Sunday, September 30, 2012

Life of Little Princess.part-8


favorite TV channel is POGO. I had lots of hope on her…. A Little bit monsters but my daughter was full of life and fun.

At home my mother and wife were trying to show their superiority. Fragile ego problem .I was without job for one and half months and was drummed by either of them. I met my ex colleagues of Chennai branch. They told me that our manager took bribe of Rs 50,000 from the trainee technician to appoint him in Chennai branch .the boy was from his same cast. I knew our Chennai branch manager was a man of dubious character. When working in any organization over a period of time we will understand how the system works but safe guarding our job is most important than ever changing equations and politics in an office environments.

 Later our company came to know his involvement in double-dealings and kicked him out of the service. He had misappropriated lacks of rupees by appointing new dealers .he even collaborated with them and made good fortune. Two of the dealers he appointed went absconding along with goods. Company had lost nearly twelve lacks of rupee .Out of three cores of rupees as outstanding amount from our dealers from across India; our manager had alone supplied goods worth more than sixty lakhs of rupee items even after repeatedly receiving bounced cheque from the dealers. Some of the dealers declared bankruptcy! The other method he used to make money was by taking company’s service contract. He runs a parallel service for the costumes with the help of two of the technicians. Out of hundred and sixty-service contracts he had appropriated half of them in his name. Who will bell the cat? At the age of forty-four I went for job hunting.

A.D.1999... Our union finance minister (present Prime Minister) declared “Liberalization” policies, another pet name given for Globalization. Every Companies and organizations were offering voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) read load shedding or to contain overhead cost .No white goods manufacturing companies were employing new service technician for their service department. They appointed franchise. . Some of them offered work on sub contract biases to get their service done. With no other option left, I had joined in one of the India’s leading white goods manufacturing company’s franchise as a service technician. It was not bad in the beginning. Only five technicians to attend service calls .At times instead of three pin codes we end up attending four-pin code area per technician. Even at 9.30 p.m. we were on site about forty or fifty kilometer away from our home. Life was tough but we were able to make some extra money.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
According to the manufactures whims and fancies and regardless of workers benefits franchise changes rules and system by overnight. Appointment procedures were made simple by franchise .No more appointments letter. Appointment was always made verbally. It goes something like this.” Do you have your own vehicle and a mobile?  You know a Cell is a must". Without bike and cell phone you are not considered as a service technician. They call it survival kit or Minimum requirements. “Ok, good. “Now you have to pay for uniform dress!" (Only God knows how long he is going to keep you in work.)”From tomorrow onwards you can join for work”. After you join for work only he will tell you how to make more money by-achieving target (regardless of working hours). Sooner or later you yourself will find how much money, time and energy you have to invest to make extra money.
We never had PF, Gratuity, medical, (ESI) or life insurance, no vehicle maintains allowance, petrol or food allowances. Only consolidate pay per calls were paid .RS .15 or RS 20, depending upon the distance from work place. They paid RS 40 per call if it is in Timbuktu or in out station. There are some company’s franchise and service subcontracts offering Rs10 for attending service calls. Those technicians survived by making “extra” money .how they make extra money and how much they make depend upon their individual “skill”.                                                                                                                             
Manufactures increased number of franchise to six and gradually increased number of technician to 24 to give customer immediate response, technicians got only one pin code per person. . Per pin code area for one person reduced call attending time and also reduced number of service calls or his livelihood .our manufacture appointed five more franchise. Manufacture insist that we sell accessories to makes extra money to make up the lost service calls .All the accessories were over prized cheap and duplicate items made in Delhi. Some chine’s spare parts were asked to sell it to customer. Some of the items are even sold by footpath sellers! Selling was tough.  Since most of accessories were sold along with appliance by the dealers at the time of selling machines. Company offered us some incentives like if we sell these items we get a consolation amount of 50 peanut .the highest being 100 peanuts. Per person per pin code area, it means number of reduced service calls (cards). Per day .

we received average four or five calls. However distance and petrol consumption remains same. At the end of the day when you calculate petrol, maintenance and other expenses the struggle we family men make out a living was not worth it. With no other job then franchise system available we just continue to work. Lucky guys are those young bachelors at the end of the month they make out about Rs 2000 or Rs 2500 p.m. we family men find it difficult to meet both ends. Most of the ‘young and energetic’ technician made fast money. Some of them disappeared with fridge or A/C. some technicians made arrangements to collect repairing charges from different customer in one particular day and took the entire amount about Rs12, 000 or Rs15, 000 and vanished. The intelligent one canvassed service contract from the customers and settled down with their own shop. With ‘inside people’ they can all ways get their work done in double quick at the half rate! In fact those technicians give much faster and reliable service! In my five and half years of service at franchisee more than 250 young and energetic technicians were kicked out of service, some of them disappeared with company’s fridge, washing machine or A/C. Hiring and firing was the order of the day.

Target was always set beyond the reach of anyone. Our manufacturing company demands that we generate ten lakhs rupees worth of business per month. Thorough sales service and annul maintains contract. Our boss was a BP patient. Like a volcano now and then he explodes. He uses foul languages and was a very abusive person. When we point out hardly 120 or 130 per person/ month. How can one generate one lakhs rupees worth of business per month? Our boss.....