Here is how I responded when the organization I worked with tried to put me under an inefficient reporting officer, who had proven her worthlessness in the academic year 2007-08.
The mail content and attachment below:
Hi all,
With the merging of junk-content-with-maps.com (well, it's a fake name) with shit-content-with-maps.com, it seems a new organizational structure has come into play at MapWW. As you all are aware, I was working for junk-content-with-maps.com for the last few months. With the new arrangement I will, probably, be deployed under Pasha, who was my reporting officer till March 2008.
The gist of the text below is this: "I simply cannot accept the authority of Pasha anymore in anything pertaining to my work and life at Jumpcare."
I started preparing a document recalling what I've learnt from this lady till date. Please find attached the document in its initial form. If am allowed one more day in Compare, I am sure I will be able to add hundred more things to it.
Moreover, after the organization's debacle in the financial year 2007-08, I have lost faith in leadership in general and Pasha in particular. She is simply inefficient to lead a group of content writers or editors. This was evident if we look at the mass resignation of people in Pune, including the highly qualified Team Leader, in the last few months. Now, do I need to start from scratch, being a sub-ordinate of this lady? Does anyone know why I remain to be a Subeditor even after one year nine months of my service in the organization? Pasha knows the answer.
To sum up, to go back under the supervision of Pasha again is suicidal for me. There are many other alternatives, to use my skills to the benefit of the company. If HR has not completely reduced to a bunch of clerks and sycophants of senior management, I request them to step in and offer some practical solutions to the problem.
The Attachment:
Her boastful, hollow-talk:
In a meeting on 22nd Aug, which was attended by Mona and me, Pasha boasted on how she trained Pune writers to a level to which they are now able to write on their own. She regretted they being relocated to client projects at this stage of training. But look at a blog post by Maharshi on 28th Aug, a week after Pasha's boastful talk:
http://blogs.junk-content-with-maps.com
No sensible person will ever come back to the blog, or to the site after reading this post. This is like making a mockery of poor Indians (at one place the write-up says poverty has reduced and it contradicts the statement at another instance.) Is this how Pasha trained the writers to be sensible and self-sufficient?
Her ignorance about work flow:
I was asked by Pasha once to proofread a brochure for Shit-content-with-maps -YP project (of Brahman and Parekh). This was in the month of August 2008. Pasha knew it for certain that I had dissociated myself from the YP project and is solely responsible for Maps of World for the last three-four months. To proofread a brochure means to make the final corrections. The person who proofreads assumes that the content is already finalized. In this case, unfortunately, the content was not finalized by the Shit-content-with-maps -YP team. I did my job perfectly and sent the brochure for printing. As a final step, the printer sent us the final Printer's Proof. I had a doubt about a word or two in the final print-out (“W3C Content Certificate”, I guess was the phrase about which I had doubt). I approached Pasha to clarify this. She went to Parekh and got to know that the whole content needs drastic changes. Can anyone think of such a situation where drastic changes are suggested in final Printer's Proof? NO. Then, why did this happen? It's because the planning and implementation of the brochure didn't follow the proper route. Before making the design, the content for the brochure should have got the approval of the YP team, which Pasha didn't ensure. She came directly to me and asked me to proofread. I had to sit several times with the Graphic Designer to get the brochure proofread. Now everything will be re-designed. How many manhours have been lost? No one is bothered. I doubt whether Pasha understands the difference between content writing and proofreading. Had I signed the final copy, I would have been in great trouble. (Something funny happened at this time: the proof from the printer looked pale. I knew that it is not because the printer is using a bad machine, but this is the way the proof from the printer looks. But Pasha, as if she's seeing a printer's copy for the first time, astonishes at the fact that the brochure looks pale. She asked me whether I had also noticed the same. I was surprised to listen to this comment. An Operations Manager is not even acquainted with a printer's proof of a brochure !! Is she seeing a proof for the first time?)
Her inability to make logical conclusions
After “Ahmedabad Blasts Update” post of Shit-content-with-maps blog appeared in Google ranking, Pasha was touted as the messiah of blogging. Lamy, President MapWW, was all in praise for her and asked me to learn from her the basics of blogging. I told him at that time that it is one thing you end up to be successful once and it's another to derive principles of your success, or to theorise how you became a success. Naturally, I expected a document from this successful blogger with general principles about successful blogging. The document she produced was neither comprehensive nor helpful to the writers. After that I produced a document with my basic knowledge on blogging, only to invoke a stony silence from all those who are concerned. Why there has never been a discussion on successful blogging? Can anyone in Jumpcare demonstrate the workability of the methods explained in Pasha's document?
