss is often odd

There are a lot of things in my daily life that I simultaneously really like and am annoyed by. Number one in this regard is probably my staff. There are some days when I just want to throttle them because of something sleazy or stupid they did, but other times when they are totally wonderful. For example, I was out of work for some time due to health problems (now resolved completely!), and the day that I got back, they all crowded around my desk, looking genuinely happy to see me and asking how I was. Of course, it’s hard to disentangle how much of that was trying to ingratiate themselves with the boss, but it made my heart expand by at least three sizes, Grinch-stealing-and-then-no-longer-stealing-Christmas style.

Another Grinch-moment occurred when talking to one of my staff about his aspirations in life (owning his own shop/business when he saved enough money). Out of the blue, he said “I told of my friends that I have a foreigner to speak English with, and he said he was jealous and that I am very lucky”. Coming on an otherwise bad day, it made me feel like at least something I was doing here is worthwhile (especially as his English is indeed improving rapidly)! Even our office boys are trying to learn more English (one is using our Teach Yourself Hindi books, but just going from Hindi to English). I’m not sure exactly how much this will help their employment aspirations (perhaps for call centers), but it certainly is a status symbol.

I’ve mainly gotten over ordering around people my parents’ age, the rigid hierarchies, and even employing peons/office boys. Yes, peon IS a real job title; we employ two of them who are basically charged with doing whatever menial task we tell them, from making photocopies to getting me my daily litre of apple juice. I’ve decided to stick to the office boy title.

The difference that was hardest to get used to was the rigid hierarchy at the office between the staff with Western and Indian education: i.e. there is not much hierarchy between me and my US-educated immediate superior, but a lot between me and two levels down. None of them use my first name, with “Sir” as the default option; this even trickles down into their phone contact lists, where I have found that most list my name as “Jeff Sir”. It also means that they are somewhat scandalized when I chose to carry out tasks that are in any way menial, and try to stop me from doing so, usually by pulling whatever I am carrying out of my hands; my emptying of my own trash bin was a particular scandal! The snatching becomes annoying when it is something like a bottle of water, but their kindness is nonetheless appreciated.
Even though language barriers have prevented deeper levels of personal interaction*,

I’ve also gained more insight into the way things sometimes get done through talks with staff. On another project, one of the local bureaucrats was dragging his feet on the start. When one of our data entry operators heard about this, his response was: “You want me to get a couple of guys together, and we can go convince him?” Human subjects committees, do not fear, that did not end up happening. Basically, I’m glad he’s on our side (mostly). I’ve also heard some stories about surveyors who threaten to bring in mafia connections when they get fired, though that sort of thing is more in rural areas (our firings have gone fairly swimmingly)!

One thing I found interesting/surprising was that many of them are in school, despite working full 48 hour weeks for us. I asked about that, and apparently they just need to go take the tests: no one goes to class. One of them goes to school about a five hour train ride away, and hasn’t been back for two months. I feel like he has a somewhat better excuse than “I live in PPR/off campus” for being late/skipping class, though I don’t quite understand how this is possible. I have so much more to say about my staff, and awkward or mildly amusing stories with them, but I’ll stop here. This post was mostly for me in two or three years, so when I look back at my blog, I can fondly laugh and think “Oh man, Person X! Such a sketchball”.

*Which would probably be inappropriate anyway, I suppose. Currently, one is kind of inappropriately friendly, but I’m hoping being sort of rude will make her less so.