"Life is a series of meetings and partings!"
WOW what a philosophical statement ! But to live by this is too difficult. After all, one's emotion takes its toll. We all at times, get too attached to a place, people, life style & living conditions. Therefore moving out becomes all too difficult. Life has to go on and we certainly need to move on !
Farewell meetings are one way of making these partings less painful. It is a time to catch up and make any amends, if one wants to make for any errors committed, repair any damages committed to the way we have dealt with something or someone and to move on! One also gets to know the strength of the bondage one has formed over the years.
As someone, who has always believed in moving in and out of jobs, I have had the fortune of attending to many farewells. Farewells hosted by directors, managers, various departments and intimate friends. In some places the occasion would be used by colleagues to indulge in all and sundry food & drinks which one may not even like to see, leave alone tasting. Thus in one such farewell for me, I was forced to eat only fruits and drink some juice.Whereas my hosts had the fortune of starting with avian soup, followed by crab, shrimp, chicken, mutton and ended with beef.... accompanied by liberal dosage of drinks.
All at the cost of company money claiming that the party was for me to farewell elsewhere !
Recently, I had an unique farewell, hosted by my colleagues in Madagascar. In all, I had spent with them about twenty eight months. I had the fortune of recruiting, training and grooming most of them in their present job. Thus my bonding with them was unique. Despite a sever language
handicap , I could reach out to them because of the sincerity of my approach and fair dealing with one and all.
My departure, though planned and organised well by me was not informed to one & all down the line. It was kept as a closely guarded secret. Nearly a week before my departure, I had put up a notice announcing my departure as well as thanking everyone of them including union leaders, committee members and others. This came as a shock to most of them. The notice was put in Malagasy, French as well as English courtesy google translation !!
Whatever surplus to be disposed off, like plastic containers (which could be used as lunch boxes, a proud possession of most of the Malagasy workers), mugs, woolen clothing were handed over to a few of the workers. All other clothing, sweaters, caps, shoes, were also distributed to our gardeners, house maids and others. We wanted to travel lean, mean and hungry !
Two days before my departure, I saw committee members of my workers walking around with a bucket collecting money. A usual sight as the money used to be given out for any funeral expenses etc. As a token of involvement with them, I used to drop a few small notes in the bucket, probably only Indian doing out this among the dozen in our company. This time around they did not come to me.I thought the Malagasy people have decided not approach me, as I was leaving them shortly !
The day before my departure, I was told by the HR head to be available around 3.30 PM in my office. By then my wife had come in the morning and took a round in the factory along with me in different sections to bid good bye to most of the staff as she knew many of them. When some of these girls become pregnant and want to eat something tangy like mango pickle, lemon rind, tamarind etc. they used to visit her without informing me. She always had ready pickles in our store room. Apart from sparing some, she would give them a few bananas and chocolates !!!
On the penultimate day by 3.30 PM when the production was going on in full swing and the Production Manager was under tremendous pressure to avert any disturbance to production, most of the workers joined in the packing hall. The Managing Director was called. In his presence glory of mine was told in Malagasy. The same was translated by one of the staff to my understanding !
I was immensely happy that a simple gesture on mine to greet each one in Malagasy by saying "Salama" was noticed and appreciated as an unique quality of mine. This would help me to do M.B.W ( Management By Walking around) and assess the situation of the work spot first hand !
A big memento was handed over to me highlighting Madagascar's mineral wealth with specimen pieces and past Kingdoms ! This was made possible by the contribution of every single worker who had placed four or five rupees per person. This now finds a proud place in the display shelf of my drawing room.
It was my turn to acknowledge and thank them.I thanked them for their co-operation, courtesy, contribution. I also requested them to be vigilant on keeping quality of the products.
I had a unique quality of being strict and tough on disciplinary issues. This non compromising nature had hurt someone who was upset and not in talking term with me. Though the same would matter little to me on leaving Madagascar, I was not prepared to leave on that acrimonious note as I was always appreciative of her good contribution to work. I also wanted an harmonious departure by being good to everyone in the end.
I had a thank you note, greetings card for that person and the same were handed over to her in the presence of all workers and management ! Every one became jubilant and happy on that gesture of mine! They all clapped so loudly, In the end all is well that ends well !
I was glad that I had won the hearts of all the workers, staff, supervisors, Managers and Directors !!
WOW what a philosophical statement ! But to live by this is too difficult. After all, one's emotion takes its toll. We all at times, get too attached to a place, people, life style & living conditions. Therefore moving out becomes all too difficult. Life has to go on and we certainly need to move on !
Farewell meetings are one way of making these partings less painful. It is a time to catch up and make any amends, if one wants to make for any errors committed, repair any damages committed to the way we have dealt with something or someone and to move on! One also gets to know the strength of the bondage one has formed over the years.
As someone, who has always believed in moving in and out of jobs, I have had the fortune of attending to many farewells. Farewells hosted by directors, managers, various departments and intimate friends. In some places the occasion would be used by colleagues to indulge in all and sundry food & drinks which one may not even like to see, leave alone tasting. Thus in one such farewell for me, I was forced to eat only fruits and drink some juice.Whereas my hosts had the fortune of starting with avian soup, followed by crab, shrimp, chicken, mutton and ended with beef.... accompanied by liberal dosage of drinks.
All at the cost of company money claiming that the party was for me to farewell elsewhere !
Recently, I had an unique farewell, hosted by my colleagues in Madagascar. In all, I had spent with them about twenty eight months. I had the fortune of recruiting, training and grooming most of them in their present job. Thus my bonding with them was unique. Despite a sever language
handicap , I could reach out to them because of the sincerity of my approach and fair dealing with one and all.
My departure, though planned and organised well by me was not informed to one & all down the line. It was kept as a closely guarded secret. Nearly a week before my departure, I had put up a notice announcing my departure as well as thanking everyone of them including union leaders, committee members and others. This came as a shock to most of them. The notice was put in Malagasy, French as well as English courtesy google translation !!
Whatever surplus to be disposed off, like plastic containers (which could be used as lunch boxes, a proud possession of most of the Malagasy workers), mugs, woolen clothing were handed over to a few of the workers. All other clothing, sweaters, caps, shoes, were also distributed to our gardeners, house maids and others. We wanted to travel lean, mean and hungry !
Two days before my departure, I saw committee members of my workers walking around with a bucket collecting money. A usual sight as the money used to be given out for any funeral expenses etc. As a token of involvement with them, I used to drop a few small notes in the bucket, probably only Indian doing out this among the dozen in our company. This time around they did not come to me.I thought the Malagasy people have decided not approach me, as I was leaving them shortly !
The day before my departure, I was told by the HR head to be available around 3.30 PM in my office. By then my wife had come in the morning and took a round in the factory along with me in different sections to bid good bye to most of the staff as she knew many of them. When some of these girls become pregnant and want to eat something tangy like mango pickle, lemon rind, tamarind etc. they used to visit her without informing me. She always had ready pickles in our store room. Apart from sparing some, she would give them a few bananas and chocolates !!!
On the penultimate day by 3.30 PM when the production was going on in full swing and the Production Manager was under tremendous pressure to avert any disturbance to production, most of the workers joined in the packing hall. The Managing Director was called. In his presence glory of mine was told in Malagasy. The same was translated by one of the staff to my understanding !
I was immensely happy that a simple gesture on mine to greet each one in Malagasy by saying "Salama" was noticed and appreciated as an unique quality of mine. This would help me to do M.B.W ( Management By Walking around) and assess the situation of the work spot first hand !
A big memento was handed over to me highlighting Madagascar's mineral wealth with specimen pieces and past Kingdoms ! This was made possible by the contribution of every single worker who had placed four or five rupees per person. This now finds a proud place in the display shelf of my drawing room.
It was my turn to acknowledge and thank them.I thanked them for their co-operation, courtesy, contribution. I also requested them to be vigilant on keeping quality of the products.
I had a unique quality of being strict and tough on disciplinary issues. This non compromising nature had hurt someone who was upset and not in talking term with me. Though the same would matter little to me on leaving Madagascar, I was not prepared to leave on that acrimonious note as I was always appreciative of her good contribution to work. I also wanted an harmonious departure by being good to everyone in the end.
I had a thank you note, greetings card for that person and the same were handed over to her in the presence of all workers and management ! Every one became jubilant and happy on that gesture of mine! They all clapped so loudly, In the end all is well that ends well !
I was glad that I had won the hearts of all the workers, staff, supervisors, Managers and Directors !!
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